Contents prepared by Dan Dan Tu

.1. How to say "I am", "you are", etc.

The verb "to be" is more important in Welsh than in most languages, since it is often used as a helping verb, as it is in English when we say "I am going". We will explain more about this in Section 3.2, but for now we will concentrate on just the verb "to be". Here is the conjugation of the present tense of "bod", the verb "to be" [1].

Welsh adopts the position that the verb comes first, followed by the subject, which in this case is the personal pronoun.

Note

The personal pronouns actually vary somewhat. The most important distinction to recognize is with respect to the third person singular masculine pronoun "e". The form given is for the dialect of Welsh spoken in the South; the Northern form is "o". Many of the pronouns also differ in literary Welsh; we concentrate in this course on spoken Welsh (unless asked, of course).

Notes on pronunciation

• The "y"s follow the normal rule so that, for example, in "Rydyn", the first "y" is obscure and the second is clear.
• The "wy" diphthong in "Rwyt" is a falling one (i.e., it is prounounced ROO-eet).

Important point

The "maen" form is only used with the pronoun "nhw". A plural or compound subject uses the "mae" form:

Like many Indo-European languages, Welsh makes a distinction between the familiar form of "you" ("ti") and the polite form ("chi") which doubles as the plural. The rule of thumb is that you use "ti" when talking to friends whom you know well (peers), children, animals (except maybe those bigger than you that you don't want to offend, like that bull over there), and Deity. However, there is a great deal of variation among speakers as to which form to use, and even sometimes a discrepancy between what a person thinks they use in various situations and what they actually use. There may be a somewhat different standard between young people and old people as to when you know somebody well enough to start using "ti", with the young people tending to be more informal. I know one person who called his wife "chi" through 50 years of marriage, using the "ti" form only when addressing Deity. You should use "chi" towards anyone to whom respect is due, either because that person is older than you, is a complete stranger (like a shopkeeper), or has some authority over you, like being your boss or the person who is examining you for fluency in Welsh. Which form to use is a matter of society, not of language.

Failure to use the formal form when you should could make you appear to be pushy or American or both; it could also be construed as insulting. Using the formal form with someone to whom you would normally say "ti" comes across as coldness or anger.

2.2. How to say "Am I?", etc.

One of the first things one learns in another language is how to ask questions, presumably so that one can enquire things of the natives. Never mind the fact that most of the time, you won't understand the answer anyway.

Notice that in the first and second persons, you just drop the "R" [2] and add a question mark. In speaking, there is a rising inflection for questions (the question mark is not completely decorative).

You should notice that there is an underlying pattern exposed in the interrogative form that is broken only by the "ti" form.

2.3. How to say "Yes" and "No"

So far, so good. Now we come to the issue of answering the questions posed in the previous section. I wish I could just tell you the Welsh word for "yes", and then you could all go home feeling like you'd accomplished something. Unfortunately, Welsh does not have a word for "yes". Or rather, Welsh has many dozens of words for "yes", each of which is reserved for and applicable only to a small set of circumstances. I figure some of you guys are wondering how you can pick up a Welsh girl, if it's so complicated for her to figure out the right word to use to say "yes". But don't despair: it's equally difficult for her to say "no".

Anyway, since there is no general word for "yes", you indicate a positive answer by affirming what was asked (at least the verb part). So we have:

So, for example, if someone asks you "Wyt ti?", you could answer "Ydw". If asked "Ydyn ni?", the answer would be either "Ydyn" or "Ydych", depending on whether the person answering the question considered himself/herself part of the "ni" in the original question.

To say "no", just use the word "Nag" followed by the word "yes" [3]:

The great advantage of this way of saying "yes" and "no" is that it avoids potential ambiguities in the answer, especially when dealing with negative questions. For example:

Lawyer

You don't beat your wife?

Defendant

Yes.

Lawyer (to jury)

You heard it yourself.

But what has the jury heard? Has the defendant said, "Yes, I don't beat my wife," or "Yes, I do beat my wife"? In Welsh, if he says, "Ydw," you've extracted an unambiguous confession from him.

2.4. How to say "I am not", etc.

Since we cannot be all things to all people, it is inevitable that we sometimes need to say we are not something. Here's how:

These forms are just like the interrogative forms from Section 2.2, with the letter "d" stuck in front of them [4] and the word "ddim" taped on behind.

