Themorphology of theWelsh language shows many characteristics perhaps unfamiliar to speakers ofEnglish or continental European languages likeFrench orGerman, but has much in common with the other modernInsular Celtic languages:Irish,Scottish Gaelic,Manx,Cornish, andBreton. Welsh is a moderately inflected language. Verbs conjugate for person, tense and mood with affirmative, interrogative and negative conjugations of some verbs. A majority of prepositions inflect for person and number. There are fewcase inflections in Literary Welsh, being confined to certain pronouns.
Modern Welsh can be written in two varieties –Colloquial Welsh orLiterary Welsh. The grammar described on this article is for Literary Welsh.
Initialconsonant mutation is a phenomenon common to all Insular Celtic languages (there is no evidence of it in the ancientContinental Celtic languages of the early first millennium). The firstconsonant of a word in Welsh may change depending on grammatical context (such as when the grammaticalobject directly follows the grammaticalsubject), when preceded by certain words, e.g.i,yn, anda or when the normal word order of a sentence is changed, e.g.Y mae tŷ gennyf,Y mae gennyf dŷ "I have a house".
Welsh has three mutations across four paradigms: thesoft mutation (Welsh:treiglad meddal), thenasal mutation (Welsh:treiglad trwynol), and theaspirate (orspirant)mutation (Welsh:treiglad llaes); and themixed mutation (Welsh:treiglad cymysg) where the aspirate mutation is applied where possible, else the soft mutation is applied. These are represented in writing, as shown in the table below along with their correspondingIPA symbols.
| Radical Gwreiddiol | Soft Meddal | Nasal Trwynol | Aspirate Llaes | Mixed Cymysg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| p/p/ | b/b/ | mh/m̥/ | ph/f/ | ph/f/ |
| t/t/ | d/d/ | nh/n̥/ | th/θ/ | th/θ/ |
| c/k/ | g/ɡ/ | ngh/ŋ̊/ | ch/χ/ | ch/χ/ |
| b/b/ | f/v/ | m/m/ | f/v/ | |
| d/d/ | dd/ð/ | n/n/ | dd/ð/ | |
| g/ɡ/ | ∅* | ng/ŋ/ | ∅* | |
| m/m/ | f/v/ | f/v/ | ||
| ll/ɬ/ | l/l/ | l/l/ | ||
| rh/r̥/ | r/r/ | r/r/ |
A blank cell indicates no change.
For example, the word for "stone" iscarreg, but "the stone" isy garreg (soft mutation), "my stone" isfy ngharreg (nasal mutation) and "her stone" isei charreg (aspirate mutation).
* The soft mutation forg is the simple deletion of the initial sound. For example,gardd "garden" becomesyr ardd "the garden". But this can behave as a consonant under certain circumstances, e.g. "gellir" (one can) becomes "ni ellir" (one cannot) not "*nid ellir". This however also stands alongsidegardd ('a garden'), butyr ardd ('the garden') not *y ardd.
Thesoft mutation (Welsh:treiglad meddal) is, by far, the most common mutation in Welsh. When words undergo soft mutation, the general pattern is that voiceless plosives become voiced plosives, voiced plosives become voiced fricatives, and voicelessliquids becomes voiced. The full list is shown in the above table.
Common situations where thefull soft mutation occurs are as follows – this list is by no means exhaustive:
In some cases alimited soft mutation takes place. This differs from the full soft mutation in that words beginning withrh andll do not mutate.
Situations where thelimited soft mutation occurs are as follows.
The occurrence of the soft mutation often obscures the origin of placenames to non-Welsh-speaking visitors. For example,Llanfair is the church ofMair (Mary, mother of Jesus), andPontardawe is the bridge on theTawe.
Thenasal mutation (Welsh:treiglad trwynol) normally occurs:
Under nasal mutation,voicedstop consonants becomevoiced nasals, and plain stops becomevoiceless nasals.
Yn meaning "in" must be distinguished from other uses ofyn which do not cause nasal mutation. For example:
The’m form often used instead offy after vowels does not cause nasal mutation. For example:
The aspirate mutation (Welsh:traiglad llaes) turns the voiceless plosives into voiceless fricatives. In writing, the aspirate mutation is shown by an addition of anh in the spelling (c,p,t →ch,ph,th), the resultant forms are single phonemes: (/kpt/ →/χfθ/).
