"Beth ydy lliw baner Cymru?"

Translation: What is the colour of the Welsh flag?

[tachwedd]

I translated it as 'the flag of Wales' but it was marked as wrong

[Aliperr]

Can anyone explain, why does 'what are THE colours' translate as 'beth ydy lliw' and not 'beth ydy y lliw'?

[mizinamo]

If you have two nouns modifying one another, such as lliw baner, the first one is automatically definite: "the colour of a flag".

Here, this happens twice: baner Cymru is "the flag of Wales", definite because it is this kind of noun-noun construction, and then lliw baner Cymru which is "the colour of the flag of Wales", which is again definite.

So there is no need for an y in the Welsh, nor is one possible.

It's a bit like things such as "that stone" or "my house" which are automatically definite in English -- you cannot say "the that stone" or "the my house". (Unlike, say, in Italian or Greek.)

What is possible is to have y before the second noun of such a construction; thus, for example, pen bryn "the top of a hill; a hilltop" versus pen y bryn "the top of the hill".

[Aliperr]

Diolch yn fawr!

[RichardWeb269044]

Why is it not "beth ydy lliwiau" when the translation corrrects colour to colours?

[JackVMacK]

Serendipitous that I'm doing this lesson while Portugal vs Wales, UEFA 2016, is on. Y baner Cymru is right in front of me.

[AndrewJone278926]

Why would this not be Baner cymraeg for welsh flag?

[Ieuan-Jones]

Cymraeg refers to the language, baner Cymru refers to the flag of Wales.

[silverlight513]

Could you use "Baner Cymreig" then?

[AndrewJone278926]

Diolch :)

[Jude825777]

It seems harsh to say i used the wrong word when i just used Wales instead of Wales'