Tiny questions with quick answers - continuing thread

Friends,

A little question about the future short form of ‘gweld’: is ‘welwch chi’ interchangeable with ‘gewch chi weld’?

On the old Course 3, Gwers 20 at around 4 mins it shows up as ‘gawn ni weld’ when I would have used ‘welwn ni’, but the same happened a few times in Gwers 19. I think I missed something in an earlier lesson maybe.

Oh and in terms of progress, I did not complete the old courses by the end of March, but I rescheduled and the ETA is now Easter–darn y teisen :cake:

Diolch yn fawr,
Marilyn

Pretty much, in practical terms, yes - not a perfect match - similar to the chat on another thread (sorry, can’t remember where now!) about using ‘cael’ - but use whichever comes to mind, and you’ll get the fine tuning through exposure… :slight_smile:

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Thank you ever so much Aran. I really appreciate your quick response and ongoing encouragement.

And take a bow on behalf of SSiW… A couple of evenings ago a group of us here in Vancouver were slowly continuing to read and translate the novel ‘Bore Da’ by Gwennan Evans. Having been working through the third part of the Old Course which focuses on the short form verbs it was amazing–talk about things coming together. I was tickled pink at being able to translate so much of the colloquial South Walian dialogue. Lately, it has really felt like I am coming to grips with this.

And… we recently booked to come to South Wales in May, so look out folks! At last I’ll be able to give Welsh a try in a shop, or pub, on a hiking trail in the Beacons… exciting.

All the best,
Marilyn

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I recently got over a bit of a low where I was thinking I didn’t know much welsh yet. Thanks @Aran for advice to look at what I can already do and play “language lego” with it. I’m currently on Course 1, Challenge 13, Southern.

My question is – when do I get to using the pronouns for ‘plural you’, we, and they? Please can anyone tell me if it’s in Course 1 Southern, and if so where, or does it come later on? I’ve scanned through the vocab lists for course 1 Southern, and not found those.

I was thinking about what I already know, and I realized that if I could use these pronouns a little I would feel like I knew how to say a huge amount more. Maybe I am trying to rush ahead when I’m still toddling. Am I asking about something that is more complicated than I realize in cymraeg? I know I can barely use “he” and “she” yet. Maybe could try asking a better speaker to explain them to me. What would you recommend?

Oh i’m confused now.

I thought “gewch chi weld” was like “you will be able to see” and “gwnewch chi weld”, “wnewch chi weld”,“welwch chi” etc were “you will see.” and so in question form would then be the difference between “can you see…” and “will you see”.

Go with the flow. I had all those sorts of questions around the same stage (northern levels) and I realised when I kept working through the levels that all the pronouns were introduced when needed and in past, present and future tenses.
I found that my semi-super intensive sort of thing also worked well when I was chomping at the bit and wanting to learn as much as possible. If you haven’t tried already give it a go. It’s fun in a brain stretching sort of way!!

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And importantly it works. If you can survive a weekend in welsh and use it with first language speakers after just 5 months or so of learning something is definitely having the right effect.

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Sorry for sneaking in with my obsession about lakes, while you are waiting for answers on other questions.

Anyway, I have always loved the (mainly) Cumbrian word “tarn” for a small mountain lake. It seems to say so much more than “pond”. As “tarn” sounds slightly Celtic, I was hoping that it would be Welsh. Alas, it turns out to be of Scandinavian origin.

It looks as if I’m going to have to resort to pwll or llyn mynedd now. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Pwll yn Gymraeg, Lochán in Scottish Gaelic - any use?

*mynydd!

Hendraig; yes, many thanks.
…and yet lough (pronounced loff) in Northumberland, as you know.

In Ireland (Iwerddon) l think Loch is Lough!

Yes, but although I have no direct experience, I believe it is pronounced Loch.

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On the news and other programmes like Countryfile, it is!

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I’m always very pleased to hear when Course 3 does something to earn its keep (since I don’t think that in general terms it was a particularly good piece of course building)…! :slight_smile: :star2:

That’s Course 2 material, so you’ve got two choices - keep on doing the work to get the others really drilled into you - or cheat a little by asking on here (or Google!) what chi, ni and nhw are (oh, oops!) and then practising using them with the structures you already know…

I’d recommend waiting until we introduce them, though, to be honest - if you don’t have an urgent need, and it’s just about how well you feel you’re doing, then trust the system…:slight_smile:

That’s true insofar as how most people would choose to ‘translate’ them into English - although I wouldn’t usually suggest ‘to be able’ for cael - but then you’re into deeper waters once you start thinking about how people tend to use bits of language.

For example, there’s a (pretty old-fashioned now?!) pattern in ‘home counties’ English where if someone makes a statement and you want to agree strongly with them, you’d say ‘Oh, I’ll say!’ (hard to get through an episode of Jeeves & Wooster without it)… :wink:

Clearly, this doesn’t actually mean ‘I will say’ - it means ‘I agree’.

So, ‘gewch chi weld’ is indeed the future of cael, rather than the future of gweld - often, ‘cael’ will give the sense of ‘you get to [x]’ (but it’s vital to remain aware that languages do NOT map perfectly to each other, so it doesn’t work well to try and treat nuance in your new language by mapping it to your old language).

You’d hear ‘gewch chi weld’, for example, in a slightly challenging or threatening way - ‘o, gewch chi weld am hynna’ - but the key here is that this is a tone which comes from usage far more than from ‘meaning’.

Which leaves me where I started - ‘gewch chi weld’ and ‘mi welwch chi’ (etc) are close enough as makes no odds - for learners, using whichever comes to mind first is the only rational approach, until your exposure to the language gives you a more nuanced sense of when to use which… :slight_smile:

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I’ll not gorfeddwl yn y dyfodol!

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Help! Anyone any idea why the app on my iPad has lost the functions for editing posts and searching? Also no stress, bold type, inserting pictures etc!

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Have to use reply to add cannot like mail either!
Am editing! Used Safari to log in instead of app, so it was an app glitch! @aran Sorry, not sure who to report this to!

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@henddraig - @lewie does the iPad/iPhone app, but he may not be around at the moment. You can try completely dismissing the app (double-click the Home button, and slide the app vertically off the screen). Restart the app and see if that helped. If that doesn’t work, sometimes rebooting can fix issues (with any app) - hold the power button down until you see “Slide to power off”, slide that “button” to power off. Then hold the power button on your iPad down until you see the Apple logo on the screen, which means it is rebooting. Try the app again.

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Diolch! I’ll see how it is in morning!

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Didn’t need that long! Panicked unnecessarily! Turning off and on worked a treat! Releaved :smile:

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