The aspirate mutation occurs:
Notes
A mixed mutation occurs after the particlesni (before a vowelnid),na (before a vowelnad) andoni (before a vowelonid) which negate verbs. Initial consonants which can take theaspirate mutation do so; other consonants take thesoft mutation if possible - all other consonants do not mutate. For example,clywais "I heard" is negated asnichlywais "I did not hear",nachlywais "that I did not hear" andonichlywais? "did I not hear?", whereasdywedais "I said" is negated asniddywedais,naddywedais andoniddywedais?.
In themodern spoken language, the aspirate mutation is declining and is (outside of set phrases) often omitted or replaced by the soft mutation. However, in the formal literary language (here presented) all mutations are preserved and used as expected without regional or dialectal intrusion.
The true phonetic values of some of the Welsh phonemes, particularly/ŋ̊n̥m̥/ are often debated in academia. It is often claimed that the voiceless nasals are actually aspirated[/ŋ̊ʰn̥ʰm̥ʰ]. The value of Welsh⟨ch⟩ is also often debated as to whether it has the underlying value/χ/ or/x/; regardless of its underlying value, it is often heard as[x] in the South and[χ] in the North.
Welsh has no indefinitearticle. The definite article, which precedes the words it modifies and whose usage differs little from that of English, has the formsy, yr, and’r. The rules governing their usage are:
The letterw represents both a consonant/w/ and the vowels/u/ and/ʊ/ - a preceding definite article will reflect this by following the rules above, e.g.y wal/əˈwal/ "the wall" butyr wy/ərˈʊˑɨ/ or/ərˈʊi/ "the egg". However, pre-vocalicyr is used before both the consonantal and vocalic values represented byi, e.g.yr iâr/ərˈjaːr/ "the hen" andyr ing/ərˈiŋ/ "the anguish". It is also always used before the consonanth, e.g.yr haf/ərˈhaːv/ "the summer".The first rule may be applied with greater or less frequency in various literary contexts. For example, poetry might use’r more often to help withmetre, e.g.’R un nerth sydd yn fy Nuw "The same power is in my God" from ahymn byWilliam Williams Pantycelyn. On the other hand, sometimes its use is more restricted in very formal contexts, e.g.Wele, dyma y rhai annuwiol "Behold, these are the ungodly" inPsalm 73.12.
The article triggers the soft mutation when it is used with feminine singular nouns, e.g.tywysoges "(a) princess" becomesy dywysoges "the princess", but no mutation in the plural:y tywysogesau "the princesses".
Like most Indo-European languages, all nouns belong to a certaingrammatical gender; in this case, masculine or feminine. A noun's gender conforms to its referent's natural gender when it has one, e.g.mam "mother" is feminine. There are also semantic, morphological and phonological clues to help determine a noun's gender, e.g.llaeth "milk" is masculine as are allliquids,priodas "wedding" is feminine because it ends in thesuffix-as, andtheatr "theatre" is feminine because the stressed vowel is ane. Many everyday nouns, however, possess no such clues.
Sometimes a noun's gender may vary depending on meaning, for examplegwaith when masculine means "work", but when feminine, it means "occasion, time". The words forlanguages behave like feminine nouns (i.e. mutate) after the article, e.g.y Gymraeg "the Welsh language", but as masculine nouns (i.e. without mutation of an adjective) when qualified, e.g.Cymraeg da "good Welsh". The gender of some nouns depends on a user's dialect, and although in the literary language there is some standardization, some genders remain unstable, e.g.tudalen "page".
Welsh has two systems ofgrammatical number.Singular/plural nouns correspond to the singular/plural number system of English, although unlike English, Welsh noun plurals are unpredictable and formed in several ways. Some nouns form the plural with an ending (usually-au), e.g.tad andtadau. Others form the plural through vowel change, e.g.bachgen andbechgyn. Still others form their plurals through some combination of the two, e.g.chwaer andchwiorydd.
Several nouns have two plural forms, e.g. the plural ofstori "story" is eitherstorïau orstraeon. This can help distinguish meaning in some cases, e.g. whereasllwyth means both "tribe" and "load",llwythau means "tribes" andllwythi means "loads".
The other system of grammatical number is thecollective/singulative. The nouns in this system form the singulative by adding the suffix-yn (for masculine nouns) or-en (for feminine nouns) to the collective noun. Most nouns which belong in this system are frequently found in groups, for example,plant "children" andplentyn "a child", orcoed "trees, forest" andcoeden "a tree",ffawydd "a beechwood, beech trees, beeches" andffawydden "a beech tree". In dictionaries, the collective form, being the root form, is given first.
