To tell the truth, my feeling here would be that we need oes here, i.e. Dw I ddim yn siwr os oes unrhywbeth…, as It’s talking about the existence or not of unrhywbeth
Hmmm… I saw this, and thought “D’oh! Of course!” – but I’ve since had Second and even Third Thoughts, and now I’m starting to think of how American children in school are taught to understand syntax by diagramming sentences…
[Arrgh! Fourth Thoughts now. I have a feeling that what you said was fine after all: I’ve searched for, and found, examples of oes unrhywbeth yn that match your suggestion quite closely, e.g. os oes unrhywbeth yn aneglur “if there’s anything unclear.” I’m leaving this here rather than deleting it in the hope someone more knowledgable steps in to clarify it all… Paging @garethrking!]
I think you could do it just as you say, but only if we understand yn gywir to be an adverb:
Dw i’m yn siŵr os oes unrhywbeth bo’ fi’n deud yn gywir – “I’m not sure if there’s anything that I say correctly”
Otherwise, I’m still fretting about the lack of a verb to link the unrhywbeth with the gywir, and I’m going to want to see your oes and raise you a sy’n:
Dw i’m yn siŵr os oes unrhywbeth bo’ fi’n deud sy’n gywir – “I’m not sure if there’s anything that I say that’s right.”
But I feel like this is starting to get a bit… convoluted? If I were to say, instead, that I’m not sure if everything I say is wrong, I think we’d get back to something more like what Anthony said:
Dw i’m yn siŵr os mae popeth bo’ fi’n deud yn rong… (Sorry: anghywir )
[Think I’m gonna make that Dw i’n eitha siŵr bod popeth bo’ fi’n deud yn rong…]
Yes, I think you maybe right here that you could look at it in two ways. Now I’m wondering though whether we have an ‘indirect speech conjunction’ construction situation (sorry, got carried away with the ‘-ions’ there ), so that maybe it should be:
Dw i’m yn siŵr os oes unrhywbeth ydw i’n deud yn gywir
OR
Dw i’m yn siŵr os oes unrhywbeth ydw i’n deud sy’n gywir
Yes, please!
I don’t think it is oes - becuase that mean’s “there is”,
To change the order:
I’m not sure that anything I have said is correct:
Dw i ddim yn siwr nad ydy unrhywbeth dw/bo’ fi/mod i wedi deud yn gywir
so it’d be “os nad ydy…” wouldn’t it?
Basic question about something I emailed. Ydw in lawn i neud e. For - Am I ok to do it. It looks strange, perhaps because its an unusual question. Does it seem ok or should I use bydd? As in bydd hin iawn os dwi’n …/Will it be ok if I…
Well, to begin with, strictly speaking it’s not os but (a), because it’s an if that means whether (not that people don’t these days often use os here by influence of English). And then - for the sentence given here - it’s ydy/yw, not oes. And then it’s not bo fi, because the (underlying) that which we have here (even though not stated) is the relative that meaning which, not the reported speech that - again confusion because of English, which uses the same word for both of course.
So:
Dw i ddim yn siwr (a) ydy unrhywbeth dw i’n ddweud yn gywir
(Local variations may apply)
(P.S. Oh my goodness - I think people round here are going to LOVE the new book! )
Looking forward to to pre-ordering “Grammatical Conundrums Arising from the SSiW Forum” already!
So that’s like tybed a, then? – I’d learnt that tybed went with a, not os, but not realised that it applied more widely…
I think you’d be understood, but the way I have seen this structure is
Ydy hi’n iawn i fi neud e?, so literally Is it okay for me to do it?
Is “Mae’n ddrwg 'da fi” really used for ‘sorry’ in practice, or is the much shorter ‘sori’ the more likely choice? Or is there a subtle difference between them that I’m not aware of?
Yes!
Great thanks Hendrik. That looks better. Also in the actual mesage i misspelt Ydw as Wdw
Both are used in practice, as is Mae’n ddrwg gen i. There’s loads of overlap with how they’re used and sometimes you’ll hear the “mae’n” dropped too. Flin da fi, ddrwg gen i etc.
Sori is used like pardon me too: so if you bump into someone, mishear someone, small little easy mistakes.
However, it can also be used for more serious stuff. “Dw i mor sori” for example (I’m so sorry)
Great, thanks Anthony.
When can you use “Dyfyr” in a sentence, rather than a one word comment? Is it in common use in the South? I haven’t noticed it around here yet, (Swansea).
Until then… is there a compact explanation anywhere for those who don’t know the difference between if and whether?
I do use whether from time to time, but just because it sounds better in some sentences!
p.s. my confidence in my English had already been hilariously undermined last week in Wales by a lady who said “oh your Welsh accent is much better than your English accent” Now this!!! What did I study for so many years at school, then?
Certainly.
In English, if has two meanings:
- real if (not replaceable by whether):
If it rains, I’ll get wet -
if = whether
Go and ask him if he wants to come with us (= Go and ask him whether he wants to come with us)
Real if (1) introduces a hypothetical proposition, other if (2) introduces an indirect question.
So for the indirect question (2) whether A or B, whether A or not, etc - will that be Pa un/Prun in Welsh please?
Edit -
Or, did I miss it above with Anthony & Antony - ie could you just sneakily use “os” in an English way?
Pa un / p’run is more “which one”.
Could you give an example of the English please? It’s too early and Fiji - Aus is distracting me