Of course, there are some neat ways of remembering quite a few of them ... I've written lists of them.... here's the link to one of them for example
4.html
.. and here's where I showed you all a smart way to separate hwn and hon ...
remembering.html
But ...another pesky problem is those Welsh words that are very like each other and can take a lot of time to sort out.
Let's take a simple example .... llwy and llyw.
Llwy = a spoon
Llyw = a steering wheel or rudder
It's extremely lucky that the last bit of Llwy is wy ..and wy = an egg.. "egg and spoon !! "
And, of course, the last bit of Llyw is yw = Yacht Wheel which is a rudder...dead give-away.
Here's another pair ....
niwed = harm ... a noun
newid = to change ... a verb
Usually you'll know the two meanings ... if you can just think of a way of nailing down one of them , you're sorted. In this case it's easy because newid starts with "new" which implies a "change" ... so the other one, niwed , means "harm." Some cruel and disenchanted types might say that the "wed" at the end of niwed proves that some sort of harmful experience has taken place. But we won't think that of course.
Another pair like that, where you only need to think of a trick for one of them is ...
meddu = to possess, own
meddwi = to get drunk
Well, meddwi ends with -wi ... which leads to wine ... that gets you drunk.
Some might say ..well, if you're drunk you'll need to go for a wi. But that would be a bit coarse for us sophisticated types.
If you need a hint for meddu, well, possession means U own it. Simples.
Then there's really nasty collections of words ... look at this lot .... the cynnxx family. Ouch !
cynnar = early
cynnig = offer, attempt, bid... noun and verb
cynnal = to hold, keep, support
cynnau = to light ( a fire etc)
cynnes = warm, affectionate
cynnen = strife
cynnif = labour,battle,contest,trouble
cynnin = a shred
cynnud = fuel, firewood
cynnwr = leader
The first thing with a wacking great list like that is to sort out the ones you might actually need.... OK, I use firewood but these days most people don't. You can say "leader" in other ways using words you know, you can use "darn" as a rough approximation to cynnin ( a shred) ...it depends on your own situation with some of them.
But cynnar ... that's a useful one. I remember that it's "early" by thinking " After Rising" ..that's early for most people.
Cynnes ... I remember that with the word "tes" = warm weather ... that "es" at the end you see. Easy-peasy.
Cynnau ..well, I do it with the French word allume = to light ( amongst other similar things) .
Cynnig ... well, for the "bid" bit you think of an auction where the man with the gavel shouts "it's going at £80" ..... and a bid is also an attempt ( mercy bid) etc.
As you can see, it's often best to use your own ideas, depending on what you know and what you need. Sometimes you've just got to learn the blasted word by using it lots of times.
Well, there we are then...all ideas about these memory triggers etc will be ecstatically welcomed as a comment or to [email protected]
And now, SFA and "Dim Bendith" ..