Welsh/Verbs
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[edit] Verbs
[edit] "To be" - "Bod"
As in most languages, the verb "to be" is highly irregular. While the verb to be is important when learning any language, in Welsh it has a wider role than simply identifying or describing an object.
In the positive present tense bod (negatives will be discussed later) has three separate sets of forms. The first one is for identification purposes. It is used for describing permanent characteristics of a subject, e.g I am John, He is a teacher, This is Aled's car.
| Cymraeg | English |
|---|---|
| ydw i | I am |
| wyt ti | you are |
| ydy/yw e (N/S) | he / it is |
| ydy/yw hi (N/S) | she / it is |
| ydyn ni | we are |
| ydych chi | you are |
| ydyn nhw | they are |
(In northern areas of Wales the forms dan ni and dach chi would be used for 'we are' and 'you are')
Thus the examples referred to above would be translated as:
- John ydw i
- Athro ydy/yw e
- Car Aled ydy/yw hwnna
The second use of the verb is to act as an auxiliary to help conjugate the majority of verbs. These verb forms, the affirmative forms, would also be used to describe non-permanent characteristics of the subject - e.g I'm tired, He is bored.
Present
| Cymraeg | English |
|---|---|
| Rydw i | I am |
| Rwyt ti | You (informal) are |
| Mae e/hi | He/she is |
| Rydyn ni | We are |
| Rydych chi | You (plural/formal) are |
| Maen nhw | They are |
There is a third group for the present tense of 'bod': the existential set of forms. These are used where English would use the construction There is and There are. This form is only required in the third person singular.
There is/are = oes
There are no such differences in the other inflected tenses.
Imperfect
| Cymraeg | English |
|---|---|
| Roeddwn i yn... | I was... |
| Roeddet ti yn... | You (informal) were... |
| Roedd ef/hi yn... | He/she was... |
| Roedden ni yn... | We were.. |
| Roeddech chi yn... | You (plural/formal) were... |
| Roedden nhw yn... | They were... |
Future
| Cymraeg | English |
|---|---|
| Byddaf i'n (i yn)... | I will... |
| Byddi di'n (ti yn)... | You (informal) will... |
| Bydd e'n/hi'n (ef/hi yn)... | He/she will... |
| Byddwn ni'n (ni yn)... | We will.. |
| Byddwch chi'n (chi yn)... | You (plural/formal) will... |
| Byddan nhw'n (nhw yn)... | They will... |
[edit] Conjugating Verbs
To use the verb to be as an auxiliary (simply put, a helping verb) you need a connector - known grammatically as a particle - to link the correctly conjugated form of to be with the verb you wish to use. The verb tenses in Welsh fall into three groups, two of which require a particle.
[edit] Group 1 - yn
The first tense any person wishing to speak a language is the present tense, explaining what they are doing now and describing basic characteristics of things. Although superficially complex, the format of an auxiliary with a particle and verb, once learnt, can drastically increase the range of what you are able to speak and write, simply by learning the basic form of the verb.
The basic formula for contructing a Welsh verb goes as follows:
Auxiliary (Bod) + particle + verbnoun
To construct the present tense the particle we will use is yn (not to be confused with the preposition 'yn' (English in). If the term verbnoun seems unfamiliar it is in a real sense no different to what English calls an infinitive (to do, to hear, to see etc.). In Welsh the 'infinitives' can also function as nouns in their own right. So for example the verb to learn, in Welsh dysgu, can also mean learning, (i.e the concept of...).
'I learn Welsh' you would use the following construction.
- Rydw i yn (Dw i'n) dysgu Cymraeg.
('Dw i' is the spoken form of 'Rydw i'. It is best to be familiar with both forms)
Gramatically, it is broken down thus:
- Form of verb (I am) + particle (yn) + verbnoun (dysgu - to learn) + object (Cymraeg - Welsh)
In this way present tense can be easily formed, as soon as you learn a verbnoun you can immediately begin to use the verb for different persons and in different tenses. Using the same construction and the same particle - yn - two further tenses can be formed: the imperfect and the future tense.
