I need suggestions

Right, I am starting my welsh videos and I need some suggestions for what to make them about...
Leave a comment about what you would like to see and I will try my best.


Hope you are all well! 


Hwyl fawr am nawr!

Digwyddiadau a Dathliadau

Events and Celebrations


We all love celebrations don't we? So why not learn how to say it in different languages...here, you can learn them in Welsh!


This is a list of phrases that I have used in my recent video, and here, I also explain about the Welsh festivities.


Penblwydd Hapus - Happy Birthday
Blwyddyn Newydd Dda - Happy New Year
Dydd Santes Dwynwen Hapus - Happy St. Dwynwen's Day (*see below*)
Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant Hapus - Happy St. David's Day (*see below*)
Pasg Hapus - Happy Easter
Calan Gaeaf Hapus - Happy Halloween 
Nadolig Llawen - Merry Christmas


St. Dwynwen's Day:
St. Dwynwen's Day is celebrated on the 25th of January. St. Dwynwen is the Welsh patron saint of lovers, which makes her the Welsh equivalent to St. Valentine, who lived in the 5th century. 
Dwynwen fell in love with a Prince, but her father had already made plans for her marriage, and to whom that would be. She was so heartbroken that she could not marry the Prince, that she begged God to make her forget him. In her sleep, an angel appeared before her carrying a potion that would erase Dwynwen's memory of the Prince, and turn him into a block of ice. Then, the angel gave three wishes to Dwynwen. Her first wish was to thaw the Prince, second; that God meet the dreams and the hopes of all the true lovers, and the third was the she never love again. As a mark of her gratitude, she gave her live to God. 
She founded a convent in Llanddwyn, off the west coast of Anglesey, which became a place of pilgrimage after her death in 465AD. Visitors go to a well their, and it is believed that the sacred fish or eels that lived in the well could foretell whether or not their relationship would be happy and whether love and happiness would be theirs. Remains of Dwynwen's church can still be seen today.


St. David's day:
St. David's day is celebrated on the 1st March every year in honour of St. David (Dewi Sant), the patron saint of Wales. He went on many pilgrimages around the UK and the globe, but he eventually settled at Glyn Rhosyn (St David's), in south-west Wales, where he established a very strict ascetic religious community. Many miracles have been attributed to him, the most incredible of which was performed when he was preaching at the Synod of Llanddewibrefi (Yes, the only gay in the village) - he caused the ground to rise underneath him so that he could be seen and heard by all. An account of his life by a man called Rhigyfarch was written at the end of the 11th century, but how much truth is in this, is hard to tell. It must be considered that Rhigyfarch was the son of the Bishop of St David's, and that the Life was written as propaganda to establish Dewi's superiority and defend the bishopric from being taken over by Canterbury and the Normans.
On the 1st of March, it is custom to wear either a leek, or a daffodil, and these are both our national emblems, and the girls dress up (in school) in the national uniform.




So, I hope this has helped you in understanding a little more of our culture and language? 


If you have any comment, please leave them below!


Thank you all - Diolch pawb!

Recent lesson on YouTube

Hey fellow followers!


This is just a text version of the lesson on YouTube on my channel CLICK HERE for the video. 


So, we talked about elongating sentences. In Welsh, we use the particle 'yn' in front of a verb, for example:

• Dw i'n trio - I am trying or I try
• Dw i'n dweud - I am saying or I say
• Dw i'n siarad - I am speaking or I speak

Note: In Welsh, we say the same thing for eg - I am trying and I try.


We can mix the verbs to make sentences longer like we do in English, and any other language, for instance 

• Dw i'n trio dweud - I am trying to say
• Dw i'n trio siarad - I am trying to speak
• Dw'n hoffi trio - I like to try

If you watch the video above, then more will make sense.

Y Treigladau - The Mutations

Hello all!

Sorry it has been a while since the last update on here, but I am back with a useful lesson I think :)
I am going to attempt to teach you Welsh mutations. Now even if you still don't understand them after reading this, it will always be here so you can use it as a reference, when mutating words. It is difficult and tricky, but the only way to get your head around it is to keep reading it, and doing practices.
So, shall we start?

There are 3 types of Mutation -
Y Treiglad Meddal - The Soft Mutation
Y Treiglad Trwynol - The Nasal Mutation
Y Treiglad Llaes - The Aspirate Mutation

Initial Letter	Soft (Voiced)	Nasal	Aspirate (Fricative)
C	G	Ngh	Ch
P	B	Mh	Ph
T	D	Nh	Th
G	omitted	Ng
B	F	M
D	Dd	N
M	F
Ll	L
Rh	R

Soft Mutation


Feminine nouns: Welsh nouns come in two genders, but the importance of committing these genders to memory is slightly less obvious when learning  than it is in, let's say French. While in French gender dictates a series of changes - which definite article is used (le/la), how adjectives agree (petit/petite)... - in Welsh the gender of the noun has a more subtle, but important role in constructing grammatically correct sentences.

