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Welsh/Mynediad/Lesson 1

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By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Be able to introduce yourself.
  • Ask for someone's name.
  • Ask how someone is.
  • Respond to the question 'How are you?' in various ways.
  • Ask what someone's occupation is
  • Learn how to say what occupation you have

Dialogue

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Welsh Conversation • Lesson 1 •  audio (upload)
Gwers 1   Lesson 1
Glyn Helo. Pwy ydych chi?
Catrin Catrin ydw i. Beth yw eich enw chi?
Glyn Glyn ydw i. Sut ydych chi?
Catrin Iawn, diolch. A chi?
Glyn Da iawn. Beth yw eich swydd chi?
Catrin Athrawes ydw i.
Glyn Iawn, meddyg ydw i.

Vocabulary

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Welsh Vocabulary • Lesson 1 •  audio (upload)
Gwers 1   Lesson 1
Cymraeg English
Helo Hello
Pwy Who
Chi You (formal)
A/ac And
Sut How
Da Good
Iawn Fine; Very
Beth What
Eich Your (formal)
Enw Name
Gwaith / Swydd Job
Athrawes Teacher (female)
Meddyg Doctor

Introducing oneself

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In the dialogue, Glyn asks Catrin,

  • Pwy dach chi? or 'Who are you?'.

This is one way of asking who someone is. Another way is to ask for their name. Catrin asks,

  • Beth ydy'ch enw chi? or 'What is your name?'

To respond, we can use the ydw i pattern. Just respond,

  • [name] ydw i.
  • e.g. Bob ydw i. (I'm Bob)

This will literally translate to '[name] am I', as the word order is slightly different than what you would say in English. In this sentence, (y)dw is the form of 'to be' and i means 'I' or 'me'. For right now, just learn these phrases parrot fashion until we deconstruct them in later lessons.

Another way to say who you are is,

  • Fy enw i ydy [name]'
  • e.g. Fy enw i ydy Bob. (My name is Bob)

Fy enw i ydy... translates to 'My name is...' As with all the other phrases on this page, just learn how to say it for now, before we deconstruct it in later lessons.

How are you?

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In the dialogue, we hear Sut dach chi? which means 'How are you?'. There are several possible ways to answer this question:

Cymraeg English
Bendigedig Fantastic
Da iawn Very good
Da Good
Iawn Fine
Dim yn ddrwg Not bad
Ofnadwy Awful

If you notice, the word iawn follows da (good) to make 'very good'. Iawn by itself can mean 'fine', but after an adjective it can mean 'very'.

  • mawr (big) ; mawr iawn (very big)
  • prysur (busy) ; prysur iawn (very busy)

What do you do?

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To ask what someone's job is, you can use the phrase,

  • Beth ydy'ch gwaith / swydd chi?

which means, 'What is your job?' You can respond using the dw i (am I) pattern from earlier. Insert the job title before dw i.

  • Athro ydw i. (I'm a teacher.)
  • Meddyg ydw i. (I'm a doctor.)
  • Gwraig tŷ ydw i. (I'm a housewife.)
  • Mecanic ydw i. (I'm a mechanic.)

Here are some more occupations you can use:

Cymraeg English
Actor Actor
Actores Actress
Ysgrifennydd Secretary (m)
Ysgrifenyddes Secretary (f)
Ffermwr Farmer
Cyfreithiwr Lawyer

Note that in Welsh, there is no indefinite article (a, an). For example, in English, one would say:

  • I am a doctor.

But in Welsh, there is no indefinite article. So meddyg means both 'doctor' and 'a doctor'. Instead, just use the word as it is:

  • Meddyg ydw i. (I am a doctor.)

Review

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  • Pwy dach chi? Who are you? (formal)
  • Pwy wyt ti? Who are you? (informal)
  • Beth ydy'ch enw chi? What is your name?
  • [name] ydw i. I am [name].
  • Beth ydy'ch gwaith / swydd chi? What do you do?
  • [job] ydw i. I am a [job].
  • Sut dach chi? How are you?
  • There is no indefinite article in Welsh.
  • Use iawn to mean 'very'. It goes after the adjective.
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