============================================== An HTML version of this lesson can be found at [http://www.cs.brown.edu/fun/welsh/Lesson05.html] Contents: 5.1. How to Say You are Happy 5.2. How to Say Something is 'Too Hot' or 'So Hot' 5.3. How to Say 'There is/are' 5.4. How to Say 'It' 5.5. Soft Mutation after 'i' 5.6. How to Say 'Many Things' 5.7. Future Using 'Mynd' Ymarfer Sgwrs Geirfa Exercises 5.1. How to Say You are Happy ----------------------------- We will take it on faith that you actually _are_ happy, and need to express that fact. Back in Section 3.2, we learned that we could express the present tense of a verb by using 'bod' as a helping verb together with 'yn', as in Mae Tom yn siopa. Tom is shopping. But what if we want to describe what Tom _is_ rather than what he _does_? To do that, we can place either an adjective or a noun in place of the verb in the above construction [1]: Mae Tom yn hapus. Tom is happy. Mae Tom yn helpwr. Tom is a helper. There is one critical difference between these two constructions and the one with the verb: any adjective or noun used after 'yn' suffers from the limited soft mutation (i.e., 'll' and 'rh' do not mutate): Mae Tom yn bell. Tom is distant. Mae Tom yn blismon. Tom is a policeman. _Exception:_ The word 'braf' ('fine') is not mutated in this (or any other) context (as mentioned in Section 4.6). Thus, we have Mae'r tywydd yn braf. The weather is fine. _Note:_ The word 'bell' looks like an English word, but the pronunciation is quite different! 5.2. How to Say Something is 'Too Hot' or 'So Hot' -------------------------------------------------- We learned in the previous section how to say that the kettle is hot (except for vocabulary). To say that something is too something, you insert the word '_rhy_' between the 'yn' and the adjective: Mae'r tegell yn boeth. The kettle is hot. Mae'r tegell yn rhy boeth. The kettle is too hot. The English word 'so' becomes '_mor_' and completely replaces the 'yn': Mae'r ferch yn garedig. The girl is kind. Mae'r ferch mor garedig. The girl is so kind. Like 'yn', both 'mor' and 'rhy' cause a limited soft mutation. 5.3. How to Say 'There is/are' ------------------------------ So far, we have stuck with sentences where the subject is definite, in other words, it is either a noun with the definite article or a proper noun. However, a sentence may have an indefinite subject (like this sentence). There are many examples of sentences that fall into this category (like this sentence, or the title of this chapter). You might be tempted to think that a subject is a subject, and you should just go ahead and use it with 'mae', just as you would do with a definite subject. For example, you might try to extend from Mae'r bobl yn dod. The people are coming. to Mae pobl yn dod. People are coming. You would be correct (congratulations!). What you might not expect is that the latter sentence can also be translated 'There are people coming.' Likewise, Mae'r dyn yma. The man is here. Mae dyn yma! There is a man here! However, the biggest differences between a definite subject and an indefinite one come either when you want to ask a question (or answer it), or when you want to say there isn't something. To ask a question, the verb form to use is 'oes' rather than 'ydy': Ydy'r tegell yn y gegin? Is the kettle in the kitchen? Oes tegell yn y gegin? Is there a kettle in the kitchen? To say there is not something, you use 'does dim' [2]: Does dim lle i eistedd. There is no place to sit. The answer to questions starting with 'oes' is 'oes' (yes-there-is) or 'nag oes' (no-there-is-not) [3]. Oes gwely yn y gegin? Nag oes. Does dim gwely yn y gegin. Oes gwely yn yr ardd? Oes. (Gwely blodau - a flower bed) 5.4. How to Say 'It' -------------------- As mentioned back in Section 4.3, when you need to pick a pronoun to refer back to a previously-mentioned noun, you need for it to agree in gender and number with that noun. Since all nouns are either masculine or feminine, if the noun is singular, you wind up using either 'e' or 'hi'. But what do you do if you need to say 'it' and there isn't a noun to refer back to? Do you use 'e'? Do you use 'hi'? (Or do you rephrase your sentence to avoid using either?) Well, why don't we just flip a coin to decide between 'e' and 'hi'? Here goes ... it's _tails_. I guess we'll use 'hi' in that situation: Mae hi'n braf heddiw. It's fine today. Mae hi'n bwrw glaw. It's raining. Notice that if the noun is explicit, you still use the appropriate pronoun: Sut mae'r tywydd? Mae e'n braf. How is the weather? It (he)'s fine. It is also common to leave out the pronoun completely: Mae'n iawn. It's all right. 