Catchphrase 2001 - Week 48
Saying 'I've never…' done something.

Week 48, Monday.  Today you’ll learn:
dw i erioed wedi gweld llanast fel hyn o’r blaen, llanast, unig, fel hyn

What’s the difference in meaning between these two sentences: ‘es i i’r gwaith’, and ‘dw i wedi mynd i’r gwaith’? They’re both in the past, but they imply quite different things. They’re easy enough to translate: Es i i’r gwaith - I went to work. Dw i wedi mynd i’r gwaith - I’ve gone to work. But as in English, the first sentence in Welsh means you went to work in the past and have now presumably come back. The second means you have gone to work and are probably still there. 

We’ll focus on examples of these tenses in the dialogues. One word you often hear with ‘dw i wedi’ is ‘erioed’, meaning ‘never’. Dw i erioed wedi byw yn Lloegr - I’ve never lived in England.  You’ll often hear this sort of sentence with ‘o’r blaen’ - before. Dych chi erioed wedi clywed Y Stereophonics o’r blaen? - You’ve never heard The Stereophonics before?  

Remember the word ‘hwn’ - this. ‘Fel hwn’ means ‘like this’, but be careful not to use it for phrases like ‘this is’ - ‘dyma’ is ‘this is’ or ‘these are’: dyma fy nhy i - this is my house. Dyma fy rhieni i - these are my parents. Two more words before we hear today’s conversation:  ‘llanast’ is one word for ‘mess’. Llanast mawr - a big mess. ‘Unig’ means ‘lonely’. Maen nhw’n unig - they’re lonely. Guto, Catrin and Uncle Elwyn are returning home after their weekend in Carmarthen at Carol’s house. Little do they suspect what’s being going on in their absence...

Guto: Wel, Wncl Elwyn - gawsoch chi benwythnos da?
Elwyn: Do, ond dw i erioed wedi hoffi Carol.
Catrin: Rhys! Dyn ni’n ol! Aa, dyna ti.
Rhys: O, helo Mam, helo Dad, helo Wncl Elwyn.
Catrin: Aeth popeth yn iawn dros y penwythnos?
Rhys: Yy, do, do. Dim problem.
Catrin: O’t ti’n unig?
Rhys: Nac on. O leiaf, dim gormod.
Catrin: Aaa!
Guto: Uffach. Beth sy wedi digwydd?
Catrin: Fy nghegin i! Dw i erioed wedi gweld llanast fel hwn o’r blaen.
Guto: Rhys, beth sy wedi digwydd?
...
Let’s look at the language. Gawsoch chi benwythnos da? Guto asks Uncle Elwyn - did you have a good weekend? Remember, this is a different sort of have to the one using ‘gyda chi’. Do - yes, Uncle Elwyn replies - ond dw i erioed wedi hoffi Carol - I’ve never liked Carol. ‘Dyn ni’n ôl, Catrin shouts to Rhys - we’re back. Dyna ti - there you are. Catrin’s immediate question is: aeth popeth yn iawn dros y penwythnos? - did everything go OK over the weekend? Do, dim problem - yes, no problem. O’t ti’n unig - were you lonely? Nac on - no I wasn’t. O leiaf, dim gormod - at least, not too much. Catrin’s tone changes when she sees the kitchen. Dw i erioed wedi gweld llanast fel hwn o’r blaen - I’ve never seen a mess like this before. Beth sy wedi digwydd?  - what has happened?

Week 48, Tuesday. Today you’ll learn:
mae e wedi darllen/ydy e wedi darllen?/beth mae e wedi ‘ddarllen?/beth sy wedi digwydd?
celwydd

‘Mae e wedi darllen y papur’ means ‘he has read the paper’. To turn it into a question, you would say: ydy e wedi darllen y papur? - has he read the paper? You could also ask the question: beth mae e wedi ‘darllen? - what has he read? Notice we use the word ‘mae’ here. But when the ‘beth’, the ‘what’, becomes the subject of the question, we need to use the word ‘sy’: Beth SY wedi digwydd?  - What has happened? 

