"Nos da"

Translation: Good night

[Gh0stJay]

Fun fact: nos da is also good night in Kernewek (Cornish)

[OnePawlo]

Do you think that's maybe because Cornish and Welsh are very closely related?

[samianquazi]

Is 'noswaith da' and 'nos da' the same thing?

[ibisc]

No:

• Noswaith dda - Good evening (as a greeting)
• Nos da - Good night (as a farewell)

[ThomasoFflandrys]

I'm probably missing out something very obvious (so sorry if this is a stupid question), but why is there no soft mutation in da?

[rmcode]

This is an excellent question since 'nos' is a feminine noun.

There was a very long discussion about this in the facebook group 'dw i'n dysgu cymraeg' some months ago.

The simple reason is that 'nos dda' is actually very difficult to say and thus 'nos da' is used instead.

Remember the point of mutations is to make the language flow better.

However in general use, apart from greetings' the word for night is 'noson'

In this case 'a good night' uses the correct mutation 'noson dda'

One of the most used expressions of 'noson' is the very Welsh event called a 'noson lawen', literally 'a merry evening'

[ThomasoFflandrys]

Diolch yn fawr, Rmcode!. So supposedly it would also be "athrowes da" etc.?

[ibisc]

Strangely, no! The common cases where this (an adjective starting with d- not mutating after a feminine noun ending in -s) is still usual are:

• nos da - good night
• wythnos diwetha - last week

And in the wild, some people do now use wythnos ddiwethaf.

[Eva945756]

When clicking on can't listen now I've been marked wrong!

[ibisc]

Neither the Welsh discussion mods nor the course team can fix that kind of thing, I am afraid. Try the Duolingo help pages and discussions - https://support.duolingo.com/hc/en-us