In Welsh, the word "bod" is probably one of the most important words you will come across, but because it's so important - it's important to get its use and conjugation right. Once understood, Welsh becomes a lot simpler as it is the foundation of the entire Welsh Language Tool!
BOD is used to describe action as well as to connect adjectives to their nouns. Let's look at how this can be compared to English:
he is happy (adjective to noun) he is running (action)
OK so far?
Let's look at how to conjugate it. For now, we will stick with the 3 main time frames in the Standard form: past, present and future. There are more tenses that become more intricate and more forms that represent region and formality, let's get the basics first...
PRESENT 'Rwyf i'n (I am) 'Rwyt ti'n (you are) Mae e'n (he is) Mae hi'n (she is) 'Rydym ni'n (we are) 'Rydych chi'n (you are) Maent nhw'n (they are)
PAST 'Roeddwn i'n (I was) 'Roeddet ti'n (you were) 'Roedd e'n (he was) 'Roedd hi'n (she was) 'Roeddem ni'n (we were) 'Roeddech chi'n (you are) 'Roeddent nhw'n (they were)
In Standard Welsh, to which we will restrict ourselves for the time being, there are two determining words we place at the beginning of the sentence to signify question (A) and negation (NID).
These replace the 'R of the present and past tenses, and cause the B of the future to mutate softly...
PAST A oeddwn i'n? A oeddet ti'n? A oedd e'n/hi'n? A oeddem ni'n? A oeddech chi'n? A oeddent nhw'n?
PRESENT A wyf i'n? A wyt ti'n? A yw e'n/hi'n? A ydym ni'n? A ydych chi'n? A ydynt nhw'n?
FUTURE A fyddaf i'n? A fyddi ti'n? A fydd e'n/hi'n? A fyddwn ni'n? A fyddwch chi'n? A fyddant nhw'n?
To negate, simply use NID in place of A in the structures above.
PLEASE NOTE I have actually made a mistake in the first post (probably rushing as I am now - got a class in 10 minutes!!!!)
Byddwn ni'n Byddwch chi'n Byddant nhw'n
are the correct forms. The forms I have put are in fact the conditional tense. Apologies.
It is a very confusing topic. Until recently, Welsh was not recognised as an official language by English authorities, plus their intent to destroy. Therefore, there was no education available in the Welsh language. In consequence, dialects began to form.
Standard Welsh is the single form of Welsh that is used to describe the Official Form of the language. It was put together by academics and priests in order to write the Welsh Bible. That is why the Welsh Bible is so important to Welsh culture.
Literary Welsh describes the various forms of formal written Welsh that are old-fashioned, archaic, highly academic and even painful to the ears of natives. However, they are still popular as a form of literature in novels and poetry, but in no means do they describe the spoken forms. Literary Welsh is also used to describe techniques and styles of written Welsh, like cynghanedd. Although it is popular to now write spoken Welsh. This is what we'd describes as hygyrch, or "accessible".
I think it'd be easier for you to learn Standard first because you have an idea of how Welsh is formed, so when you begin to adapt to a dialect, you know what is correct without slipping into (ignorant) bad habits. The whole construction of the Standard form comes from the amalgamation of dialects, so you will see correlations and the dialects should fall into place when you see the connections. E.g. Southern Welsh does not like dd much, all of a sudden you recognise words like:
Pwyslais or Emphasis is an important aspect of the Welsh Language and is used regularly. It also influences the English dialect spoken in Wales.
This is when we wish to emphasise part of a sentence that would normally be done so by tone in English. For example: I spoke to the girl next door, (not the man over there).
We do this in Welsh by bringing the focus of the emphasis to the front of the sentence: Â'r ferched yr wyf wedi siarad (nid y dyn draw yno)
Using bod with pwyslais is not particularly difficult, but is actually similar to English grammatical regularity. For now, let's focus on the emphasis of the subject of the verb (I, you, he, she etc):
Present Myfi yw Ti yw Efe yw Hyhi yw Siarls yw Nyni yw Chi yw Hwynt-hwy yw
For the past (imperfect), just replace yw with a oedd
And for the future, replace yw with a fydd
In Speech, the a is not said, but the mutation remains.
Present Myfi yw Ti yw Efe yw Hyhi yw Siarls yw Nyni yw Chi yw Hwynt-hwy yw
Siarls i have not come across these words so far in my lessons and am a little confused as to their meaning can you explain each one for me so that I can better understand the pattern
When you want to emphasise something in a subordinate clause, replace the bod that is acting as the English word that, with the word mai or taw, then using the normal emphatic structure, e.g.
Present mai fi yw mai ti yw mai ef yw mai hi yw mai Siarls yw mai ni yw mai chi yw mai nhw yw
Past mai fi a oedd mai ti a oedd mai ef a oedd mai hi a oedd mai Siarls a oedd mai ni a oedd mai chi a oedd mai nhw a oedd
Future mai fi a fydd mai ti a fydd mai ef a fydd mai hi a fydd mai Siarls a fydd mai ni a fydd mai chi a fydd mai nhw a fydd
As you can see, it is very simpler, perhaps simpler than the regular form. However, it should only be used to emphasise and should not replace the normal grammatical structure. What may be difficult is knowing when to emphasise but hopefully you should now be able to recognise emphasis. Remember that the a that links the oedd and fydd may not always be included.