29 Comments
It's a bit confusing, but I think it's more like instead of saying yes, you have to say something like "It is" (ydy) or "they are" (ydyn) or, in this case, "you can" (cei)
Bwa-ha-ha-ha! There are so many ways! Even in an advanced class, asking Welsh learners to answer just yes/no to questions fills everyone with horror! :)
hahaha I see it's very tricky, thanks for the encouragement! hahaha kidding ;)
Sorry the best I can do is give you a link because there is a lot to explain for a duolingo comment. http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/pdf/welshgrammar_ff_replies.pdf
Not really. It literally translates as, "You may." If you know the person well or you are speaking to a child, you answer, "Cei" if someone asked, "Ga i....?" Otherwise you'd answer, "Cewch."
So is this the second person singular form of "ga"?
"Cei ti afal?" -- "May you have an apple?"? (it's strange to ask in either language, I know :P)
Also: "Cewch chi afal?"?
17
I think it would be *Gei ti afal? Gewch chi afal?" with the same soft mutation that "Ga i afal?" has.
The answer would be "Ca." without mutation.
I'm really confused, 'can I' is 'ga i' but the reply for yes is "cei"? How many variations in this manner is there in Welsh? Is 'will i' another question that will have a yes/no answer that doesn't sound like it? What about 'have i' and 'must i'? Do we need to learn an individual way to answer 'yes' or 'no' to them all?
Basically, you are not answering "yes" to "ga i?", you are answering, "you may". So the same does apply to things like "will I?" to which the answer will be "you will".
I understand that, but what I mean is "ga" and "cei" are two different words, I would understand if the answer to "ga I?" was "ga." but it's not, it's "cei." So what I'm asking is, have all variations of these types of question (May I? Will I? must I? won't I?) have answers that sound different?
- 17
Because the answer to "may I?" is "you may" -- "you" and "I" will cause the verb to have a different ending.
Also, ga is mutated from ca(f), which is a bit more similar to cei already (it has the same initial letter at least).
If the question had been the other way around -- "May you?" "Yes (I may)" -- then it would be Gei di? - Ca.
Perhaps you also remember the forms for bod: Wyt ti ...? - Ydw. There, too, the verb forms are different since the question uses the "you" form but the "yes" answer uses the "I" form.
So yes, in general, the answer will sound different if "you" and "I/we" is involved, since you have to switch pronouns. Having the answer be the same as the question would be like answering "Are you Tom Jones?" with "Yes, you are." -- no, you have to say, "Yes, I AM", turning the "are you" into "I am".
On the other hand, if you ask about the third person, where no switch is involved, the answers will be more similar to the questions. "May Sophie ...? - Yes (she may)".
Oh I see, so "ga" and "cei" are related, now I know that it makes a lot more sense, they are both just variations of the same root word but with changes because of their position and meaning. In my mind they seemed like two totally different and unrelated words besides the fact that one was an answer for the other. Thank you friend.
- 17
Yes, they're related to each other, just different personal forms of the verb cael.
I understand that originally, the celtic language did not have the concept of yes or no, and so one had to repeat part of the sentence (verb included) to do that. As anyone heard a similar story?
That is correct, but just as in English the word "row" has several meanings, "cei" means "quay" but it's also the form of the verb "cael" that you use to answer a question in the affirmative when asked "Ga i...?"
If I wanted to tell someone "no" in answer to a "Ga i" question, how would I respond?