Adjectives normally follow the noun they qualify, e.g.mab ieuanc "(a) young son", while a small number precede it, usually causing soft mutation, e.g.hen fab "(an) old son". The position of an adjective may even determine its meaning, e.g.mab unig "(a) lonely son" as opposed tounig fab "(an) only son". In poetry, however, and to a lesser extent in prose, most adjectivesmay occur before the noun they modify, but this is a literary device.[1] It is also seen in some place names, such asHarlech (hardd +llech)[2] andGlaslyn.
When modifying a noun (i.e. in an attributive construction) belonging to the feminine, adjectives undergo soft mutation, for example,bach "small" and following the masculine nounbwrdd and the feminine nounbord, both meaning "table":
| Masculine | Feminine | |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | bwrdd bach | bord fach |
| Plural | byrddau bach | bordydd bach |
For the most part, adjectives are uninflected, though there are a few with distinct masculine/feminine and/or singular/plural forms. A feminine adjective is formed from a masculine by means of vowel change, usually "w" to "o" (e.g.crwn "round" tocron) or "y" to "e" (e.g.gwyn "white" togwen). A plural adjective may employ vowel change (e.g.marw "dead" tomeirw), take a plural ending (e.g.coch "red" tocochion) or both (e.g.glas "blue, green" togleision).
| Masculine | Feminine | |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | bwrdd brwnt | bord front |
| Plural | byrddau bryntion | bordydd bryntion |
Adjective comparison in Welsh is fairly similar to the English system except that there is an additional degree, the equative (Welshy radd gyfartal). Native adjectives with one or two syllables usually receive the endings-ed "as/so" (preceded by the wordcyn in a sentence, which causes a soft mutation except withll andrh:cyn/mor daled â chawr, "as tall as a giant"),-ach "-er" and-af "-est". The stem of the adjective may also be modified when inflected, including byprovection, where final or near-finalb, d, g becomep, t, c respectively.
| Positive | Equative | Comparative | Superlative | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tal | taled | talach | talaf | "tall" |
| gwan | gwanned | gwannach | gwannaf | "weak" |
| trwm | trymed | trymach | trymaf | "heavy" |
| gwlyb | gwlyped | gwlypach | gwlypaf | "wet" |
| rhad | rhated | rhatach | rhataf | "cheap" |
| teg | teced | tecach | tecaf | "fair" |
Generally, adjectives with two or more syllables use a different system, whereby the adjective is preceded by the wordsmor "as/so" (which causes a soft mutation except withll andrh),mwy "more" andmwyaf "most".
| Positive | Equative | Comparative | Superlative | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| diddorol | mor ddiddorol | mwy diddorol | mwyaf diddorol | "interesting" |
| cynaliadwy | mor gynaliadwy | mwy cynaliadwy | mwyaf cynaliadwy | "sustainable" |
| llenyddol | mor llenyddol | mwy llenyddol | mwyaf llenyddol | "literary" |
The literary language tends to prefer the use inflected adjectives where possible.
There are also a number of irregular adjectives.
| Positive | Equative | Comparative | Superlative | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| da | cystal | gwell | gorau | "good" |
| drwg | cynddrwg | gwaeth | gwaethaf | "bad" |
| mawr | cymaint | mwy | mwyaf | "big" |
| bach | cyn lleied | llai | lleiaf | "small" |
| hir | hwyed | hwy | hwyaf | "long" |
| cyflym | cynted | cynt | cyntaf | "fast" |
These are the possessive adjectives:
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | fy (n) | ein | |
| 2nd Person | dy (s) | eich | |
| 3rd Person | Masculine | ei (s) | eu |
| Feminine | ei (a) | ||
The possessive adjectives precede the noun they qualify, which is sometimes followed by the corresponding form of the personal pronoun, especially to emphasize the possessor, e.g.fy mara i "my bread",dy fara di "your bread",ei fara ef "his bread" etc.
Ein,eu and feminineei add anh a following word beginning with a vowel, e.g.enw "name",ei henw "her name".
The demonstrative adjectives are inflected for gender and number:
| Masculine | Feminine | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proximal | hwn | hon | hyn |
| Distal | hwnnw | honno | hynny |
These follow the noun they qualify, which also takes the article. For example, the masculine wordllyfr "book" becomesy llyfr hwn "this book",y llyfr hwnnw "that book",y llyfrau hyn "these books" andy llyfrau hynny "those books".
