Making comparisons Lets's say that your car is fast. If you're comparing your car to someone else's, you could say that it's as fast, faster, or the fastest. 'Fast' is the basic word, and is called the positive form. 'As fast' tells us that it moves at the same speed as the other car. 'As fast' is called the equative form. 'Faster' tells us that the first car moves more quickly than the second car, but that there are other cars which might move quicker still. 'Faster' is called the comparative form. 'Fastest' tells us that no other cars can move more quickly than this car. 'Fasest' and is called the superlative form. Short adjectives In Welsh as in English, when you have a short adjective of one or two syllable, you can create these forms by adding a suffix to the stem of the positive form: positive fast cyflym equative as fast add -ed cyflymed comparative faster add -ach cyflymach superlative fastest add -af cyflymaf (sometimes the f is dropped) When the positive form ends in -b, -d, -g, -dl, -dn, -dr, -gr these change to -p, -t, -c, -tl, tn, -tr, -cr before the suffix is added. Sometimes, internal vowels change - w and aw become y and o - and sometimes -n and -r are doubled. There are other irregularities, but you will learn these exceptions as you go along. The equative form is often used with 'cyn' preceeding it, which causes soft mutation (not of rh or ll), e.g. cyn wynned, as white. Here are some examples of of adjectives and their different forms: positive equative comparative superlative obvious/clear amlwg amlyced amlycach amlycaf fragile brau breued breuach breuaf dirty (N) budr butred butrach butraf short byr byrred byrrach byrraf kind caredig carediced caredicach caredicaf nasty cas cased casach casaf round crwn cryned crynach crynaf strong cryf cryfed cryfach cryfaf lazy diog dioced diocach diocaf clean glân glaned glanach glanaf powerful grymus grymused grymusach grymusaf wet gwlyb gwlyped gwlypach gwlypaf tenacious gwydn gwytned gwytnach gwytnaf white gwyn gwynned gwynnach gwynnaf nice, pleasant hyfryd hyfryted hyfrytach hyfrytaf full llawn llawned llawnach llawnaf sweet melys melysed melysach melysaf pure pur pured purach puraf important pwysig pwysiced pwysicach pwysicaf cheap rhad rhated rhatach rhataf likely tebyg tebyced tebycach tebycaf fair teg teced tecach tecaf poor tlawd tloted tlotach tlotaf pretty tlws tlysed tlysach tlysaf heavy trwm trymed trymach trymaf light (in weight) ysgafn ysgafned ysgafnach ysgafnaf Some borrowings add -ied, -iach, -iaf, especially in the North: e.g. braf, brafied, brafiach, brafiaf also neis, ffres, cwl, crand, nobl. Of course, some adjectives are irregular: positive equative comparative superlative near, close agos nesed nes nesaf agos(less correctly: agosed agosach agosaf) difficult anodd anhawsed anos anhawsaf anodd (less correctly: anodded anoddach anoddaf) small, little bach, bychan lleied (occ: bychaned) Ilai lleiaf soon buan buaned buanach buanaf early cynnar cynted cynt cyntaf good da cystal gwell gorau bad drwg cynddrwg gwaeth gwaethaf drwg occ: (in sense of naughty) dryced drycach drycaf valuable gwerthfawr gwerthfawroced gwerthfawrocach gwerthfawrocaf easy hawdd hawsed haws hawsaf hawdd (less correctly: hawdded hawddach hawddaf) old hen hyned hy+n (less correctly: hynach) hynaf long hir cyhyd hwy hwyaf hir (less correctly: hired hirach hiraf) young ieuanc ieuanged iau/ieuangach ieuaf/ieuangaf young ifanc ifenged/ifanged ifengach ifengaf low isel ised is isaf wide llydan lleted/cyfled lletach lletaf big mawr cymaint mwy mwyaf high uchel uched/cyfuwch uwch uchaf Long adjectives Where you have adjectives of two or more syllables, these are used with the different forms of 'more', (mor, mwy, mwyaf), instead of using endings. Mor is followed by soft mutation, but does not affect rh and ll. Note that those irregular adjectives in the table above cannot be used with 'mwy'. Also, adjectives of exactly two syllables can use either method. Here are some examples: brotherly brawdol mor frawdol mwy brawdol mwyaf brawdol stubborn cyndyn mor gyndyn mwy cyndyn mwyaf cyndyn disgraceful gwarthus mor warthus mwy gwarthus mwyaf gwarthus cowardly llwfr mor llwfr mwy llwfr mwyaf llwfr reasonable rhesymol mor rhesymol mwy rhesymol mwyaf rhesymol As big as a house... To say that something is 'as... as...', use the equative plus â: 'cyn... -ed â...' when you have a short adjective that uses the endings, or 'mor... â' when you have a long adjective which uses the forms of 'mwy'. Some examples: as heavy as cyn trwmed â as happy as cyn hapused â as beautiful as cyn hardded â as funny as mor doniol â as comfortable as mor cyfforddus â as interesting as mor diddorol â Remember that â causes aspirate mutation to the word that follows, and changes to ag when a vowel follows. Faster than a speeding bullet... To say that something is '-er than', use the comparative plus na: '-ach na ...' or 'mwy... na ...'. weaker than gwannach na faster than cyflymach na cheaper than rhatach na more anxious than mwy pryderus na more disgraceful than mwy gwarthus na more reasonable than mwy rhesymol na Remember that na causes aspirate mutation to the words that follows, and changes to nag when a vowel follows. The quickest fox... When using the superlative, and saying that something is 'the -est', you have to use the identification sentence structure which puts 'bod' towards the end. When you say that this mountain is the highest, you have to say 'y mynydd 'ma ydy'r uchaf. You must not use mae with a superlative.