A new word you’ll hear in th next conversation is ‘celwydd’ - lie. Dweud celwydd - to tell a lie. ‘Dweud’ is ‘to tell’, and of course it also means ‘to say’. ‘To say TO  someone’ is ‘dweud WRTH’. You could also say ‘tell someone’. Dw i wedi dweud wrth yr athro - I have told the teacher. Now we’re going to hear the conclusion of the drama when Catrin and Guto found their brand new kitchen in a mess after going away for the weekend. The house was in the care of their teenage son, Rhys.  We’ll pick up again just as Catrin spots the mess in the kitchen.

Catrin: Aaa!
Guto: Uffach. Beth sy wedi digwydd?
Catrin: Fy nghegin i! Dw i erioed wedi gweld llanast fel hwn o’r blaen.
Guto: Rhys, beth sy wedi digwydd?
Rhys: Wel, dw i erioed wedi dweud celwydd wrth fy rhieni o’r blaen, felly dw i ddim yn mynd i ddweud celwydd nawr.
Guto: Diolch byth. Ac felly?
Rhys: Ces i barti yn y ty nos Wener.
Guto: Gyda faint o bobl?
Rhys: Wel, do’n i ddim yn disgwyl cymaint...
Guto: Faint?
Rhys: Tri deg pump.
Catrin: Tri deg pump! Diwedd annwyl! 

Diwedd annwyl! - good heavens!  Beth sy wedi digwydd? - what has happened? Guto asks Catrin. Fy nghegin i - my kitchen. Dw i erioed wedi gweld llanast fel hwn o’r blaen - I’ve never seen a mess like this before. Beth sy wedi digwydd? - what has happened?  Dw i erioed wedi dweud celwydd wrth fy rhieni o’r blaen - I’ve never told my parents a lie before; felly dw i ddim yn mynd i ddweud celwydd nawr - so I’m not going to tell a lie now. Diolch byth, Guto says - thank heavens. Ac felly? - and so? Ces i barti yn y ty nos Wener - I had a party in the house on Friday evening. Gyda faint o bobl? - with how many people? - remember, ‘faint’ means how many, or how much, and is followed by o. Faint o gwrw - how much beer? Faint o bobl - how many people? 

Rhys has to prepare them for it. Do’n i ddim yn disgwyl cymaint - I wasn’t expecting so many. Remember, ‘cymaint’ can mean so many, or so much and is again followed by o. Cymaint o bobl - so many people. Cymaint o gwrw - so much beer. And the answer? Tri deg pump - thirty five, literally three-ten-five. Diwedd annwyl - good heavens. 

Week 48, Wednesday.  Today you’ll learn:
erioed/byth, serch hynny, pryd o dafod

We’re now concentrating on the difference between the simple past - like ‘dwedais i’, I said - and the past with wedi - like ‘dw i wedi dweud’, I have said. It’s worth at this point just reminding ourselves of the past tense of ‘dweud’, to say. It’s a bit irregular because the stem of the verb is simply: ‘dwed’. Dwedais i - I said, dwedon ni - we said.  We’ve heard ‘erioed’ a few times now, and know it means ‘never’. Dydi e erioed wedi siarad o’r blaen - he’s never spoken before. ‘Erioed’ only
applies to the past. ‘Byth’ means ‘never’ in the future. Dydy hi byth yn mynd i siarad eto - she is never going to speak again. ‘Pryd o dafod’ is an interesting term. It literally means ‘a meal of tongue’, but translates as something like ‘a piece of someone’s mind’. 

Cawson ni bryd o dafod - we got a piece of their mind. ‘Serch hynny’ is a lovely phrase in Welsh which means ‘in spite of that’ - serch hynny. You’ll see a few other phrases in the conversation which we had for some time, and so it’s worth reminding ourselves of them. ‘Sut hwyl?’ is a very handy phrase. It means ‘how are things?’, or ‘how are things going?’. Sut hwyl gyda’r gegin newydd - how are you finding the new kitchen? 