The Welsh personal pronouns are:
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | fi, mi, i | ni | |
| 2nd Person | ti, di | chwi, chi | |
| 3rd Person | Masculine | e(f) | hwy, hwynt |
| Feminine | hi | ||
The Welsh masculine-feminine gender distinction is reflected in the pronouns. There is, consequently, no word corresponding to English "it", and the choice ofe orhi depends on the grammatical gender of the antecedent.
The Englishdummy orexpletive "it" construction in phrases like "it's raining" or "it was cold last night" also exists in Welsh and other Indo-European languages like French, German, and Dutch, but not in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, or the Slavic languages. Unlike other masculine-feminine languages, which often default to the masculine pronoun in the construction, Welsh uses the feminine singularhi, thus producing sentences like:
The usual third-person masculine singular form isef in Literary Welsh. The formfe is used as an optional affirmative marker before a conjugated verb at the start of a clause, but may also be found elsewhere in modern writing, influenced by spoken Welsh.
The traditional third-person plural form ishwy, which may optionally be expanded tohwynt where the previous word does not end in-nt itself. Once more, modern authors may prefer to use the spoken formnhw, although this cannot be done after literary forms of verbs and conjugated prepositions.
Similarly, there is some tendency to follow speech and drop the "w" from the second-person plural pronounchwi in certain modern semi-literary styles.
In any case, pronouns are often dropped in the literary language, as the person and number can frequently be discerned from the verb or preposition alone.
Chi, in addition to serving as the second-person plural pronoun, is also used as a singular in formal situations. Conversely,ti can be said to be limited to the informal singular, such as when speaking with a family member, a friend, or a child. This usage corresponds closely to the practice in other European languages. The third colloquial form,chdi, is not found in literary Welsh.
The reflexive pronouns are formed with the possessive adjective followed byhunan (pluralhunain) "self".
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | fy hunan | ein hunain |
| 2nd Person | dy hunan | eich hunain, eich hunan |
| 3rd Person | ei hunan | eu hunain |
There is no gender distinction in the third person singular.
Literary Welsh has reduplicated pronouns that are used for emphasis, usually as the subject of a focussed sentence. For example:
Tydi a'n creodd ni."(It was)You that created us."
Oni ddewisais i chwychwi?"Did I not chooseyou?"
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | myfi | nyni | |
| 2nd Person | tydi | chwychwi | |
| 3rd Person | Masculine | efe | hwynt-hwy |
| Feminine | hyhi | ||
Welsh has special conjunctive forms of the personal pronouns. They are perhaps more descriptively termed 'connective or distinctive pronouns' since they are used to indicate a connection between or distinction from another nominal element. Full contextual information is necessary to interpret their function in any given sentence.
Less formal variants are given in brackets. Mutation may also, naturally, affect the forms of these pronouns (e.g.minnau may be mutated tofinnau)
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | minnau, innau | ninnau | |
| 2nd Person | tithau | chwithau | |
| 3rd Person | Masculine | yntau (fyntau) | hwythau (nhwythau) |
| Feminine | hithau | ||
The emphatic pronouns can be used with possessive adjectives in the same way as the simple pronouns are used (with the added function of distinction or connection).
In addition to having masculine and feminine forms ofthis andthat, Welsh also has separate set ofthis andthat for intangible, figurative, or general ideas.
| Masculine | Feminine | Intangible | |
|---|---|---|---|
| this | hwn | hon | hyn |
| that | hwnnw, hwnna | honno, honna | hynny |
| these | y rhain | ||
| those | y rheiny | ||
In certain expressions,hyn may represent "now" andhynny may represent "then".
In literary Welsh, far less use is made of auxiliary verbs than in its colloquial counterpart. Instead conjugated forms of verbs are common. Most distinctively, the non-past tense is used for the present as well as the future.
The preterite, non-past (present-future), and imperfect (conditional) tenses have forms that are somewhat similar to colloquial Welsh, demonstrated here withtalu 'pay'. There is a regularaffection of thea toe before the endings-ais,-aist,-i,-ir and-id.