Inserting the definite article y (yr before a vowel, which is welsh is a, e, i, o, u, y and w) causes a feminine noun to undergo a soft mutation.


A popular example is bachgen - boy and merch - girl. After adding the definite article we have y bachgen - the boy but: y ferch - the girl (As can be seen from the table above, soft mutation means m becomes f )

The same occurs when the number un - one is placed preceding the noun. Hence un bachgen - one boy and un ferch - one girl.

Note 'a boy' would be put into Welsh as simply bachgen, there is no equivalent for the indefinite article 'a' in Welsh.

Adjectives following feminine nouns.

Continuing to use the examples above we will see how any adjective following a feminine noun will also undergo soft mutation: 

Adding the adjective bach (Eng. little) gives us:- y bachgen bach - the little boy. But y ferch fach - the little girl ( b also mutates to f ).

The difference maybe a little clearer for you in the following two phrases: Prynhawn da - Good afternoon and Noswaith dda - Good evening.

Noswaith (evening) mutates the adjective da (good)→dda because it is feminine, while prynhawn (afternoon) - a masculine noun - does not.

After the majority of prepositions.

Most prepositions, particularly ones with one syllable, require a soft mutation. Some examples would be Croeso i Gymru - Welcome to Wales ( C to G ) and o Gaergybi i Gaerdydd - From Holyhead to Cardiff.

I will go through the prepositions in another lesson so you have them too :)

After certain possessives.

The pronouns for the possessives 'your' and 'his' also require soft mutation. Other possessives require nasal and aspirate mutations.

dy...(di) - your... (familiar)

ei...(fe/o) - his...

If we use the following words, we can get some examples...

tafarn - pub - if we use this, and want to say 'your pub', it will be 'dy dafarn (di)'

llyfr - book - if we use this to say his book 'ei lyfr (fe/o)'.

The pronoun ei also mean 'her', as well as his, but in this case it requires an aspirate mutation, as is seen in the section below. 

Have I still got you? I hope this is helping you?!?! Let's carry on...

Aspirate Mutations. 

The change of letters for this mutation can be seen in the fourth column of the table ^^

After the pronoun ei (this time meaning her) causes an aspirate mutation.

ei...(hi) = her... -if we use this sentence with words like 'Carreg - Stone' and 'Tad - Father' we can get: Ei Charreg (hi) - her stone, or Ei Thad (hi) - her Father.

Another aspirate mutation happens after the welsh word 'a/ac' which means 'and' ('ac' is used before a vowel, hence it will not cause a mutation).

If we use two words and have 'and' in the middle, let's have a look and see what happens...

Bara = Bread, and Caws = Cheese - so... Bread AND cheese = Bara a chaws.

Trosedd = Crime, and Cosb = Punishment - so... Crime AND Punishment = Trosedd a chosb.

Have you got that one? I do hope so ^u^

Nasal Mutation.

This happens when using the locative 'yn' = 'in' in a sentence, then it causes a mutation. Please don't get this mixed up with the yn used as a particle constructing a verb, as NO mutation occurs here.

Here are some examples of places in Wales...

Porthmadog - Porthmadog = In Porthmadog = Ym Mhorthmadog

Tresaeth - Tresaeth = In Tresaeth = Yn Nhresaeth

Cardiff - Caerdydd = In Cardiff = Yng Nghaerdydd

Bangor - Bangor = In Bangor = Ym Mangor

Dolgellau - Dolgellau = In Dolgellau = Yn Nolgellau

Glanllyn - Glanllyn = In Glanllyn = Yng Nglanllyn

Yn - Before a mutated T or D

Ym - Before a mutated P or B

Yng - Before a mutated C or G

This mutation also happens after fy, meaning "my". If we take the word Fathers - Tadau, and we want to say My Fathers - it becomes fy nhadau. Take a look at the table to see the letter changes. Another example can be seen with the word clothes - dillad = fy nillad, my clothes, and another - brother = brawd, fy mrawd.

Now, in the spoken language, because the nasal mutation occurs so rarely, the word fy can drop out entirely so just leaves us with the word itself. :)

I hope this helps you get closer the the written text of Welsh and the grammar. I would like to see some welsh videos on youtube with you saying some words...maybe? I also hope you like the lesson and that it has not confused you too much, it is just something that will need to be learned, parrot fashion. 

