Halo. I’m on lesson 18 and am still not sure why sometimes ‘i’ is used between verbs (e.g. dod i weld) and other times not (e.g. gobeithio dechrau). Diolch. Rich
I can’t help you with rules, I’m afraid - it’s more that it sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t, in different combinations. That will come to you with experience, and an errant (or missing) i will never destroy your meaning, so there’s no need to worry from an understanding point of view.
It may help to know that the i is attached to the previous word, and doesn’t correspond to the “to” of “to walk” for instance. So, there’s always an i after mynd (going to) - mynd i wylio, mynd i siarad, because that i is a moving “to”. The same is true of the “dod” in your example. You’re not moving anywhere with gobeithio, so gobeithio gweld, gobeithio mynd, gobeithio siarad.
I have a vague recollection of someone putting a list of “words that take the i” on the forum once, but I wouldn’t recommend trying to learn a list. But at least now you can see every time the Welsh comes with or without an i that the pattern is in the word before. That should help you get a feel for what’s right much more quickly.
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Diolch yn fawr Iestyn. That’s very useful for sure. No I hadn’t realised the i linked to the first verb and that, with your examples, helps a lot - as is the reassurance that it won’t matter if I get it wrong!
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Here’s a list someone linked to of verbs that don’t take i - but more useful perhaps is their generalisation that a lor of them (hope, promise, etc.) are mental phenomena that necessarily don’t involve moving ‘to’ anything. http://clwbmalucachu.co.uk/cmc/cheat/cheat_vn_no_i.htm
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Personally, for what it’s worth, I’d just go by the sound and don’t worry if you stick an i in where its not strictly needed, or vice versa.
That sort of thing seems to work for me in English. I suppose it’s nice to know the rules later, but overthinking it just slows me down.
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Diolch Richard ac John
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Diolch Iestyn. I’ve been noticing that I’ve just been slinging i’s in everywhere and knew it was too much, this helps!
Use the - i - when you want to say - in order to - followed by a soft mutation
I am going to town to buy … - dw i’n mynd i’r dref i brynu …
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