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Preterite | 1st Person | telais | talasom |
| 2nd Person | telaist | talasoch | |
| 3rd Person | talodd | talasant | |
| Impersonal | talwyd | ||
| Non-Past | 1st Person | talaf | talwn |
| 2nd Person | teli | telwch | |
| 3rd Person | tâl | talant | |
| Impersonal | telir | ||
| Imperfect | 1st Person | talwn | talem |
| 2nd Person | talit | talech | |
| 3rd Person | talai | talent | |
| Impersonal | telid | ||
To these, the literary language adds pluperfect, subjunctive, and imperative forms with affection before-wyf and-wch.
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pluperfect | 1st Person | talaswn | talasem |
| 2nd Person | talasit | talasech | |
| 3rd Person | talasai | talasent | |
| Impersonal | talasid | ||
| Subjunctive | 1st Person | talwyf | talom |
| 2nd Person | telych | taloch | |
| 3rd Person | talo | talont | |
| Impersonal | taler | ||
| Imperative | 1st Person | (does not exist) | talwn |
| 2nd Person | tala | telwch | |
| 3rd Person | taled | talent | |
| Impersonal | taler | ||
Bod ("to be") is highly irregular. Compared with the inflected tenses above, it has separate present and future tenses, separate present and imperfect subjunctive tenses, separate imperfect and conditional tenses, and uses the pluperfect as a consuetudinal imperfect (amherffaith arferiadol) tense. The third person of the present tense has separate existential (oes, no plural because plural nouns take a singular verb) and descriptive (yw/ydyw, ŷnt/ydynt) forms, except in the situations where the positive (mae, maent) or relative (sydd) forms are used in their place.
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Preterite | 1st Person | bûm | buom |
| 2nd Person | buost | buoch | |
| 3rd Person | bu | buont | |
| Impersonal | buwyd | ||
| Future | 1st Person | byddaf | byddwn |
| 2nd Person | byddi | byddwch | |
| 3rd Person | bydd | byddant | |
| Impersonal | byddir | ||
| Present | 1st Person | wyf, ydwyf | ŷm, ydym |
| 2nd Person | wyt, ydwyt | ych, ydych | |
| 3rd Person | yw, ydyw; oes; mae; sydd | ŷnt, ydynt; maent | |
| Impersonal | ydys | ||
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Imperfect | 1st Person | oeddwn | oeddem |
| 2nd Person | oeddit | oeddech | |
| 3rd Person | oedd, ydoedd | oeddynt, oeddent | |
| Impersonal | oeddid | ||
| Conditional | 1st Person | buaswn | buasem |
| 2nd Person | buasit | buasech | |
| 3rd Person | buasai | buasent | |
| Impersonal | buasid | ||
| Consuetudinal Imperfect | 1st Person | byddwn | byddem |
| 2nd Person | byddit | byddech | |
| 3rd Person | byddai | byddent | |
| Impersonal | byddid | ||
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Present Subjunctive | 1st Person | bwyf,byddwyf | bôm, byddom |
| 2nd Person | bych,byddych | boch,byddoch | |
| 3rd Person | bo, byddo | bônt, byddont | |
| Impersonal | bydder | ||
| Imperfect Subjunctive | 1st Person | bawn | baem |
| 2nd Person | bait | baech | |
| 3rd Person | bai | baent | |
| Impersonal | byddid | ||
| Imperative | 1st Person | (does not exist) | byddwn |
| 2nd Person | bydd | byddwch | |
| 3rd Person | bydded, boed, bid | byddent | |
| Impersonal | bydder | ||
In less formal styles, the affirmative/indirect relative (y(r)), interrogative/direct relative (a), and negative (ni(d)) particles have a particularly strong tendency to become infixed on the front of forms ofbod, for instanceroedd anddyw foryr oedd andnid yw. Although the literary language tends toward keeping the particles in full, affirmativey is optional beforemae(nt).
Reduplicating the negation of the verb withddim (which in the literary language strictly means "any" rather than "not") is generally avoided.
Certain other verbs withbod in the verb-noun are also to some extent irregular. By far the most irregular aregwybod ("to know (a fact)") andadnabod ("to recognize/know (a person)"); but there also exists a group of verbs that alternate-bu- (in the preterite and pluperfect) and-bydd- (in all other tenses) stems, namelycanfod ("to perceive"),cydnabod ("to acknowledge"),cyfarfod ("to meet"),darfod ("to perish"),darganfod ("to discover"),gorfod ("to be obliged"), andhanfod ("to descend/issue from").
Therefore, presented below aregwybod andadnabod in the tenses where they do not simply addgwy- oradna- to forms ofbod. That they both, likebod, separate the present and future tenses. A regular feature of this mood is thedevoicing ofb top before the subjunctive endings,.