‘Eitha da’ means ‘quite good’, ‘not bad’. ‘Hen dro’ is what you say to someone in misfortune - bad luck. ‘Da iawn’ is one of the best known Welsh phrases - very good, or well done. And ‘chwarae teg’ must be as well known - fair play. As in English in Wales, this phrase is often used very freely as a recognition of achievement: ‘Dych chi wedi gwneud yn dda, chwarae teg - you’ve done well, to be fair to you. Dan has telephoned Rhys to catch up with the aftermath of the party...

Dan: Wel, Rhys, sut hwyl gyda Diane Perkins?
Rhys: O, eitha da. ‘Dyn ni’n mynd allan yr wythnos nesaf.
Dan: Da iawn ti! Parti gwych, chwarae teg.
Rhys: Ie, ond dw i byth yn mynd i gael parti eto.
Dan: Pam?
Rhys: Gormod o waith glanhau. Ac wedyn, fy rhieni i...
Dan: Beth ddwedon nhw?
Rhys: Ces i bryd o dafod mawr. Dw i erioed wedi cael pryd o dafod fel ‘na o’r blaen.
Dan: Hen dro. Ond parti da iawn, serch hynny.

Sut hwyl gyda Diane Perkins? - how did you get on with Diane Perkins, or how are things going with Diane Perkins? Eitha da - not bad. ‘Dyn ni’n mynd allan yr wythnos nesaf - we’re going out next week. Da iawn ti, Dan says - well done you. Parti gwych, chwarae teg - a great party, to be fair. Dw i byth yn mynd i gael parti eto - I’m never going to have a party again! Pam - why not? Gormod o waith glanhau - literally, too much cleaning work - gwaith glanhau. Too much cleaning, in other words. Ac wedyn, fy rhieni i - and then, my parents. Beth ddwedon nhw - what did they say? Ces i bryd o dafod mawr - I got a big telling off. Dw i erioed wedi cael pryd o dafod fel ‘na o’r blaen - I’ve never had a telling off like that before. Hen dro - hard luck. Ond parti da iawn, serch hynny - but a great party though.

Week 48, Thursday.  Today you’ll learn:
wedi gorffen, hwn/hyn, dogfen, hyn

Sut dych chi? Dych chi’n iawn? ‘Gorffen’ means ‘to finish’, so ‘‘Dyn ni wedi gorffen’ means ‘we’ve finished’. ‘Wedi gorffen’ on its own means ‘finished’.  It can be a short way of asking or answering questions. Wedi gorffen? - finished? It works with other verbs, too: ble mae e? - where is he? Wedi mynd - gone. Have you noticed that in English we often use the word ‘any’ to reinforce questions and negatives? It’s usually best not to try and translate this into Welsh. Oes rhagor gyda ti? Have you got any more - literally, have you got more? Doedd hi ddim yn gwneud unrhywbeth - she wasn’t doing anything. 

‘This’ can sometimes be a tricky word to translate into Welsh. We know phrases like, ‘dyma fy nhad i’, this is my father.  If you are talking about this week, you say ‘yr wythnos ‘ma’ - literally, the week here. Earlier this week, we heard ‘dw i erioed wedi gweld llanast fel HWN o’r blaen’ - I never seen a mess like THIS before. Sometimes you will here people using the word ‘hyn’ in a situation like this as well. Don’t worry too much about the difference at this stage, but ‘hyn’ tends to refer to something less specific that ‘hwn’ - mae hyn yn ofnadwy - this is horrible.    

A new word which comes up is ‘dogfen’. There are a lot of these about an office - document - dogfen. In the next conversation, we return to the office where Bethan is just coming to the end of a long job.