Da boch chi!

Dysgu'r iaith sydd ei hangen i drafod papurau a rhaglenni.

So this title - can you guess what it is saying? Well, you may notice the word papurau which you may be able to tell means newspapers? Also, the word after that is something that usually goes with newspapers, and it is rhaglenni - programmes (as in TV). 

So this sentence dysgu'r iaith sydd ei hangen i drafod papurau a rhaglenni, means:

To learn the language required/needed to discuss newspapers and programmes (note the plurals) 

You may be confused as to why I have chosen to talk about this today? Well, it is my day off from work today, and so I am going to be doing things I enjoy (mwynhau) which is reading newspapers and watching rubbish TV - that is untill Brothers and Sisters comes back on!! 

So, let's start with some words to help out...you will need 'read' and 'watch'!

Read - darllen

Watch/See - gweld

Then...

Ydych chi'n...? - Do you /Are you...? (This is the singular, polite + plural)

So with this, you could ask...

Ydych chi'n darllen y Guardian? - Ydw. 
- Do you read the Guardian? - Yes (I do).

...or...

Ydych chi'n gweld y Newyddion bob nos? - Nac Ydw.
- Do you see/watch the news every night? - No (I don't).

...maybe change this to...

Bill a Ben - ydych chi'n hoffi Panorama? - Ydyn. 
- Bill and Ben - do you like Panorama? - Yes (we do).

Easy??

Well, you know that you would use these ^ for people that you do not know, or who you respect, someone who is older than you, or someone you want to show respect.

So, how would you ask a friend, brother or sister...well we change the Ydych chi'n  to Wyt ti'n don't we. 

So a few sentences using this structure would be...

Wyt ti'n.....? - Do you / are you.....? (This is the singular + familiar form of Ydych chi'n)

So

, you may want to ask...

Wyt ti'n mwynhau 'Neighbours'? - Ydw. 

- Do you enjoy 'Neighbours'? - Yes (I do).

Wyt ti'n prynu papur newydd bob dydd? - Nac ydw.
- Do you buy a newspaper every day? - No (I don't).

(As in English, you can say Papers or Newspapers and people know what you are saying. This applies to Welsh aswell)

Or you can just change the sentences above.

Now, just incase you thought that was easy...I am going to throw something in to mess it up a little, but don't worry about it to much...here goes...

Beth rydych chi'n (ei) ddarllen?
- What do you read / are you reading?

Beth rwyt ti'n (ei) wylio bob nos?
- What do you watch every every night?

Notice how the little word 'ei' is used between 'yn' and the verb-noun in all 'Beth rydych chi / rwyt ti?' questions.

You might not hear this 'ei' in ordinary speech, as it is used in the written form, but you can miss it out too - but you will hear the soft mutation it causes.

Some more questions...and another words...

'Pa' is followed by a Soft Mutation:

Pa bapur? - Which paper?
Pa raglen? - Which programme?

Pa bapur rwyt ti'n (ei) ddarllen?
- Which paper do you read?

Pa raglen rydych chi'n (ei) hoffi?
- Which programme do you like?

Notice how this word 'ei' is used in 'Pa?' questions also.

hoff bapur / raglen - favourite paper / programme

Adjectives usually follow the noun in Welsh - but 'hoff' is an exception to the rule. It precedes the noun - and causes a Soft Mutation.

eich hoff..... - your favourite..... (singular polite and plural)
dy hoff..... - your favourite..... (singular familiar)
fy hoff..... - my favourite.....

Some more, I told you this was going to be a long session...

'Ydy' is used to convey 'is / are' when it is followed by a definite noun or pronoun.

Beth ydy eich hoff bapur?
- What is you

r favourite paper?

(Fy hoff bapur ydy) 'The Financial Times'. 
- (My favourite paper is) 'The Financial Times'.
'The Financial Times' (ydy fy hoff bapur).
- 'The Financial Times' (is my favourite paper).


Beth ydy dy hoff raglen deledu?
- What is your favourite T.V. programme?
(Fy hoff raglen deledu ydy) 'Panorama'.
- (My favourite T.V. programme is) 'Panorama'.
'Panorama' (ydy fy hoff raglen deledu).
- 'Panorama' (is my favourite T.V. programme).

In Welsh, we don't have to answer in complete sentences so the part in brackets can be omitted if you cant remember how to answer, but notice it is similar to the questions.


Now - 

Gorffennol - Past tense

'Did you?' questions are formed by adding endings to the root of regular verbs. To form the 'polite' question we add - och.


