Tiny questions with quick answers - continuing thread

Yes to ceffyl siglo… :slight_smile:

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oh any idea what salad dressing is? We came up with salad wisgo (after Aran went home) then we forgot to ask.

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Blaslyn salad or dresin salad :slight_smile:

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Mayonnaise??? :wink: :smile: :sunny:
(Sorry! Was once asked the French for mineral water and answered, “Perrier!”

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Is it common for Welsh people to have family names that are also given names?

For example, some of the actors on Rownd a Rownd have names like Siân Beca or Leisa Gwenllian – are those given name + family name, or two given names, with the family name omitted for privacy or because they just use their given names professionally, à la Madonna?

It is very common, especially in the media, for people to use either their middle name or mother’s/father’s first name as a surname. There are different reasons for this - firstly, using the mother’s or father’s first name (especially the father’s) stems from the very old tradition of using ap (for males) and verch (for females), and some still follow this pattern (as in Ifor ap Glyn!), although many leave the ‘son of/daughter of’ bit out (e.g. his daughter uses Ifor as her surname without the ‘verch’). Another reason is that many people have the same surname anyway and of course for actors this can cause problems - you might end up with a cast list full of Joneses! And then of course there is choosing a professional name for privacy or just because it has a better ring to it!

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Thank you Siaron!

So in some cases, that may be the name on their birth certificate while in others it’s just a professional name, and their passport might say “Hughes” or “Jones”, for example?

yes. I think I remember Bryn Terfel saying that his name in his passport is Bryn Terfel Jones!

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… and sometimes you get an awkward soul who decides to spell their name in Welsh phonetics even though for official matters (passport, driving licence, etc) it is spelt the usual way…

It seemed a good idea at the time, but I didn’t realise how often I would have to spell out my email address because of it :joy:

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“John Walter” (who has a regular programme on Radio Cymru on Wednesdays, is actually John Walter Jones.

And another, Georgia Ruth (singer/harpist) is Georgia Ruth Williams.

But you didn’t need to be a performer. My grandfather was referred to as Harry Webster Williams simply because there were too many Harry Williams’s (and probably too many Harry Websters, also).

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Bore da pawb,

How do I say impressed as in ‘I am impressed with what you have done’. Struggling to find a translation online.

Diolch yn fawr

Tom

@aran @Iestyn can you help Tom? I can see all sorts of pitfalls with different meanings of ‘impressed’!

I would say something like
Wyt ti wedi gwneud argraff arnaf i efo beth ti wedi gwneud
or
Yr hyn ti wedi gwneud wedi gwneud argraff dda arnaf i

It’s a bit clunky though. I’m sure someone must have a more elegant way of saying ti :slight_smile:

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How about this equivalent which is something like the phrase that appears in one of the SSiW challenges?
I’m surprised with how much you have done.
Dwy’n synnu gyda faint chi wedi’i wneud.

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This language learning/acquisition process is a fascinating mystery (to me).
When i saw your sentence i immediately thought (i would have used ‘am faint’ there.
Yet i have no firm reason why or if i’m correct, just shows how often i say things
without thinking.

Cheers J.P.

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It’s not really a pattern that gets used in Welsh - Siaron is absolutely right that ‘gwneud argraff ar’ is the closest, but you can’t make that fit ‘I’m impressed’ - only ‘You’ve impressed me’ - and it does feel a bit clunky.

Other options would be ‘dwi’n llawn edmygedd at beth ti wedi gwneud’ or just ‘dwi’n edmygu’ or ‘dwi’n rhyfeddu at’ - it’s impossible to say that one is better than the others, because it’s really just about personal preferences for the ‘feel’ of it…

‘Synnu at’ - so ‘synnu at faint’ would be fine too… :slight_smile:

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Thank you for your quick replies. Definitely helps

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diolch gruntius :smiley:

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‘diolch’ for the introductions. :slight_smile:

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