• There is only one present tense in Welsh. E.g. I play/am playing/do play are all conjugated as shown below
• Present tense is conjugated in “long form” = bod (conj.) + subj. + yn/’n + verbnoun
• The focus of this and all my grammar posts is spoken (particularly southern) Welsh
• Conjugations in brackets are most likely to be encountered in formal writing
Word order = bod (conj.) + subject + yn/’n + verbnoun
e.g. Dw + i + ‘n + cysgu = dwi’n cysgu
This can mean “I sleep”, “I am sleeping” and “I do sleep”
Affirmative - Someone/thing does/is
I am/do (ry)dw i*
You are/do (inf.) (rwyt) ti
You are/do (pol.) (ry)dych chi*
He/she/Tom is/does mae (f)e/hi/Tom
The sing. noun is/does mae’r sing. noun (e.g. plentyn)
We are/do (ry)dyn ni*
You are/do (pl.) (ry)dych chi*
They are/do maen nhw
The pl. noun are/do mae’r pl. noun (e.g. plant)
* May also be heard with “d” omitted (where y becomes ŷ) in speech: e.g. wi/ŷch
chi/ŷn ni
Examples - Bethan is singing = Mae Bethan yn canu
The child stands = Mae’r plentyn yn sefyll
We wait = Ŷn ni’n aros
Negative - Someone/thing doesn’t/isn’t
I am not/don’t (dy)dw i ddim*
You aren’t/don’t (inf.) (dwyt) ti ddim
You aren’t/don’t (pol.) (dy)dych chi ddim*
He/she isn’t/doesn’t* (dydy)/dyw (f)e/hi ddim
The sing. noun isn’t/doesn’t (dydy)/dyw’r sing. noun ddim
We aren’t/don’t (dy)dyn ni ddim*
You aren’t/don’t (pl.) (dy)dych chi ddim*
They aren’t/don’t (dy)dyn nhw ddim*
The pl. noun aren’t/don’t (dydy)/dyw’r pl. noun ddim
Examples - I don’t sit = Dw i ddim yn eistedd
She doesn’t go = Dydy/Dyw hi ddim yn mynd
The child isn’t running = Dyw’r plentyn ddim yn rhedeg
Interrogative - Are/Does...? (No)/Yes
Am/do I (y)dw i? (nac) wyt(inf.)/ydych(pol.)
Are/do you (inf.) wyt ti? (nac) ydw
Are/do you (pol.) (y)dych chi?* (nac) ydw
Is/does he/she (y)dy (f)e/hi?** (nac) ydy
Is/does the sing. noun (y)dy’r sing. noun?** (nac) ydy
Is/do we (y)dyn ni?* (nac) ydyn/ydych
Are/do you (pl.) (y)dych chi?* (nac) ydyn
Are/do they (y)dyn nhw?* (nac) ydyn
Are/do the pl. noun (y)dy’r pl. noun?** (nac) ydyn
**”yw” instead of “(y)dy” is also heard in speech
Examples - Are you ready? = Wyt ti’n barod?
No, I’m not = Nac ydw
Am I doing it well? = Ydw i’n ei gwneud e’n dda?
Note: - “Nac ydw” is often shortened to “nagw” in speech and all ‘no’ forms can
also just be said “na”
- The ‘(No)/Yes’ column gives the reply to the question to its left. So “(nac)
wyt” means “(No) you are/do(n’t). It doesn’t mean “I am/do(n’t)”.
Is there/there is
mae - there is/are
e.g. mae llawer o bobl
mae rhaid i fi/mi fynd
oes? - is/are there?
e.g. oes llawer o bobl?
oes rhaid i ti fynd?
nag/nac oes - no [there isn’t/aren’t]
e.g. nag oes, does dim llawer o bobl
nac oes, does dim rhaid i fi/mi fynd
does dim (or “sdim”) - there isn’t/aren’t
e.g. does dim gyda ni plant OR does dim plant gyda ni
Hi, I don't follow you I just found you on the cymraeg tag, I'm learning Welsh because why not? But I was wondering if you knew why certain verbs/phrases have 'sy' in them? I can't for the life of me figure out what 'sy' means on its own, if it even has a meaning on its own. Duolingo is ignoring it. Diolch.
sy is a form of bod used for relative clauses!
for most cases it’s probably easiest to think of it as ‘that’ or ‘who’ - so, for example, ‘a child who speaks welsh’ would be plentyn sy’n siarad cymraeg. it’s also used for questions - e.g. ‘who’s watching the rugby tonight?’ would be pwy sy’n gwylio’r rygbi heno?
other examples:
the car that’s broken down - y car sy wedi torri i lawr
it’s me that plays football [i.e. not someone else] - fi sy’n chwarae pêl-droed
do you know what’s happening? - wyt ti’n gwybod be’ sy’n digwydd?
sy follows and relates to a subject, and is present tense. so, for contrast:
y dyn sy’n (fy) ngweld fi - the man who sees me
y dyn a welodd fi - the man who saw me
sy is actually short for sydd but that normally sounds p formal and i’d normally avoid it. the only time i might use it is for sydd ar gael, ‘that is available’. one note is that although sy and yn together make sy’n, you can’t do that with sydd - you have to say sydd yn.