Notice that the verb is mutated.
gweld - Weloch chi? - Did you see?
clywed - Glywoch chi? - Did you hear?
darllen - Ddarllenoch chi? - Did you read?
mwynhau - Fwynheuoch chi? - Did you enjoy?
prynu - Brynoch chi? - Did you buy?


The 'familiar' question is formed by adding -aist to the root of the verb.
gweld - Welaist ti? - Did you see?
clywed - Glywaist - Did you hear?
darllen - Ddarllenaist ti? - Did you read?
mwynhau - Fwynheuaist ti? - Did you enjoy?
prynu - Brynaist ti? - Did you buy?


Answers to these would be:
Do - Yes Naddo - No

Weloch chi 'Newsnight' neithiwr? - Do. - Did you see 'Newsnight' last night? - Yes.
Glywaist ti 'Woman's Hour' ddoe? - Naddo. - Did you hear 'Woman's Hour' yesterday? - No.
Ddarllenoch chi'r papur y bore' ma? - Do. - Did you read the paper this morning? - Yes.
Fwynheuaist ti'r rhaglen? - Naddo. - Did you enjoy the programme? - No.




Well, that is the lesson for today!! This has taken me 2 and half hours!! So, I must get on with some useless stuff now!  


Happy learning, any questions, then leave a comment, or get me on Twitter @bambinobennyboi or Facebook < click


I hope this is not too much for you to take in, if it is then just keep coming back to it. I have purposefully given loads here as I feel bad for not updating it as much as I would like.


Take it easy, and until the next time - Hwyl fawr! 

Anhwylderau - Ailments

After posting that last post, I had another idea that I would do a short blog about how to explain that you are not well in Welsh. I hope it is NOT useful as I hope you don't need to use them :)

So, to ask someone 'What's wrong/what's the matter?', you would say - Beth sy'n bod?

then...

I am not well - Dw i ddim yn dda

I am ill - Dw i'n dost

I don't feel well - Dw i ddim yn teimlo'n dda

I feel ill - Dw i'n teimlo'n dost

Here are some examples of a conversation...

Beth sy'n bod? - What's the matter?
Mae annwyd arna' i. - I've got a cold.

Mae Bob yn sâl heddiw. - Bob is ill today.
Ydy e? Beth sy'n bod? - Is he? What's wrong?
Mae'r frech goch arno fe. - He's got measles.

Dydy Mair ddim yn dda. - Mair's not well.
Beth sy'n bod? - What's the matter?
Mae pen tost 'da hi. - She's got a headache.

Rydyn ni'n dost/sâl. - We're ill.
Beth sy'n bod arnoch chi? - What's the matter with you?
Mae clust dost 'da ni. - We've got earache. 

So, I hope you liked it?

Hwyl!

Hello again!


So, today is my last day of holiday before I start back at university. I am going straight back in to practice, which means I have just spent 4 weeks off on holiday, and now I go straight into the hospital environment. Being out on practice equals to half of our course, so I don't get a chance at going back to uni before going back to work...VERY SCARY!!


Well, seeing as me going back into practice, is like me starting a new job, the people I am going to be working with, might want to get to know me a little bit better...so they may want to know my past - which gave me an idea for a little blog session in Welsh (Yng Nghymraeg).


I am just going to jot a few sentences down here and translate them, and maybe you could have a go at filling in the blanks with your details (if you don't know the Welsh, then English will be fine). So, first of all, we need to know the passive voice in Welsh. In Welsh, we build the pattern around the verb 'cael' - to have/receive. It is quite logical if you consider the subject of the sentence to be receiving the action of the verb (i.e. the action of the verb is done to the subject).  Therefore, we would say 

1. I was born = I received my bearing
2. I was raised = I received my raising
3. I was educated = I received my education

fy ('my') causes a Nasal Mutation. Learn these parrot fashion:
geni - fy ngeni (born)
magu - fy magu (raised)
addysgu - fy addysgu (educated)


I was born - Fe ges i fy ngeni
I was raised / brought up - Fe ges i fy magu
I was educated - Fe ges i fy addysgu


So from these, I can now say mine...


Ben ydw i, fe ges i fy ngeni yn Wrecsam. Fe ges i fy magu yn Aberhonddu, a fe ges i fy addysgu yn Ysgol Uwchradd Aberhonddu. 


I am Ben, I was born in Wrexham. I was raised in Brecon and I was educated at Brecon High School.


So, can you now have a little go at this? If you would like to leave a comment with what you have answered, then that would be fantastic...if not, then just jot it down at home and learn it.


I hope you have enjoyed :)


Hwyl!