As far as I'm concerned, it's the words .... the sheer number of words you have to learn....
Let's face it, when you learn French or Spanish or German there are a lot of words that aren't totally and utterly unfamiliar to you...... we share loads of words with the Romance languages and many with the Germanic languages.
But as for Welsh words .... you have nothing to link them to, hardly any familiar connections at all .... which means that. however far you have got with Welsh, there are going to be a lot of words you still don't know, and for which you have no way of working out for yourself what they might mean.
So ..... how to you go about remembering shedloads of totally unfamiliar words?
Well, of course, there are strategies , well-tried and tested strategies that can help.
I'm going to show you how I've remembered successfully various Welsh words, to show you lots of different ways or routes to making a link in your mind ...... here we go ......
ffrae = a quarrel ....... which often leads to a fight or A FRAY ( " a fight or noisy quarrel ")
golaith ..... to avoid/evade ..... why didn't Goliath just avoid meeting David in the first place ?
brain = crows ..... think of a flock of crows pecking out your brains.
rhan = part ....... the other night I ran part of the way home.
colli = lost/to lose .... imagine a poor lost collie.
addo = to promise ....... must be linked to "oath"
llumon = chimney-stack .... lo and behold, lum is Scots for a chimney.
paffio = to box .... and when the gloves hit, they go "paff, paff"
tail = manure ..... cow's tails are always covered in manure.
ffug = fake is just a slightly changed version of fake.
chwant = desire , and sure enough there is the word "want" stuck to it.
cenfig = envy, and there is the sound of "envy" inside it.
cynuta = to gather firewood ... I'm sure King Canute did the same while trying to hold the tide back.
wyth = eight ..... "I'm off to the pub at 8" ... " Who with ?"
epa = ape ...... and it's ape backwards !
rhaff = rope .... raffia is a sort of paper rope .
trwchfil = an insect ..... Jen was horrified to find a truckful of insects on her drive.
datrys .... to solve.... it's a tricky case, and the DA trys to solve it.
Dianc = to escape ... imagine an ankle-cuffed convict escaping by de-ankling himself.
mynnu = to insist ... as far as money goes, I insist on cash on the nail.
plygu = to fold ..... which must be linked to the idea of "ply"
brethyn = cloth ... you can't make a cloth balloon, it wouldn't keep your breath in.
There's loads and loads more of these, but that should give you lots of ideas I hope .... maybe you could let me know some of your neat ways or remembering certain Welsh words .... meanwhile, here's Trwbador with the beautiful, impressionistic Lluniau ....