(dy)dyn ni ddim - (dy)dych chi ddim - (dy)dyn nhw ddim
*
interrogative:
(y)dw i? - wyt ti? - ydy hi/e/o?
(y)dyn ni? - (y)dych chi? - (y)dyn nhw?
*
the elements in brackets are commonly omitted in speech. however: when the interrogative is used alone to mean “yes”, or with “nac” to mean “no”, the y cannot be dropped.
this is a north welsh paradigm. there is no standard form of welsh. other possible forms include:
So I saw your post about Welsh and thought "why the fuck not I've been looking for a new one to learn anyway"+Duolingo has it. But while Duolingo is GREAT, they don't teach grammar lessons really. So I was wondering if you might help clear something up? I'm confused about the rules for adjectives. "Bore da" is "good morning" but "da iawn" is "very good"? So are adjectives used before nouns but after adverbs? I'm so confused and do not want to write welsh w the wrong grammatical structure.
Adjectives follow nouns (as a rule of thumb, a few adjectives come before but you can learn them by heart), adverbs are kind of a mixed bunch.
Iawn on its own means ‘fine, OK’, but if it comes after an adjective it means ‘very’ - da iawn, very good; drwg iawn, very bad; blasus iawn, very tasty, etc.
But eithaf, ‘quite’ (often eitha colloquially), comes before an adjective: eitha cyflym, quite fast; eitha araf, quite slow.
There’s not really a set pattern with adverbs and adjectives: some adverbs come before the adjective, like eithaf, rhy, mwy, hollol, and some come after, like iawn. You’ll have to learn them for each adverb.
The BBC has an (archived) page for Welsh learners, and some PDFs explaining grammar - if you’re learning with Duolingo you might find these helpful.
If any Welsh speakers who follow me know a pattern to this, please share!
Obviously, the present tense is kind of an essential thing to know if you’re looking to communicate with Welsh speakers - as it is in every language. Thankfully, the present tense is fairly simple in Welsh, and I’m going to teach you. You’re welcome.
There are two ways to form the present tense in Welsh, but I’ll just teach you the most useful one - the one used in everyday speech. To do this, you don’t need to conjugate any verbs. All you have to do is take a person (???) and add the verb on the end:
Rydw i’n - I am (note: in everyday speech, many people will use “Dw i’n” instead, but both are correct)
Rwyt ti’n - You are (singular, informal)
Mae o’n/mae hi’n - He/she is (note: you can also use “mae e’n” instead of “mae o’n” for the male version, depending on where you live in Wales - both are correct, and the female version always stays the same)
Rydyn ni’n - We are
Rydych chi’n - You are (plural, formal)
Maen nhw’n - They are
Once you have these, you can add the verb on the end. Here are some examples:
Rydw i’n canu - I am singing
Rydyn ni’n siarad - We are speaking
Mae o’n chwarae - He is playing
If you want to see how to form the proper present tense, feel free to check out this link (it’s also the source I used to make this post): x
Sometimes, in Welsh, you need to change the first letter of a word. I would assume it's for aesthetic purposes, but I'm not all that sure. Soft mutation is one of the three mutations of words in Welsh - the others are nasal and aspirate, if you are interested in looking those up. Soft mutation occurs very often, but here are a few examples:
Singular, feminine nouns after the article y (the)
e.g. merch (girl) becomes y ferch after the article y is added to the beginning
Note: The consonants rh and ll are in exception to this rule.
e.g. llaw (hand) remains y llaw
Feminine nouns after the numbers un (one) and dwy (two)
e.g. cath (cat) becomes un gath after the article un is added to the beginning
cadair (chair) becomes dwy gadair after the article dwy is added to the beginning
Note: This also applies to masculine nouns after the number dau, the male (and most commonly used when counting) equivalent of two.
Adjectives that follow a singular, feminine noun
e.g. tal (tall) becomes dal when it follows a singular, feminine noun (merch dal - tall girl)
Adjectives and nouns that follow the linking word yn
e.g. coch (red) becomes yn goch when the linking word yn is added to the beginning
Note: Again, the consonants rh and ll do not follow this rule.
The consonants that need to be changed in soft mutation are:
p --> b
t --> d
c --> g
b --> f
d --> dd
g --> disappears
ll --> l
m --> f
rh --> r
When the letter g is mutated, it disappears from the word completely. An example of this is golygus (handsome), which becomes olygus when mutated.
