- Forum >
- Topic: Welsh >
- "Mae'n well i fi fwydo'r gath"
12 Comments
Why is there a soft mutation for 'cat' when the same sentence for 'dog' has no soft mutation?
Cath is a feminne noun, which mutate after the definite article, dog is a masculine noun which don't.
eg 'A cat' = 'Cath', 'The cat' = 'Y gath'
'A dog' = 'Ci', 'The dog' = 'Y ci'
Thank you - I assumed it must be something to do with the fact that 'cat' is feminine, but my brain just seemed to have seized up!
The English translation for this came up as "I would better feed the cat." which doesn't make sense in English. Should it not be "I should feed the cat."?
This is literally 'It is better for me to feed the cat", which is usually transcribed as 'I had better feed the cat' in English.
To make a conditional sentence, ie would, should, we would start with the conditional form of the verb to be eg:-
'Basai hi'n well i fi fwydo'r gath' = (lit) It would be better for me to feed the cat; = I would/should better feed the cat.
If a conditional English translation came up then that was an erroneous one which is no longer in the database.
'fi' is the South Wales for 'me/I' and 'mi' is the North Wales version. They are interchangeable on our course, either is accepted in all sentences.
What's happened here is that since you have a mistake in your original answer "mae'r" should be "mae'n" the system has just offered the next available translation.
How would you say, I had better feed my cat? Would the i'r be replaced with just an I?
I am asking a question already raised but to which there has been no answer. I, too, typed 'It is better for me to feed the cat' and it wasn't accepted.
