Welsh Language Made Easy, a method - Mae

Welsh is an Indo-European Language, and so it follows certain rules which are common in languages like Hindi, English, Greek, Ukrainian, Spanish. In this video you will see a simple method, what I call the Mae Formula, to be able to learn Welsh quickly.

Past, Present and Future of the verb 'to be' are so important in Indo-European Language that all you need to do to get a solid beginner's grasp in any of them is to master the ways in which this verb works - Welsh included.

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Gear I use:

[edwardthomas]

Excellent vivid piece just as I was getting bored with Duolingo. Good thoughtful pace of delivery, instilling respect for the senior language of our island

[larrydykes]

(Disclaimer: not an expert on Welsh, but as a person recently having started... )
I find it useful to think of MAE as meaning "it is the case that" or "it's true that" or like a programming construct ASSERT - meaning that we are simply asserting that what follows is information. Thus BYDD is "it will be that" and ROEDD is "it was that" (something is true).
I also find it useful to think of YN as meaning "in" but in the sense of being involved in an action or in being something, not in the sense of being inside something.
"Mae o yn canu" is thus "it is the case that he is involved in singing" -- long but it works for "he sings / is singing". Don't know if this helps anybody.

[kubhlaikhan]

Fabulous. Made more sense of Welsh for me in 8 minutes than trying to learn it for 8 months (albeit mostly from road signs and railway platforms - which really don't help).

[patwalker]

Thanks for making this video. Hopefully I can learn this language with your excellent videos at the age of 67.

[jpr]

Well explained
Trying to learn some Cymraeg for a trip to north Wales next April
Living in Australia

[Language_Guru]

I love your short videos a with very practical details for learning Welsh!

[rocktapperrobin]

That’s the clearest introduction I’ve seen the Welsh verb system. Diolch.

[michaelhalsall]

This video takes some of the fear out of learning a Celtic language. Welsh appears to be the easier Celtic language to learn if your first language is English. Welsh appears to have a three tense "past, present, future" verb structure like English. Welsh appears to have a very phonetic spelling system, although quite different from English, once understood makes it easy to guess the pronunciation of words too. I pity people trying to learn Scots Gaelic for this reason! A lot of nouns in Welsh have an ultimately Latin origin and that helps too (Senadd (senate) etc.

[amay]

Using Duolingo is helpful and I am enjoying it but sometimes I just get puzzled wondering why there is a rule and then there isn't with certain questions. 'r i' r and why is Mae sometimes used and other times there is a substitute. This video was very good and clear and put together well. Nobody needs disturbing graphics when you want to learn you need to focus. Thanks very much. Diolch yn Fawr

[richardglaves]

Hi Ben Wenglish is a dialect I grew up in the valleys of south Wales where predominately Wenglish was used. It is seen as a dialect of English but can be seen as a separate language . John Edward’s book talk tidy. Welsh English (Welsh: Saesneg Gymreig) comprises the dialects of English spoken by Welsh people. The dialects are significantly influenced by Welsh grammar and often include words derived from Welsh. This was the dialect I grew up with and it took a while to realise when I spoke to my English cousins that what I was speaking was not standard English . I can see that more English words are creeping in to the welsh language this can probably be see as a new form of Wenglish where welsh is the dominant language with English words thrown in like Jojo, Licio( this has been used for a long time) learners may throw in an English word if unsure to continue the conversation. Mutations are beginning to be dropped in some places but I am unsure how wide spread it is.

[davidowen]

Diolch yn fawr iawn Ben. 169 days into learning Welsh on duolingo and this helps a lot. "Hwyl Fawr" is the modern Welsh language way to say "Goodbye", or just "Hwyl" for "Bye". The literal translations are "Big Fun" and "Fun". Hwyl Fawr Everyone.

[caveman__ogof]

S'mae 😊 Nice channel. I've comitted to learning welsh this year. I would love to one day film my YouTube caving videos in welsh. Hwyl

[thenightraven]

This channel is a little mine of useful info. Glad I found it.

[mikeowen]

Most useful intro to Welsh I’ve seen .. thanks

[MyHappyPlaceInt]

excellently explained...such a great help... you're a good teacher Ben..

[cameronclare]

This channel is helpful. Duolingo doesn't explain anything about how the grammar actually works.

[johnnydoe]

This was great. I was confused when to use mae, dw I roedd and rydych. Now I have something to start with.

[fhreire]

This was a great explanation, thank you for that.

[Danny-vkzj]

Great Video; I am literally learning Mae at the moment, so this Vid has come out, just at the right time for me. I kind of see, wrongly or rightly Mae as a statement as opposed to Ydy for a question and Dydy as a negative.. (hope I got that right 😭) .. very useful and informative like all ur Vids.. and great to see some local landscapes too.. (I live nr Caernarfon). Im on day 422 on Duolingo, give me another 10 years and I may be confident enough to have a proper conversation in public 🤣🤣🤣

[LuxDeLune]

Very good advice thanks for sharing. You sound like Joaquin Phoenix and resemble him a little too!