"Tŷ bach"
Translation:A toilet
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So, if my house is small and I say "dw i'n preswyliaf yn tŷ bach", will I be understood in context, or will I give the impression that I reside in a toilet?
Well you'd probably get more of a strange look for saying "Preswyliaf". We actually use "byw". So "Dw i'n byw mewn tŷ bach" would be the correct sentence. Since the context is clear nobody would mistunderstand you.
Man, I try to use the GPC and I end up sounding like a dictionary. Diolch yn fawr!
Yeah I'd recommend you try other dictionaries like "Y gweiadur" or "Ap geiriaduron". GPC, is a great dictionary but it's more for first language/fluent speakers. If you can't find a word else where then it is worth looking up GPC, but just remember that it's got a lot of different varieties of words some of which are old fashioned or really formal.
You say that, but my mother was laughed at when she said exactly this when learning Welsh (in Wales) at school. I was told that "tŷ bychan" would avoid confusion.
Try adding lle chwech! Ha ha came across that in a book and I was totally confused til I looked it up! Anyone tell me the origins of that phrase please? Would love to know!
This is a dialect expression used in parts of Wales. In this context, chwech means 'sweet(-smelling)'!
so obviously this is actually small house, and ty bach is an idiom for toilet - in which case should 'bathroom' etc be accepted too?
I wouldn't say so, at least it's not a great translation. It's better to think "Toiled/Tŷ bach" as "Toilet" and "Ystafell ymolchi" as "Bathroom".
yes, this is one of the instances where i just can't divorce my american english from the british english. i'll probably instinctively first go to 'bathroom' when seeing 'ty bach' forever.
I take it this would be used to refer to the room that the toilet is in, not for the toilet itself.
I think this is the issue between North American and British English. North Americans very rarely use the word "toilet" unless they're referring to the actual porceline fixture. I'd go as far as to say it's generally considered uncouth to say that you are "going to the toilet" (unless you were specifically discussing bodiky functions). It's much more common to say that you are "going to the bathroom, even if you have no intention of bathing. So, it might be a good idea to allow" bathroom for tŷ bach.
So, would ty bach refer more to a public restroom than to the bathroom in my house?
"Tŷ bach" refers to any toilet. It's actually a throw back to when toilets were sheds in the back garden.
I've actually used an old fashioned tŷ bach in my great aunt's garden in Ceredigion when I was a boy - she didn't have mains water or electricity, the only source of heat being an open fire on which she burned peat (there being lots of peat bogs in that part of Ceredigion), She had to draw water from an outside well.
WC is not accepted, yet is closer in terms of delicacy than toilet, itself a word which has been repurposed in modern language.
I'm English British and do not mind being picked up on my Welsh idiom mistake. It is a very important part of learning a language to pick up on the cultural, historical reasons for particular words and expressions to be used. I am unhappy with the other English speakers from around the world asking for their local idioms to be accepted on the course. We do need to speak the Welsh language, which has been rescued from persecution and obscurity, as a Welsh person understands it culturally and linguistically. I'm off now to take my grandson to the lavatory. He needs to go now, he says!