5.5. Soft Mutation after 'i' ---------------------------- The preposition 'i' ('to') causes a _contact_mutation_. No, this is not related to corrective lenses that change your eye colo(u)r. A contact mutation means that a word causes the next word, whatever it is, to mutate. The soft mutation is the particular mutation 'i' causes. The range of a contact mutation is only a single word, so it's more like hitting the "shift" key than the "caps lock" [4]: i Bwlleli to Pwlleli i Gaerdydd to Caerdydd (Cardiff) _Exception:_ Peoples' names are not mutated by contact mutations. Thus, you would say 'i Tom'. Also, non-Welsh place names are generally not mutated, so you 'mynd i Paris' [5]. 5.6. How to Say 'Many Things' ----------------------------- There are many times when you need to say 'many something'. The Welsh word for 'many' is _llawer_. It is used with the preposition 'o' (which causes a soft contact mutation) followed by the plural of the noun [6]. For example, llawer o bethau many things llawer o afalau many apples Other words that are used in this context are _ychydig_ ('(a) few'), _digon_ ('enough', 'plenty'), _gormod_ ('too much'), _rhagor_ ('more') and _nifer_ ('a number') [7]. Numbers can also be used in this way, especially large numbers and special numbers like 'dwsin' ('dozen'). Finally, words that indicate a measured quantity take this construction, like 'paned' (cupful) and 'llwyed' (spoonful). Since all of these subjects are indefinite, they can be combined with the ideas from Section 5.3: Oes digon o afalau yn y fasged? Oes. Thus, to say 'There are Many Things in this Lesson', you write Mae llawer o bethau yn y wers 'ma. 5.7. Future Using 'Mynd' ------------------------ In Welsh, 'mynd' means 'go'. There is one place that all of us are constantly going, and that is to the future, so I guess it's appropriate that future action can be expressed using 'mynd'. We can actually say the same thing in English: Rydw i'n mynd i aros yma. I am going to stay here. As before, the preposition 'i' causes a soft contact mutation on the word that follows it. Ymarfer ------- 1. Adjectives in the predicate. Practice making sentences by choosing a line from each column. _____________________________________ Mae Tom yn | goch | . Wyt ti'n | hapus | ? Dydyn nhw ddim yn | iawn | Rydyn ni'n | boeth | Mae'r ferch yn | sa+l | Ydy'r plismon yn | wan | _____________________________________ 2. Fit the words below into the pattern "Ydy'r A yn B? Ydy, mae e/hi'n rhy B." A | B _________________________ a. tywydd | poeth b. basged | bach c. dyn | pell d. gardd | mawr e. merch | oer 3. Repeat exercise 2 using the pattern "Ydy'r A yn B? Ydy, mae e/hi mor B." 4. Say "You are going to X, but I am coming from X". a. Llanelli. Rwyt ti'n mynd i Lanelli, ond rydw i'n dod o Lanelli. b. Porthmadog. c. Rhydychen (Oxford). d. Bangor. e. Caerdydd (Cardiff). f. Abertawe (Swansea). g. Betws-y-Coed. h. Pentre Ifan. i. Tre'r Ceiri. 5. Make up patterns from the following table. _____________________________________________________________________ Oes | ychydig o | afalau | yma? Oes, mae gormod o | afalau | yma. | digon o | fasgedi | | fasgedi | | nifer o | bobl | | bobl | | llawer o | degellau | | degellau | | dwsin o | blant | | blant | | rhagor o | lyfrau | | lyfrau | _____________________________________________________________________ Sgwrs ----- [A translation of this conversation can be found in a different file.] Alun: Mae'r tywydd yn braf heddiw, ar o+l y storm fawr neithiwr. Elwyn: Ydy. Mae'n fendigedig. Dydy hi ddim yn rhy boeth, nac yn rhy oer. Dydy hi ddim yn mynd i fwrw glaw heno, chwaith. I ble rydyn ni'n mynd? Alun: Mae gwersi yn mynd i ddechrau cyn bo hir. Rydw i eisiau prynu'r llyfrau. Elwyn: Wel, does dim llawer o siopau yn y dre i brynu llyfrau. Rydw i'n ceisio meddwl beth i brynu i Nerys. Ydy hi'n hoffi blodau? Alun: Nag ydy. Maen nhw'n hardd, ond mae hi'n dechrau tisian pan mae hi gyda nhw. Elwyn: O. Beth am gaws? Ydy hi'n hoffi caws Caerffili? Alun: