BBC - Catchphrase - Ysbyty Brynaber - Week 62
Week 62 - Main grammatical points
Feminine/Masculine nouns
You know that every noun must have a gender. Nouns are either masculine or feminine. The problem is that there is no hard and fast rule about which nouns have which gender. Im afraid that the only accurate way to find out is to check in a dictionary.
There are certain pointers that can help you:
All nouns ending in -es are feminine:
ysgrifenyddes
All nouns ending in wraig are also feminine:
myfyrwraig
You will have noticed Im sure that when we talk about the weather we use the feminine form hi -
Mae hi'n braf - its fine. However and heres the odd thing - nouns that relate to the weather are generally masculine.
Gwynt; glaw; niwl
Most verb-nouns are masculine: canu da (good singing)
Most nouns referring to geographical features are feminine: afon fach (small river)
Most nouns to do with illnesses are feminine: y frech goch (measles)
Most collective nouns are feminine: y dorf (the crowd)Adjectives coming before the noun
Arwyn says:
Roedd perffaith reswm da fi - I had a perfectly good reason
We have referred to the rule that most adjectives come after the noun: bachgen da. We have also noted that a few can come before the noun as well as after the noun, for example - hen - hen ddyn, prif- prif lythyren -capital letter, unig - unig blentyn - only child; hoff- hoff lyfr - favourite book.
Here are a few more for you to note:
Gwahanol - gwahanol liwiau - different colours
Llawn - llawn bywyd - full of life
Gwir enw - true name
Prin ddechrau - barely started
Cam argraff - wrong impression
Note that when these adjectives follow the noun their meanings change:
Gwir angen - a real need
Angen wir - a true desire
Cas bethau - hated things
Pethau cas - nasty things
Hoff nofelydd - favourite novelist
Nofelydd hoff - dear novelist.
Y naill/Y llall
Agnes says:
Gallwn ni aros dros nos yn y naill le neur llall
Y naill and y llall are used as pronouns when two objects are being compared or contrasted.
Maer naill yn dew ar llall yn denau
One is fat and the other one thin
When referring to plural nouns
The forms are y rhain and y llaill
Maer rhain yn rhy fach ar lleill yn rhy fawr
These are too big and the other ones too small
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