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.
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:
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).
When a pronoun refers back to a noun, it must agree in gender and number with that noun. Thus, we have:
Ble mae'r gwely? Mae e yn y stafell.
Ble mae'r stafell? Mae hi yn y ty+.
Ble mae'r tai? Maen nhw yn y dre.
'Nhw' is used for any plural noun,
regardless of gender.
The definite article 'y' causes a limited soft mutation in feminine nouns. Thus, we have the following:
basged (basket) y fasged (the basket)
mam (mother) y fam (the mother)
gardd (garden) yr ardd (the garden)
llen (sheet) y llen (the sheet)
Masculine nouns do not suffer
mutation after 'y':
mab (son) y mab (the son)Plural nouns are also not mutated (even if they are feminine):
basgedi (baskets) y basgedi (the baskets)
tadau (fathers) y tadau (the fathers)
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:
un fasged one basket
un mab one son
Of course, it is not used with
plural 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:
y ferch fach the little girl
y llen resog the striped sheet
y mab braf the fine son
y ferch braf the fine daughter
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]:
Mae Tom yn dysgu. Tom is learning.
Mae Tom eisiau coffi. Tom wants coffee.
You can put a verb right after the
'eisiau':
Mae Tom eisiau mynd i'r dre. Tom wants to go to the town.
1. Masculine nouns. 'The big x and the little y.'
y llew | mawr a'r | ty+ | bach . y plentyn | | ci | y llyfr | | drws | yr achos | | gwely |
yr anrheg | fawr a'r | fam | fach . y ferch | | sgwrs | y stafell | | dre | y ddawns | | ardd |
Rydw i'n | mynd i'r | ty+ | . Ydy Sia+n yn | osgoi'r | dre | ? Dydyn nhw ddim yn | dod i'r | ddawns | Rydyn ni'n | aros yn y | stafell | Mae e'n | | gwely |
Mae Tom | eisiau | mynd i'r gwely | . Rydych chi | | dod gyda fi | ? Dydw i ddim | | darllen llyfr | Ydyn ni | | aros gartre |
[A translation of this conversation can be found in a different file.]
achos [-ion, m.] - cause allan - (adv.) outside anrheg [-ion, f.] - present, gift ar o+l - (prep.) after aros - (v.) wait, stay basged [-i, f.] - basket bore [-au, m.] - morning braf - (adj.) fine ci [cw+n, m.] - dog dawns [-iau, f.] - dance dod - (v.) come [4] drws [drysau, m.] - door dysgu - (v.) learn eisiau - (n.) want gardd [gerddi, f.] - garden gwely [-au, m.] - bed gwybod - (v.) know gyda - (prep.) with haf [-au, m.] - summer heddiw - (adv.) today hefyd - (adv.) also, too i - (prep.) to, in order to, for llew [-od, m.] - lion llyfr [-au, m.] - book mam [-au, f.] - mother merch [-ed, f.] - girl, daughter, woman neithiwr - (adv.) last night o hyd - (adv.) still peth [-au, m.] - thing plentyn [plant, m.] - child pobl [-oedd, f.] - people prynu - (v.) buy rhesog - (adj.) striped sgwrs [sgyrsiau, f.] - talk, chat, conversation stafell [-oedd, f.] - room tre [-fi, f.] - town [5] ty+ [tai, m.] - house un - one
[The answers can be found in a separate file.]
1. Make the singular of each of the following plurals.
a. Tai mawr b. Stafelloedd bach c. Gerddi braf d. Llewod rhesog e. Boreau da f. Anrhegion bach2. Answer the following questions as indicated.
a. Ble mae'r llew? (in Africa) Mae e ______________. b. Ble mae'r ardd? (outside) Mae ______________. c. Ble mae'r stafell? (in the house) Mae ______________. d. Ble mae'r llyfr? (in the room) Mae ______________. e. Ble mae'r ty+? (in the town) Mae ______________.3. Say 'one ___' for each of the following.
a. Basged b. Haf c. Llyfr d. Tre e. Gwely f. Dawns4. Fill in the phrase below in the pattern '______ eisiau mynd heddiw.'
a. They b. Tom and Mari don't c. Do you (informal) d. We do e. I don't5. Translate the following sentences into Welsh.
a. The girl buys a book for the mother. Where is it? b. I am going to town today. Are you (formal) coming with me? c. To where are we going this fine morning? Outside. d. Is the lion still in the garden? Yes! It is going after the dog. e. Those people want good things. I want good things, too. f. They are waiting in the little room. g. One good basket is in this house. h. She wants to see the very large garden. i. The dog stays at home in the morning. j. Why are you still in bed? Because I don't want to leave.