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16 October 2014
Ysbyty BrynaberCatchphrase

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Ysbyty Brynaber

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BBC - Catchphrase - Ysbyty Brynaber - Week 83
Week 83 - Main grammatical points

When Chris says to Brian that he doesn't want to 'dangos ei hun' - it's not as dodgy as you might think! It doesn't mean to expose himself thank goodness - it just means to show off!

Paid â dangos dy hun - Don't show off
Mae'n dangos ei hun o hyd - He's always showing off.

You could translate the last example as 'He's a real show-off'. Remember that when you translate it often sounds better if you translate Welsh verbs into English nouns - it sounds more natural than a literal translation in many cases.

Arwyn says that he and Brian have been up chatting 'tan oriau mân y bore' - the small hours of the morning - 'oriau mân y bore'. The word 'bach' is the more usual word for small, but 'mân' is used in a number of expressions to mean small too.

'Glaw mân' means drizzle (literally small rain) - 'glaw mân'
'Mân siarad' means small talk or gossip'Torri'n fân' means to chop finely

When Jac hears that Brian's determined to win Agnes back he says ' Gobaith mul!' which means 'fat chance' or 'a snowball's chance'. Literally it means that he's got as much hope as a donkey - 'mul' - in a race! Yet another nice expression to try and learn to impress your friends!

Brian's so depressed and angry following the revelation that Agnes and Jac are having a relationship that he's resorted to drowning his sorrows with drink - it's only to be expected living with Arwyn! He wakes up one morning with a stinking hangover and has a bad headache - 'cur pen'. In Welsh, and especially in North Wales we have a different word for the different pain that we feel.

Cur pen is - a headache
Poen yn y bol - a stomach ache
Pigyn yn y glust - an ear ache
Dolur gwddw - a sore throat

Luckily we're not so fussy in South Wales and we can get away with the word 'tost' to mean aby ache or pain. So:

Pen tost - a headache
Bola tost - a stomach ache
Clust tost - an ear ache
Gwddwg tost - a sore throat

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