CYCS7018 - Uned Un - Cyfarch Rhywun

1
As already noted in the preface, in Welsh, nouns are either masculine or feminine. Unfortunately there are few rules that can help determine the gender of Welsh nouns, except that nouns denoting male and female usually have the appropriate gender:


Mab Son - (Masculine)	Merch Girl, daughter (Feminine)

2
There is no indefinite article ('a/an') in Welsh, therefore tŷ means 'a house' and syniad 'an idea.'

3
The adjective usually comes after the noun in Welsh:

Noun	Adjective	Translation
		a good book
llyfr	da

		a big house
tŷ	mawr

		a good idea
syniad	da

		a happy person
person	hapus

If the noun is feminine and singluar, the adjective describing it will mutate softly. A full list of the consonants affected by the soft mutation is given in the Welsh Mutations Table (Also Available as a Word Document).

Feminine Singluar Noun	Mutated Adjective	Translation
		a good shop
siop	dda

		a big hall
neuadd	fawr

4
"This..." and "That..."

To say "this...", y is placed in front of the word and 'ma after it:


Y coffi 'ma This coffee	Y llyfr 'ma This book	Y neuadd 'ma This hall


Y llyfrgell 'ma This library	Y siop 'ma This shop	Y car 'ma This car

In the same way, to say "that...", y is placed in front of the word and 'na after it:


Y neuadd 'na That hall	Y bore 'na That morning	Y llyfrgell 'na That library


Y prynhawn 'na That afternoon	Y syniad 'na That idea	Y ddol 'na That doll

5
A common greeting is sut mae. (literally - "how is?")


Sut mae Gethin? How is Gethin?	Sut mae pawb? How is everyone?

"Sut mae?" corresponds to the English "How are things?", and does not always require an answer.

6
The Welsh word for "and" is a, which becomes ac before vowels (a, e, i, o, u, w, y) and the letter "h".
a causes the aspirate mutation (See the Welsh Mutations Table PDF or Word Document for the full list of mutations):


Sut mae Gethin ac Ann? How are Gethin and Ann?	Te a choffi Tea and coffee