Welsh: Telling age

[Emrysk]

Hello everyone!
I was wondering how to say How old are you? and I am .... years old. in Welsh?
From what I remember it should be something like Faint yw eich oed? and the response would be: Dwi'n ... mlwydd oed. But I am really not sure if this is correct. Now I'm looking for a more informal/Southern way to say it as I live in South Wales.

Diolch yn fawr eich help!

 

[Gavril]

Hello everyone!
I was wondering how to say How old are you? and I am .... years old. in Welsh?
From what I remember it should be something like Faint yw eich oed?

I think this is correct, except that you would use ydy instead of yw in the north.

and the response would be: Dwi'n ... mlwydd oed.

According to this page, the numbers 5 and 7-10 are followed by the form mlwydd, the number 2 takes the form flwydd, and the remaining numbers take the basic form blwydd. "He is one year old" could be translated either as Mae e'n flwydd oed or as Mae e'n un oed.

It's not mentioned on the linked page, but I think the word ugain "20" is also followed by nasalized mlwydd.

Now I'm looking for a more informal/Southern way to say it as I live in South Wales.

I can't help you too much with the informal part -- hopefully a native speaker will respond.

 

[Emrysk]

Thank you, Gavril for your response as well as the link!
May I ask where did you learn Welsh from? Is it online? Because I really want to learn it but the only online site that I found was SaySomethingInWelsh which isn't really useful for me because I want to learn how to write.
Thanks again.

 

[Tegs]

Hi Emrysk,

Faint yw eich oed? is correct, although a bit too formal for conversation.

If you are asking someone using "ti", the informal "you", then ask Beth yw dy oed di? This is much more frequently used.

If you are asking someone and addressing them as the formal "chi" (e.g. because they are quite a bit older than you and you want to be respectful), then you would ask Beth yw eich oed chi?

The question is exactly the same in both northern and southern dialects.

To reply, in the north you would begin with Dwi'n but in the south that isn't the case. To sound like a southerner, you could say one of the following:

Rwy'n ugain - I'm twenty (this is neither formal nor informal)
Fi'n ugain - I'm twenty (using "fi" like this is really informal and technically it's grammatically incorrect, but lots of people say it)

You could also say Rwy'n ugain mlwydd oed. This means "I'm twenty years old". Although it's correct, not many people would bother to add the "mlwydd oed" at the end. Like in English, if someone asks What age are you? you're more likely to say I'm twenty than I'm twenty years old.

There was a thread about age and numbers a while back, but it might be too complicated for you right now. I'll give you the link anyway in case you find it useful Welsh: numerals

If you want a useful website for beginners, check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learning/learnwelsh/

Pob lwc!

 

[Gavril]

The question is exactly the same in both northern and southern dialects.

So, both northern and southern speakers would say Beth/faint yw dy oed? I thought that the difference between ydy and yw more or less corresponded to the north/south divide.

 

[Tegs]

Good point, I forgot about that. Northerners would use ydi/ydy, although in conversation they tend to shorten it to Be di dy oed di?

 

[Stoggler]

And the Southern formal Beth yw eich oed (chi)? would often be contracted to Beth yw'ch oed (chi)?