"Ga i oren plîs? Cei."
Translation:May I have an orange, please? Yes.
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323
At my first encounter of "cei", I thought for sure that is was a loaner word from the USA word, OK or "Kay". But no, it's the future tense of the verb-noun "cael", to have. As is "chei", "cewch", and "chwech", depending upon the person or persons, and whether positive or negative.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/welshathome/textversion/sw_f_kitchen_calendar_tohave.shtml
cei and cewch are forms of cael. If they are used as negatives the they take an aspirate mutation to chei and chewch:
- [Cei di/Cewch chi] gawl i ginio. - You will have soup for lunch.
- [Chei di/Chewch chi] ddim cawl i ginio. - You won't have soup for lunch.
chwech - six. Nothing to do with cael.
These patterns are all explained with examples in the course notes. To find the course notes generally, go to https://forum.duolingo.com/topic/924/hot and see 'Course tips and notes'. The 'duome' link there is useful for browsing all the notes in one place. We recommend reading the notes for each new section as you start it.
I found your answer here really useful, thank you.
May I suggest that the first sentence, explicitly stating that cei is a form of cael, could usefully be added to the course notes for this unit?
It currently says 'ga i' is a form of cael, and I know from previous units that you answer a question starting with a verb with that same verb, but since we haven't learned to conjugate 'cael' (esp in the future) yet, and 'ga' and 'cei' look rather different, it's really useful reinforcement to be told 'cei' is also a form of 'cael'.
The origin of "OK" is considered unclear, so my first encounter with the Welsh "cei," I assumed that US English got "OK" from "cei."
When would cei be used in place of Ydw?is it totally enterchangeable like with Os Gwelwch chi'n dda and plis or is there a distinction between them in this regard?
- 323
I think cei is used only in sentences that use a form of the verb cael, such as "Ga i oren? Cei." There is no word in Welsh that literally means "Yes". When you want to answer a question affirmatively in Welsh, you repeat the verb that is used in the question.
Here's a good explanation of how to say "yes" in Welsh:
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/23998128
Look especially at sequence #4.
Does one ever use a comma to separate 'please' from the rest of the sentence, as in English? Thanks.
Cei is specific to the second perso. So yes you may is a better amswer than just yes
A simple 'yes' is the correct translation here. Trying to use literal translations between two languages, especially ones such as Welsh and English that have such different basic structures, is often awkward or simply wrong.
- 1928
If we are not to be straight jacketed by literal translations then it seems that "Cei" could just as easily be translated by the colloquial vernacular "Okay", especially as they sound so similar.
Several straightforward ways of typing accented characters are outlined in the first set of course notes - https://www.duolingo.com/skill/cy/Greetings-1/tips-and-notes