>( I'm a bit confused by the addition of the definite article (?) > ) 'Y' before the verb 'mae' in the following examples. Since >( there is already an article before the nouns y+d and botel, > ) what is its purpose? Is this akin to the reason there is >( an 'r', a remnant of 'Yr', in 'Rydw'? > ) >( Y mae'r y+d yn wyrdd > >It's not an article, again; it's not the same particle as you get >in front of subsidiary clauses, either. It does seem to be the same >y/yr as in 'yr ydw' or 'rydw', because it goes with the verb 'bod' >(to be) but not as far as I can see with any other. I believe that it is considered to be same preverbal particle as you find in subsidiary clauses. However, Roger and I may omit explicit preverbal particles in the remainder of the course, at least in main clauses. >However dropping it doesn't change the sentence into a question as >would dropping the 'R' from the front of a 'Rydw'. That's because the interrogative form of the third person singular is 'ydy' instead of being related to 'mae'. The third person plural 'maen/ydyn' follows the same pattern. --Mark