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The past tense, affirmative forms of cael often take a soft mutation because of the effect of the particles mi or fe which were often put in front of verbs. mi/fe indicate that the verb which follows is an affirmative one, not a negative or a question. mi/fe cause a soft mutation. Although fe/mi are not as often used as they were, except in some dialects, the soft mutation usually still remains in the colloquial language. (mi is often used in north-west Wales, for example, and fe sometimes in some other parts of Wales)
- Fe gawson ni amser da - we had a good time
- Mi gawson ni amser da - we had a good time
Similarly, the past and future tenses of gwneud are also usually mutated in the colloquial language.
You can even write it like "gawson"? Oh my. Are there many words like this? >_<
The more Welsh I see, the more it looks like I can just replace the words of any English construction with Welsh ones a wnelo and it'll work like that. Is this because the course is meant to introduce familiar constructions first?
The course does start off with the very basics first. It is only designed to be an introductory course in any case - see the introductory notes.
But is that causing this impression of mine, or is it because Welsh really is that similar to English?
It varies. Sometimes the language patterns are similar, sometimes they are very different.