Ydy, yn wir. Dydy hi ddim yn bosib i gael gormod o gaws i Nerys. Elwyn: Mae e'n syniad da, 'te. Alun: Ydy. Mae caffe ar y ffordd. Ydych chi eisiau cael 'paned o de? Elwyn: O'r gorau. Mae te yn beth da yn y pnawn. Oes lle i eistedd yma? Alun: Oes, mae llawer o lefydd i eisedd. Elwyn: Bendigedig. Alun: Ydych chi eisiau rhywbeth yn y te? Ychydig o laeth? Siwgr? Elwyn: Llwyed o siwgr, os gwelwch yn dda. Alun: O'r gorau. Elwyn: Diolch. Geirfa ------ afal [-au, m.] - apple ar - on bendigedig - (adj.) wonderful beth - what beth am - what about blodyn [blodau, m.] - flower braf - (adj.) fine bwrw glaw - (v.) rain cael - (v.) have, receive, get caffe [m.] - cafe caws [m.] - cheese cegin [-au, f.] - kitchen ceisio - (v.) try coch - (adj.) red cyn bo hir - soon chwaith - either, neither dechrau - (v.) begin digon - (adj.) enough, plenty diolch - thanks dwsin [-au, m.] - dozen eistedd - (v.) sit ffordd [ffyrdd, f.] - way, street gormod - too much, too many gwan - (adj.) weak gwers [-i, f.] - lesson hapus - (adj.) happy hardd - (adj.) beautiful, handsome helpwr [helpwyr, m.] - helper heno - this evening, tonight hoffi - (v.) like llaeth [m.] - milk [8] llawer - much, many lle [-fydd, m.] - place llwyed [llwyeidiau, f.] - spoonful [9] mor - (adv.) so na, nac - nor nifer [-oedd, m.] - number o'r gorau - OK oer - (adj.) cold ond - but os gwelwch yn dda - please pan - when 'paned ['paneidiau, mf.] - cupful [10] pell - (adj.) distant, far picnic [m.] - picnic plismon [plismyn, m.] - policeman pnawn [-au, m.] - afternoon [11] poeth - (adj.) hot posib - possible [12] rhagor - more rhy - (adv.) too rhywbeth - something sa+l - (adj.) sick, ill siop [-au, f.] - shop siopa - (v.) shop siwgr [m.] - sugar storm [-ydd, f.] - storm sut - how syniad [-au, m.] - idea te [m.] - tea 'te - (adv.) then tegell [-au, -i, m.] - kettle tisian - (v.) sneeze tywydd [m.] - weather ychydig - few, little yn wir - indeed Exercises --------- [The answers can be found in a separate file.] 1. Translate the following sentences into Welsh. a. This tea is too weak. Is there more tea? b. Is there a policeman in the house? Yes. Tom is a policeman. c. Are you going to read that book today? No. It isn't possible. d. There isn't any milk in the kitchen, but there is too much cheese. e. Do you want some milk in the tea? No, but I want a spoonful of sugar, please. f. It is going to rain tonight. There is a big storm coming here soon. g. We are going to try to buy a dozen beautiful flowers in town this afternoon. h. There are no people at home. It's so hot in the house. i. That cafe is very good. There are lots of helpers there. j. It is not possible to see a lion in a kettle. Footnotes (for the terminally curious) -------------------------------------- [1] This construct is known grammatically as a _predicate_adjective_ or a _predicate_noun_. [2] As before, the 'd' in 'does' comes from the negative particle 'nid'. [3] The standard written form of 'nag' is 'nac'. [4] The range of a contact mutation contrasts with that of the functional mutation caused by feminine nouns, which can propagate considerably: e.g., 'y fasged bicnic goch fawr', 'the large red picnic basket'. [5] In speech, there is a tendency to mutate the (non-Welsh) sound 'ts' into the (non-Welsh) sound 'j'. Thus, for 'Tseina' (China), you might hear people saying 'mynd i Jeina'. You will find people who do mutate people's names (except those beginning with 'G') and common place names. The best rule is 'wen in dowt li+f owt'. [6] This construction is known as the _partitive_genitive_ in many languages. [7] You will run across people who use the word 'lot' in a partitive genitive, as in 'Mae lot o bobl yma'. I personally find this usage to be an unnecessary borrowing from English, since Welsh has the perfectly fine word 'llawer' to express this thought. [8] This word means 'buttermilk' in N. Wales, where they instead use the word 'llefrith' to mean 'milk'. [9] The written form of this word is 'llwyaid'. [10] This word illustrates the annoying tendency in Welsh to drop syllables from the beginning of a word. It also demonstrates the tendency to change 'ai' to 'e' in the final syllable of a word. Thus, the dictionary form of this word is 'cwpanaid'. [11] The written form of this word is 'prynhawn'. [12] The written form of this word is 'posibl'.