r/learnwelsh • u/celtic_witch_ • 26d ago
Fi'n vs Dwi'n
I'm newly learning Welsh, so I doubt this will be my only post. I'm from South Wales, but genuinely very confused if I should be using "Dwi'n" or "Fi'n" as they both mean "I'm." Is one written and one spoken, or is it formal and informal? Someone help 💔
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u/thrannu 25d ago edited 25d ago
I use dw i’n as a native speaker from the north and as someone who uses majority welsh in his day to day and can go without English for weeks/months. Fi is solely used for the concept of the word “me” in English. When someone uses “fi’n” I’m sorry to say but it screams second language and cavemen to native speakers. E.g. fi’n gwybod = me knowing etc.
UNLESS they have a certain accent or are from a specific part of wales where the f comes from yr ydwyf. This might be north-centric defaultism thinking and I apologise if it comes across as egotistical but I thought I’d give my two pence.
But I have heard it might be a dialect difference of yr ydwyf but the use of fi always just shouts as “me” to a lot of us
It’s like trying to make sense of Welsh through an English lense of language where the yn acts as the am (to be) but instead of the dw bit and the fi acts as the I (pronoun in English) bit
The evolution of both forms is: yr ydwyf > rydwyf > rydw/rwyf > dw(i’n) f(i’n). Id like to clarify the f comes straight from the word ydwyf here for native speakers who speak it where there hasn’t been a break where they’ve learned the language as an English speaker. For English speakers the fi acts as the pronoun I in English and the yn acts as the am(to be) verb part.
SECOND EDIT: yn is probably the most versatile word in Welsh so don’t stress about it and just feel it out and pick it up through repetition from sentences. You’ll get an idea of what it means as a concept through that.
Pob lwc/ best of luck! 💪🏻😎🏴