Tiny questions with quick answers - continuing thread

Yes, those all work fine.
What do you mean by “other conjugations”? In this structure the verb only appears in 3rd person singular, but you inflect “gen” according to person:
Mae gen i / gen ti / gynno fo / gynni hi / gynnon ni / gynnoch chi / gynnon nhw (rhywbeth)

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Diolch Hendrik, my bad, it was the “gen” inflections I meant, yes.:slightly_smiling_face:

Dwi’n gallu / Galla i - the same meaning

Dwi’n medru / Medra i - The same meaning

Medru and gallu used to have nuanced differences…

gallu - competent/ can do it in some way

medru - skilled ability

But I think in modern Welsh they have completely merged. The difference in usage is between north and south

I have noticed that Duolingo uses the word “Siopwr” for both “shopper” and “shopkeeper”.
@garethrking in his Modern Welsh Dictionary lists “Siopwr” for “shopper” only; “shopkeeper” is listed as “Dyn siop” or “Gwraig siop”.
I would be interested to have feedback on this from those of you on the Forum who live in Wales.

The Geiriadur Cymraeg Gomer lists both “shopkeeper” and “shopper” as English translations of siopwr, but Y Geiriadur Mawr, also published by Gomer, has siopwr as “shopkeeper” and prynwr for “shopper”. I have to say that it’s not a word I’ve used in conversation really, so I’m not sure what people say. What do you think @siaronjames?

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I’m not sure I’ve used it in conversation much either! Geiriadur Academi gives both siopwr and dyn/gwraig siop as shopkeeper but only siopwr/siopwraig as shopper. My natural instinct would be to use dyn/gwraig siop, so I’m guessing that’s what I’ve heard most - and “shop boy” and “siop girl” are gwas siop and merch siop, so that leads me to think that dyn/gwraig siop could be the original pattern.

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Got a feeling it will be siop boi in Swansea regardless of their sex or age.:rofl:

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Prynhawn da :slight_smile:

Ewch i’r ffurflen a dewiswch y cwrs

or

Ewch i’r ffurflen a dewis y cwrs

I’ve had the impression in the past that in written Welsh imperatives aren’t stacked as much as they are in other languages - you start off with an imperative and then switch to the standard form. But that might just be a result of seeing too much bad Google Translate Welsh. Diolch am eich help, ffrindiau. : )

An old term Ive seen for Shop assistant is
“Maelwas (maelweision - plural)
Or Maelyn

  • gender neutral Word?? Or diminutive like many words endings -yn? Not sure myself
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Helo, I have just completed the last Challenge in Lefel 2 although do not yet consider myself a Welsh speaker. However, …. I have a question regarding two sentences near the end of this challenge:
29:48, He didn’t tell me on Wednesday…… Wnaeth o ddim dweud wrthaf fi ddydd Mercher. (colloquially: wnaeth o’m dweu’ ‘thaf fi ddydd Mercher. ). AND:

30:25, She didn’t want to ask until after we finish…. Doedd hi ddim isio gofyn tan ar ôl i ni orffen.

In English, these two sentences use the same tense / structure but two different structures have been used here in Welsh. Are doedd and wnaeth interchangeable? Only in certain contexts?

So, in the first sentence above, could one also say: Doedd o ddim dweud wrthaf fi ddydd Mercher.
And, in the second sentence above, could one also say: Wnaeth hi ddim isio gofyn tan ar ôl i ni orffen. ?

They use the same tense in English because English doesn’t have some tenses that Welsh has.
Wnaeth is preterite tense and is used with non-stative action verbs completed in the past (a tense English hasn’t got). But doedd (imperfect tense, which English does have) is used with stative verbs like isio - a continuous state rather than a done-with action.

So no, they’re not completely interchangeable, but as a new Welsh speaker it will take time (and plenty of listening practice) for which verbs are stative and which aren’t to embed in your brain - but it does happen eventually!

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Your impression is right - and in spoken Welsh too. It’s not so much that there’s an aversion to stacking, it’s that the only proper place for real verbs (i.e. with endings, and not verbnouns) is in the first main slot of the sentence or clause. So for example this is nice Welsh:

Llenwch y ffurflen a’i dychwelyd aton ni
Fill in the form and send it back to us

and this is not so nice Welsh:

Llenwch y ffurflen a dychwelwch hi aton ni.

In fact it’s horrid. Yuck.

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Thanks so much! Hadn’t thought of it in aesthetic terms - of the object hanging around after the imperative, instead of slotting in neatly beforehand. My native English speaker instincts still register a pronoun after a verb as being ‘correct’ in some way. I think the day I look at a single object pronoun and think “how ugly! Where’s the ei?” (Or fy, or ei, or i’w, or a’i etc.) will be the day I’ve made it as a Welsh speaker.

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Thank you, Siaron. This rings a bell - I think I’ve come across the stative vs non-stative contexts already in a previous challenge. I will try to retain this more consciously and maybe it will stick…

Yes, you probably came across them with wnes i / roeddwn i (or oeddwn i, or o’n i) - it’s the same thing going on, just that wnes / roeddwn (or oeddwn or o’n) are in the 1st person, and wnaeth / doedd are in the 3rd person.

Yes, that was it! I think I asked a question that time and then forgot again….!

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Nain (and her mother) used to use a word (phrase??) with the effective sound “nah-key” and a meaning of no / no way / nah ! or something similar.
I have tried many many ways of coding that sound to try to establish its real spelling and meaning, and especially its etymology, but none produce a realistic derivation.
Does anybody have a clue what it really is??
I hope it’s not too naive a question from a beginner, but thanks for any response.

Probably “Naci” which is the negative answer/response to any question/statement that doesn’t start with a verb i.e. the opposite of “Ie”, so usually in response to identification questions or emphatic statements.

That was quick ! great answer. I must have used that combination, but clearly didn’t search properly.
Many thanks

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Gareth is spot on, but you did mention etymology, so I’ll just add…

Naci is the northern spoken form of nage and they both come from nac ef :wink:

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