Tiny questions with quick answers - continuing thread

I’m asking this question because of the way I function. If they made an episode of ‘Poldark’, full of emotional and tragic scenes and all in Welsh or Kernewek, I would know every single line by heart in no time (wouldn’t you, too, @henddraig ?) Someone else may feel the same way about an interesting scientific or political documentary…

Sorry. No. I’d enjoy it. I am particularly enamoured of Aiden, who plays the lead and was once my favourite vampire in another series! But i don’t memorise lines, just plots and their twists and turns! Oh, and i am a bit too old to be Aiden’s mam, but a teeny bit young to be his nain!

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That’s very interesting to hear! Oh aye, I’m enamoured (what a beautiful expression) of Aidan, too…and of the way he plays Ross Poldark - the perfect mix of badassery and vulnerability (that I cannot resist)! :kissing_closed_eyes::innocent:

I don’t consciously memorise lines, but I do sort of ‘integrate’ the way the characters speak, the words and expressions they use very quickly, probably because I…damn it, there is a word in German called ‘mitleben’, it means that one projects oneself in the character’s places and in a way ‘lives and feels with them’, I just cannot find the English word for it…

New quick question: I was pursuing a train of thought in Welsh, and ran up against something I just didn’t know how to say, and wound up back in English. How would one say “It must have been (like)” – I’ve got something along the lines of “Mae rhaid iddo fo 'di bod yn/fel…” but I’m not really convinced.

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You’re right to sense the clunkiness there…

With that kind of pattern of thought going on (which isn’t often the kind of thing that survives a direct literal translation), I’d go for something like…

Rhaid fod o 'di bod yn/fel… or

Wedi bod fel/yn …[xyz]…, mae’n rhaid… or

Tebyg iawn i … [xyz]…, mae’n siwr…

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Hello
Thanks for the messages about DYF- it’s much appreciated, even though I haven’t been active as of late. Writing my PhD has been the biggest focus as of late. Thus, I’ve had very little time and mental capacity for other things. I do, however, enjoy the SSISpanish on the way to work. Having learnt Welsh in Cardiff, I’m all too aware of the power of radio and tele in the absence of daily conversation.
I did post this in the spanish section, but alas I had no response. So i’m trying my luck here! I would like recommendations for the following

  1. Radio station. I’m looking for something like radio 2. Just light chat.
  2. Is there a spanish equivalent of iplayer/itv player?
  3. Good spanish documentaries and films- any recommendations?

Cofion cynnes/regards
Mihil

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Last time I looked, which is admittedly a few years ago, there were a large number of podcast versions of radio programmes (of all sorts) on the Spanish national broadcaster (equivalent of BBC) website.
Not sure about TV programmes, but likely there are those too.

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I checked with my Spanish colleagues today.
They showed me on a smartphone and this is as much as I can remember.

By searching on radio Espana (i think), a page came up with a load of different providers (radio companies) on tiles. Apparently they all stream live. When we clicked/pressed/whatever on one of them, it went live. If I gathered correctly, most of them also offer catch-up type services.

Regarding films, apparently the trick is to already know the name
of the one you want, and then to search for it. I guess that the documentaries will be on the live radio channels.

I hope that this will help.

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Hi, me again!
A question on Bodlon/Fodlon.

Obviously I’m familiar with the “happy/willing to…” sense as in the challenges.

Also, I think I’ve noticed the sense of I’m comfortable/content etc, on Radio Cymru interviews and possibly also on the building opposite Ty Tawe in Swansea.
(something like "Come and see, Setlo yn/os chi’n fodlon). Probably not quite that, but a sort of English drifting into Cymraeg inscription.

Anyway, is b/fodlon used in common speech for comfortable/content(ed)?

yes John, bodlon is used to mean ‘satisfied’ or ‘contented’ too (bodlondeb = satisfaction/contentment), which would make sense in the “setlo os chi’n fodlon” scenario :slight_smile:

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Thinking of “wrth 'y modd”, for to love a thing, rather than caru, which I’ve never totally grasped. I just remembered Siaron’s reply above (Bodlon: Contented), as I happened upon an entry in the Cymru-Catalonia Welsh Course(?) website:
Byddwn i wrth 'y modd, tawn i’n byw yno - I’d be very content if I lived there

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and “wrth 'y modd” can also be used where you’d have the English idiom “in my element” :smiley:

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Oh yes, that’s a good one, isn’t it? - and you hear it all the time (MUCH more than the English equivalent, actually)! Grammatically fun as well, because of the mutation variations for person. :slight_smile:

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A question about mutations.

These spoken phrases have mutations on the final word…but what is causing this? A hidden ‘y’ in betwixt???

Be’ gebyst - roughly “what on earth”
Be’ ddiawl - What the devil
Be’ gythraul - What the devil/demon

(Be’ = shortening of Beth (what))

This is simply the tendency for SM to appear when two nouns are juxtaposed in Welsh (I know beth is technically a pronoun, of course - but then pronouns are technically nouns!!) :slight_smile:

So it’s the same phenomenon here really as in (for example) llys + mam = llysfam

:slight_smile:

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Diolch yn fawr,just looked up “Cebyst” and in the phrase Be’ Gebyst it can mean “what the hec”…yet Cebyst = halter…a strap put around animal necks!?!

I suppose it must be a literal translation of that well-known English exclamation ‘What the halter-strap!!’ - obviously.

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My Y Geiriadur Mawr also includes a second meaning for cebystr - melltith or “curse”

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does this make sense?
Oes gyda chi rhywbeth? - do you have something?
Can I replace the “something” with any object/noun?

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Sounds perfectly ok to my novice ear. As you will know, you also have the option of putting the “gyda chi” at the end if you feel like it. Or even changing rhywbeth to unrhywbeth for: anything.

Yes, most objects would fit ok. Perhaps not every single noun; again as you already know, some nouns such as weather or illness related ones will have a different construction.

Your sentence sounds great, though :slight_smile:

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