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16 October 2014
Ysbyty BrynaberCatchphrase

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Ysbyty Brynaber

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BBC - Catchphrase - Ysbyty Brynaber - Week 105
Week 105 - Main grammatical points

When Agnes asks Jenny about the state of Chris's health, she says: 'A sut hwyl oedd arno fe?

'Hwyl' has a variety of meanings in Welsh. Some of the most common are these:

'Hwyl' meaning the sail of a ship; 'hwyl' - meaning fun; 'hwyl' meaning good bye or good luck. But 'hwyl' can also refer to a person's physical or mental condition. So 'Sut hwyl oedd arno fe?' means literally: 'What kind of a mood was on him?', in other words 'How was he?' Sometimes the plural 'hwyliau' is used instead of the singular 'hwyl'. 'Sut hwyliau oedd arno fe?' So, instead of the usual 'Bore da' on a Monday morning, why not impress your friends by asking: 'Sut hwyl sydd arnat ti y bore yma?'

Jac gives Agnes a conducted tour of his new garage. Listen to the way he describes the location of the shelves.

Agnes - A ble mae'r silffoedd i fynd?
Jac - Ar hyd y ddwy wal yma...

You may be familiar with the preposition 'ar hyd' because of the folk song 'Ar hyd y nos' - 'All through the night'. But 'ar hyd' can refer to place as well as time. So when Jac says the shelves will be placed 'ar hyd y ddwy wal yma' - he means 'all along these two walls' or 'right across these two walls'.

Brian predicts to Jenny that by September, Jac's garage will have gone to the wall.
Brian - ...Pan ddaw hi'n fis Medi, cei di weld, bydd Jac a'i garej a'i siop wedi hen fynd i'r gwellt... The Welsh idiom for 'gone to the wall' is wedi mynd i'r gwellt, which means literally 'gone to the grass'. But Brian predicts that this will happen sooner rather than later, and that by September Jac's business will have hen fynd i'r gwellt. You've already met 'hen' meaning 'old', but in this context 'hen fynd' means' 'long since gone'. Brian uses 'hen' in this sense in another episode too, when he tells Jac that his own business is 'well established'. He says: 'Dw i wedi hen sefydlu fy hun yma' - which means 'I've long since established myself here'.

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