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Present | 1st Person | gwn | gwyddom |
| 2nd Person | gwyddost | gwyddoch | |
| 3rd Person | gŵyr | gwyddant | |
| Impersonal | gwyddys | ||
| Imperfect | 1st Person | gwyddwn | gwyddem |
| 2nd Person | gwyddit | gwyddech | |
| 3rd Person | gwyddai | gwyddent | |
| Impersonal | gwyddid | ||
| Present Subjunctive | 1st Person | gwypwyf, gwybyddwyf | gwypom, gwybyddom |
| 2nd Person | gwypych, gwybyddych | gwypoch, gwybyddoch | |
| 3rd Person | gwypo, gwybyddo | gwypont, gwybyddont | |
| Impersonal | gwyper, gwybydder | ||
| Imperfect Subjunctive | 1st Person | gwypwn, gwybyddwn | gwypem, gwybyddem |
| 2nd Person | gwypit, gwybyddit | gwypech, gwybyddech | |
| 3rd Person | gwypai, gwybyddai | gwypent, gwybyddent | |
| Impersonal | gwypid, gwybyddid | ||
| Imperative | 1st Person | (does not exist) | gwybyddwn |
| 2nd Person | gwybydd | gwybyddwch | |
| 3rd Person | gwybydded | gwybyddent | |
| Impersonal | gwybydder | ||
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Present | 1st Person | adwaen | adwaenom |
| 2nd Person | adwaenost | adwaenoch | |
| 3rd Person | adwaen, edwyn | adwaenant | |
| Impersonal | adwaenir | ||
| Imperfect | 1st Person | adwaenwn | adwaenem |
| 2nd Person | adwaenit | adwaenech | |
| 3rd Person | adwaenai | adwaenent | |
| Impersonal | adwaenid | ||
| Subjunctive | 1st Person | adnapwyf, adnabyddwyf | adnapom, adnabyddom |
| 2nd Person | adnepych, adnabyddych | adnapoch, adnabyddoch | |
| 3rd Person | adnapo, adnabyddo | adnapont, adnabyddont | |
| Impersonal | adnaper, adnabydder | ||
| Imperative | 1st Person | (does not exist) | adnabyddwn |
| 2nd Person | adnebydd | adnabyddwch | |
| 3rd Person | adnabydded | adnabyddent | |
| Impersonal | adnabydder | ||
The four verbsmynd "to go",gwneud "to do",cael "to get", anddod "to come" are all irregular. These share many similarities, but there are also far more points of difference in their literary forms than in their spoken ones. Each also has at least one other verbal-noun form of which the colloquial forms are contractions:mynd / myned; dod / dyfod / dywad / dŵad; cael / caffael / caffel; gwneud / gwneuthur. Literary Welsh is remarkable in that it has imperative forms ofcael which are absent from the spoken language.
| mynd, myned | gwneud, gwneuthur | cael, caffael, caffel | dod, dyfod, dywad, dŵad | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | ||
| Preterite | 1st Person | euthum | aethom | gwneuthum | gwnaethom | cefais | cawsom | deuthum | daethom |
| 2nd Person | aethost | aethoch | gwnaethost | gwnaethoch | cefaist | cawsoch | daethost | daethoch | |
| 3rd Person | aeth | aethant | gwnaeth | gwnaethant | cafodd | cawsant | daeth | daethant | |
| Impersonal | aethpwyd, aed | gwnaethpwyd, gwnaed | cafwyd, caed | daethpwyd, deuwyd, doed | |||||
| Non-past | 1st Person | af | awn | gwnaf | gwnawn | caf | cawn | deuaf, dof | deuwn, down |
| 2nd Person | ei | ewch | gwnei | gwnewch | cei | cewch | deui, doi | deuwch, dewch, dowch | |
| 3rd Person | â | ânt | gwna | gwnânt | caiff | cânt | daw | deuant, dônt | |
| Impersonal | eir | gwneir | ceir | deuir, doir | |||||
| Imperfect | 1st Person | awn | aem | gwnawn | gwnaem | cawn | caem | deuwn, down | deuem, doem |
| 2nd Person | ait | aech | gwnait | gwnaech | caet | caech | deuit, doit | deuech, doech | |
| 3rd Person | âi | aent | gwnâi | gwnaent | câi | caent | deuai, dôi | deuent, doent | |
| Impersonal | eid | gwneid | ceid | deuid, doid | |||||
| Pluperfect | 1st Person | aethwn, elswn | aethem, elsem | gwnaethwn, gwnelswn | gwnaethem, gwnelsem | cawswn | cawsem | daethwn | daethem |