All that is required is to choose the equivalent tense of bod as the auxiliary verb at the start of the construction. It is clear to see that once the conjugations of bod are learned, all imperfects and futures can be constructed.
Thus, from the present tense statement 'I learn Welsh' the following two can be creating by inserting the correct form of Bod from the imperfect and future tables above.
- Imperfect: Roeddwn i yn dysgu Cymraeg - I was learning Welsh.
- Future: Byddaf yn dysgu Cymraeg - I will learn Welsh.
So, to recap, three tenses can be formed from the construction Bod + yn + verbnoun:
- Present
- Imperfect
- Future
[edit] Group 2 - wedi
The word "wedi" is used in conjunction with the Present tense (bod), as shown in this example:
- Rydw i wedi bod - I have been
- Rydw i wedi bod yn chwarae pêl droed - I have been playing football
[edit] Group 3 - inflected verbs
The third group of tenses, which are formed in a entirely different way, are the inflected tenses. This corresponds to the normal way of conjugating verbs in other European languages, namely by taking a verb stem and adding a set of endings to it, changing according to the gramatical person being referred to (e.g Latin amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant - I love, you love etc.) The main tense in Welsh which uses this system is the preterite. This tense, sometimes referred to as the simple past, is used to express events in the past which are completed and have no relation to the present. Examples of this in English include I ran, you went, he jumped etc.
The first stage in forming the preterite is to create the verb's stem. This comes from the original 'verbnoun' infinitive and normally involves taking away the final syllable. Using the Latin example in the previous paragraph, the verb amare - to love yields the stem am- to which the various ending forms for 'I, you etc.' are added. Some very short verbs in Welsh do not require any changes and have an identical stem. Other verbs are irregular and have verb stems which cannot be worked out in the normal way from the verbnoun.
In most cases, if the verb ends with a vowel, you can remove the vowel to get the stem. For example:
- Bwyta - To eat
- Saethu - To shoot
after removing the vowel:
- Bwyt-
- Saeth-
and adding a stem:
- Bwytaf - I eat
- Saethoch chi - You shot
However, if the verb ends with an ae or an au, we keep them on the end.
[edit] Preterite roots
This table shows the verb endings for the preterite tense:
| Cymraeg | English |
|---|---|
| ais i | I |
| aist ti | You |
| odd e(f)/hi | He/She |
| ason/on ni | We |
| (as)och chi | You (plural/formal) |
| asant/on nhw | They |
For example:
- Chwarae - To play
Becomes
- Chwaraeais i - I played
- Chwaraeaist ti - You played
- Chwaraeodd e/hi - He/She played
- Chwaraeon ni - We played
- Chwaraeoch chi - You played
- Chwaraeon nhw - They played
[edit] Future tense inflections
In spoken Welsh, the near future tense is normally infelcted as follows;
- Tala - I will pay
- Tali - You wil pay
- Talith - He/She will pay
- Talwn - We will pay
- Talwch - You will pay
- Talan - They will pay
[edit] Present tense roots
Welsh has got 6 roots in the Present tense however these are very rarely used in spoken Welsh.
| Cymraeg | English |
|---|---|
| af | I |
| i | You |
| (can depend on the verb, but generally there is none) | He/She |
| wn | We |
| wch | You (plural/formal) |
| nt | They |
We will now conjugate the verb Arbed:
- Arbedaf - I save
- Arbedi - You save (!)
- Arbed - He/She saves
- Arbedwn - We save
- Arbedwch - You save (!)
- Arbedant - They save
(!) Shows that this is also the imperative
[edit] Future tense roots
Welsh has no roots for the future, so you must use the future tense of bod
[edit] Continuous
Like other European languages Welsh makes no distinction between a continuous tense and a normal tense. So, to say 'he eats' and 'he is eating' you would use the same verb: Mae ef yn bwyta. Note: in English the imperfect tense is always continuous so the phrase 'Roeddwn i yn chwarae' would be translated as 'I was playing'.