Bethan: Aa. Wedi gorffen. Dw i erioed wedi llungopio cymaint o adroddiadau o’r blaen. Edrych ar hyn, Guto.
Guto: Beth?
Bethan: Edrych ar yr adroddiadau ‘ma.
Guto: O, ie. Yy, Bethan, dwyt ti ddim yn gwneud unrhywbeth ar hyn o bryd.   Mae tipyn o waith gyda fi yma i ti.
Bethan: Beth?
Guto: Wyt ti’n gallu gwneud deg llungopi o’r ddogfen ‘ma?
Bethan: Nac ydw, Guto!

‘Wedi gorffen’ says Bethan - finished. Dw i erioed wedi llungopio cymaint o adroddiadau o’r blaen - I’ve never photocopied so many reports before.  Edrych ar hyn, Guto - look at this, Guto. It sounds as though Guto is concentrating on his own work. Edrych ar yr adroddiadau ‘ma, she says - look at these reports. Guto obviously doesn’t realise the significance of this great pile of paper. Dwyt ti ddim yn gwneud unrhywbeth ar hyn o bryd - you aren’t doing anything at the moment. Mae tipyn o waith gyda fi yma i ti - I’ve got a bit of work here for you. Wyt ti’n gallu gwneud deg llungopi o’r ddogfen ‘ma - can you do ten photocopies of this document? What’s the reponse? 

Week 48, Friday.  Today you’ll learn:
cyngor, maddau

Remember that ‘erioed’ means ‘never’ in the past and ‘byth’ means ‘never’ in the future. In the right context, both words can mean ‘ever’ as well, and you have probably heard the phrase ‘Cymru am byth’ - Wales for ever. ‘Dych chi erioed wedi gweld Ffrainc o’r blaen? - have you never seen France before? This sentence could also mean, have you EVER seen France before? Fydd e byth yn hapus - he’ll never be happy. You could also make this a question, fydd e byth yn hapus? - will he never be happy?, or will he ever be happy? Some new vocabulary - ‘cyngor’ is the word for ‘council’. Cyngor Caerdydd - Cardiff Council. ‘Cyhoeddi rhywbeth’ means ‘to make an announcement’. Cyhoeddi rhywbeth pwysig - make an important announcement. ‘Maddau’ is the verb ‘to forgive’. ‘To forgive’ someone is ‘maddau i rywun’. Dw i wedi maddau i Rhys - I’ve forgiven Rhys. We’re in the office again, and Bethan is in a bit of a fluster...

Bethan: Guto, wyt ti’n ôl, diolch byth.
Guto: Ydw. Dw i wedi bod mewn cyfarfod gyda’r cyngor. Beth sy’n digwydd?
Bethan: Y bos - dw i erioed wedi gweld Mr Huws fel hyn. Mae e eisiau cyhoeddi rhywbeth pwysig i bawb.
Guto: Rhywbeth pwysig, ife?
Bethan:  Mae rhaid i ni frysio. Fydd e byth yn maddau i ni.
Guto: Rhywbeth pwysig... Dydy Phil Huws erioed wedi cyhoeddi unrhywbeth pwysig o’r blaen.

Wyt ti’n ôl - you’re back, diolch byth - thank goodness. Ydw - yes I am, says Guto. Dw i wedi bod mewn cyfarfod gyda’r cyngor - I’ve been in a meeting with the council. Beth sy’n digwydd? - What’s happening? It’s the boss, Bethan says. Dw i erioed wedi gweld Mr Huws fel hyn - I’ve never seen Mr Huws like this. Mae e eisiau cyhoeddi rhywbeth pwysig i bawb - he wants to make an important announcement to everyone. Mae rhaid i ni frysio - we’ve got to hurry.  Fydd e byth yn maddau i ni - he’ll never forgive us. This leaves Guto thinking: unrhywbeth pwysig? - something important? An important announcement? Dydy Phil Huws erioed wedi cyhoeddi rhywbeth pwysig o’r blaen - Phil Huws has never made an important annoucement before!