| 2nd Person | aethit, elsit | aethech, elsech | gwnaethit, gwnelsit | gwnaethech, gwnelsech | cawsit | cawsech | daethit | daethech | |
| 3rd Person | aethai, elsai | aethent, elsent | gwnaethai, gwnelsai | gwnaethent, gwnelsent | cawsai | cawsent | daethai | daethent | |
| Impersonal | aethid, elsid | gwnaethid, gwnelsid | cawsid | daethid | |||||
| (Present) Subjunctive | 1st Person | elwyf | elom | gwnelwyf | gwnelom | caffwyf | caffom | delwyf | delom |
| 2nd Person | elych | eloch | gwnelych | gwneloch | ceffych | caffoch | delych | deloch | |
| 3rd Person | êl, elo | elont | gwnêl, gwnelo | gwnelont | caffo | caffont | dêl, delo | delont | |
| Impersonal | eler | gwneler | caffer | deler | |||||
| Imperfect Subjunctive | 1st Person | elwn | elem | gwnelwn | gwnelem | caffwn, cawn | caffem, caem | (Same as Imperfect) | (Same as Imperfect) |
| 2nd Person | elit | elech | gwnelit | gwnelech | caffit, cait | caffech, caech | (Same as Imperfect) | (Same as Imperfect) | |
| 3rd Person | elai | elent | gwnelai | gwnelent | caffai, câi | caffent, caent | (Same as Imperfect) | (Same as Imperfect) | |
| Impersonal | elid | gwnelid | ceffid, ceid | (Same as Imperfect) | |||||
| Imperative | 1st Person | (none) | awn | (none) | gwnawn | (none) | cawn | (none) | deuwn, down |
| 2nd Person | dos | ewch | gwna | gwnewch | ca | cewch | tyr(e)d | deuwch, dewch, dowch | |
| 3rd Person | aed, eled | aent, elent | gwnaed, gwneled | gwnaent, gwnelent | caffed, caed | caffent, caent | deued, doed, deled | deuent, doent, delent | |
| Impersonal | aer, eler | gwnaer, gwneler | ceffid | deuer, doer, deler | |||||
In Welsh,prepositions frequently change their form when followed by a pronoun. These are known as inflected prepositions. They fall into three main conjugations.
Firstly those in-a- (at,am (stem:amdan-),ar,tan/dan):
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | ataf | atom | |
| 2nd Person | atat | atoch | |
| 3rd Person | Masculine | ato | atynt |
| Feminine | ati | ||
Secondly those in-o- (er,heb,rhag,rhwng (stem:rhyng-),tros/dros,trwy/drwy (stem:trw-/drw-),o (stem:ohon-),yn). All apart fromo add a linking element in the third person (usually -dd-, but -ydd- in the case oftrwy/drwy, and -t- in the case oftros/dros):
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | erof | erom | |
| 2nd Person | erot | eroch | |
| 3rd Person | Masculine | erddo | erddynt |
| Feminine | erddi | ||
Thirdly, those in-y- (gan andwrth).Gan includes both vowel changes and a linking element, whilewrth has neither:
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | gennyf | gennym | |
| 2nd Person | gennyt | gennych | |
| 3rd Person | Masculine | ganddo | ganddynt |
| Feminine | ganddi | ||
Finally, the prepositioni is highly irregular:
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | imi, im | inni, in | |
| 2nd Person | iti, it | ichwi | |
| 3rd Person | Masculine | iddo | iddynt |
| Feminine | iddi | ||
All inflected prepositions may optionally be followed by the appropriate personal pronouns, apart fromi, where this is only possible in the third person, thanks to its proper endings in the other persons sounding the same as the pronouns. In slightly less formal Welsh, the endings are split off the first and second persons ofi to be interpreted as pronouns instead, although this creates the anomalous pronounmi.
The majority of prepositions (am,ar,at,gan,heb,hyd,i,o,tan/dan,tros/dros,trwy/drwy,wrth) trigger the soft mutation. The exceptions areâ,gyda, andtua, which cause the aspirate mutation;yn, which causes the nasal mutation; andcyn,ger,mewn,rhag, andrhwng, which do not cause any mutation.
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