Vocabulary 2

chi - you (plural and polite)
e (fe) - he
gartre - at home
hi - she
i (fi) - I
mewn pryd - in time
nhw - they
ni - we
ti - you (familiar)
yma - here
yna - there
yn Aberystwyth - in Aberystwyth

The forms "fi" and "fe" are used in some contexts.

3.1. How to say "a" and "the"

In English, we have two kinds of article: a definite article ("the") and an indefinite article ("a", "an"). Welsh has no word for "a" (you can still say "uh", though, when you're trying to think of what to say next). The Welsh language thus proves the indefinite article to be superfluous by omitting it. (Some languages, such as Russian and Latin, omit both articles, but that's for a different set of lessons.) Thus, the word "car" can be translated either "car" or "a car", depending on the context.

The definite article in Welsh has three different forms, just as the English indefinite article has two forms. They are summarized in the table below:

Note

An "h" at the beginning of a word is considered a vowel. Contrarily, sometimes a "w" at the beginning is not considered a vowel.

Some examples:

Although most place names do not use the definite article, there are a few that do, including:

Note on pronunciation

The "y"s in the definite article go against the normal pronunciation of "y" in monosyllabic words, and are obscure.

3.2. How to say "I am reading"

As mentioned back in Section 2.1, the verb "to be" is used as a helping verb in making the present tense of other verbs. The particle "yn" is used to do the linking. (The "y" sound in "yn" is obscure.) Here's the general sentence pattern:

After pronouns ending in vowels, the "yn" is contracted:

The sentences in this can be translated "is reading", "reads", or "does read". A direct object can be placed after the verb:

Negative sentences can be constructed in a similar fashion:

Note

The singular form of the verb is always used with a compound or plural subject. The "maen" form only occurs with the pronoun "nhw". Thus, we have

3.3. Adjectives I

No language would be complete without adjectives (although I am told Hebrew has only a few), and Welsh is no exception. Welsh is like French in that it places the adjective after the noun that it modifies:

The adverb "iawn" (very) goes right after the adjective it modifies:

3.4. "This" and "that"

"This" and "that" can be expressed by putting the definite article before the word and either 'ma or 'na (respectively) after the word:

Ymarfer 3

Make up sentences by picking one item from each column

Sgwrs 3

[A translation of this conversation can be found in a different file.]

Plentyn bach

Ble mae'r ci mawr yn byw?

Mam

Mae'r ci yn byw yma yn y ty+.

Plentyn

O. Ble mae llewod yn byw?

Mam

Maen nhw'n byw yn yr Affrig.

Plentyn

Ydw i'n byw yn yr Affrig?

Mam

Nag wyt. Dwyt ti ddim yn byw yn yr Affrig.

Plentyn

Chi a Dadi, ydych chi'n byw yn yr Affrig?

Mam

Nag ydyn. Dydyn ni ddim yn byw yn yr Affrig.

Plentyn

Pam?

Mam

Achos rydyn ni'n osgoi llewod.

Geirfa 3

a (ac) - (conj.) and
achos - (conj.) cause, because
Affrig, yr - Africa
bach - (adj.) small
ble - where
byw - (v.) to live
ci - dog
da - (adj.) good
darllen - (v.) to read
Eidal, yr - Italy
gadael - (v.) to leave, to let
geirfa - vocabulary
gweld - (v.) to see
gwely - bed
haf - summer
iard - yard
iawn - (adv.) very
llewod - lions
llyfr - book
mam - mother
mawr - (adj.) large
meddwl - (v.) to think
mynd - (v.) to go
osgoi - (v.) to avoid
pam - why
plentyn - child
sgwrs - talk, chat, conversation
Swistir, y - Switzerland
ty+ - house
yma - here
ymarfer - practice
yn - (prep.) in
yn - <untranslatable particle>

Notes

1.     The "ac" form is used before vowels.

2.     The word "osgoi" is pronounced with the stress on the final syllable.

3.     The "y" in both forms of "yn" is obscure.

Note: This lesson refers to the soft mutation and limited soft mutation that are presented in Appendix A. For those who do not have Appendix A in front of them, I review the changes of the limited soft mutation here:

In addition to these changes, the (full) soft mutation adds:

4.1. Gender of Nouns

Welsh falls within the majority of the Indo-European languages (of which English is an exception in this regard) in assigning an often arbitrary gender to every noun. Welsh has only two genders: masculine and feminine. You can always tell feminine nouns, because they're the ones that wear fingernail polish.

