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Bod: Existential Tense – There is

The existential tense shows existence of something, and is the same for singular and plural usage. It can be used with ’na which causes soft mutation, eg: mae ‘na gaws, oes ‘na gaws?, does ‘na ddim caws. Note that the mutation is blocked by ddim in the negative. ‘Na is used the same way for all tenses. The existential tense of bod does not use the linking participle yn.

Present Existential: There is, there are

PartEnglishWelshAlternativeExampleAlternative Example
affthere is
there are
maemae ‘namae cawsmae ‘na gaws
intis there?
are there?
oes?oes ‘na?oes caws?oes ‘na gaws?
negthere isn’t
there aren’t
does dimdoes ‘na ddimdoes dim cawsdoes ‘na ddim caws
yesoes
nonag oes

Does dim can be shortened to sdim, but is then not used with ‘na, eg, sdim caws, but not sdim ‘na gaws.

Imperfect (Past) Existential: There was, there were

PartEnglishWelshAlternativeExampleAlternative Example
affthere was
there were
roeddroedd ‘naroedd cawsroedd ‘na gaws
intwas there?
were there?
oedd?oedd ‘na?oedd caws?oedd ‘na gaws?
negthere wasn’t
there weren’t
doedd dimdoedd ‘na ddimdoedd dim cawsdoedd ‘na ddim caws
yesoedd
nonag oedd

Future Existential: There will be

PartEnglishWelshAlternativeExampleAlternative Example
affthere will bebyddbydd ‘nabydd cawsbydd ‘na gaws
intwill there be?fydd?fydd ‘na?fydd caws?fydd ‘na gaws?
negthere will not befydd dimfydd ‘na ddimfydd dim cawsfydd ‘na ddim caws
yesbydd
nona fydd
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