More seriously, those nouns for which the gender is obviously intrinsic to the noun (e.g., girl, son) have the obvious gender (unlike in German, which considers girls, for example, to be neuter), but there remain many nouns for which assignment of gender is simply a linguistic convention. The long and short of is that you need to learn the gender for nouns at the time you learn the noun itself. Consider it part of knowing the word itself.

4.2. Plurals

Welsh nouns can be either singular or plural. (This is a marked simplification over Homeric Greek, which has a dual number to indicate two of something [1], or even over Russian, which puts two, three, and four into a special class when counting.) There are a number of different ways that nouns in Welsh form plurals:

1.     Addition of -(i)au to the stem. For example: "mamau" (mothers), "tadau" (fathers), "pethau" (things), "hetiau" (hats).

2.     Addition of -oedd to the stem. For example: "lleoedd" (places), "niferoedd" (numbers).

3.     Addition of -i to the stem. For example: "bisgedi" (biscuits), "basgedi" (baskets).

4.     Dropping a final -yn or -en. That's right: these nouns actually get shorter when you make the plural. These nouns seem to be generally the names of plants (or plant parts) and animals that are normally encountered collectively rather than individually. For example, "rhosyn" (rose) becomes "rhos" (roses); "malwoden" (snail) becomes "malwod" (snails).
Note: Nouns in this category that end in "-yn" are masculine and those that end in "-en" are feminine.

There are many other "regular" ways that Welsh nouns form the plurals (though none quite so regular as the "add -s or -es" in English); in fact there are too many to list them all here.

Occasionally, the formation of the plural causes a modification of the vowels. For example: "mab" (son) becomes "meibion" (sons); "aderyn" (bird) becomes "adar" (birds).

And, of course, there are nouns with irregular plurals like "brawd" (brother) becoming "brodyr" (brothers).

Since there have been nouns presented in previous lessons, all of those nouns are repeated in this lesson, along with their genders and how to form their plurals (where applicable).

Note on pronunciation

When a plural is formed by adding -(i)au, the "au" part is pronounced as a short "e" in S. Wales and as "a" in N. Wales. (It is sometimes even spelled that way informally: there is a shop in Aberystwyth with the word "pethe" in its name.) It can, of course, be pronounced the normal way.

4.3. Agreement of Pronouns

When a pronoun refers back to a noun, it must agree in gender and number with that noun. Thus, we have:

"Nhw" is used for any plural noun, regardless of gender.

4.4. Mutation of Feminine Nouns after "y"

The definite article "y" causes a limited soft mutation in feminine nouns. Thus, we have the following:

Masculine nouns do not suffer mutation after "y":

Plural nouns are also not mutated (even if they are feminine):

Note

The word "pobl" (people) is a feminine singular noun with a collective meaning, so it does mutate: "y bobl".

Exception

The plural of "pobl" also mutates after "y": "y bobloedd".

4.5. The Number "One"

The Welsh word for the number "one" is "un" (if you'll pardon my French [2]), pronounced (roughly) "een". It precedes the noun it modifies, and causes a limited soft mutation in exactly the same places that "y" does, i.e., for feminine, singular nouns:

Of course, it is not used with plural nouns!

4.6. Adjectives with Feminine Nouns

Feminine nouns are not only mutated by "y" and "un", but they also spell trouble for adjectives that modify them. Specifically, they cause a full (not limited!) soft mutation of any following adjectives:

Exception

The adjective "braf" (fine) is never mutated:

4.7. How to Say "I want"

One of the major uses for any language is to get what you want, so you need to know how to say it. (Of course, being polite also helps.) The word used to express wanting in Welsh is "eisiau". However, it is not treated like a normal verb in that it is not preceded by "yn" when combined with "bod" [3]:

You can put a verb right after the "eisiau":

Note on pronunciation

The "ei" is pronounced like Welsh "i", the "si" like English "sh" and the "au" like Welsh "o" (in the North) or "e" (in the South). It is common to see the word spelled "isio" by authors from N. Wales.

Ymarfer 4

1. Masculine nouns. "The big x and the little y."

2. Feminine nouns. "The big x and the little y."

3. Make sentences by choosing one item from each column.

4. Make sentences by choosing one item from each column.

Sgwrs 4

[A translation of this conversation can be found in a different file.]

Elwyn

Bore da, Alun.

Alun