ABSTRACT
But sometimes the sentence that you want to turn into a subordinate clause is a focused one - e.g. 'It's Ron that's coming tomorrow'. To say 'I think that it's Ron that's coming tomorrow', we use a special word for 'that', mai or (in many Southern areas) taw. You will have realized by now that the criteria set out so far for deciding how to translate 'that .. .' have all depended on what type of verb started the original in Welsh. But in a focused sentence no verb begins it, because the identifying feature of a focused sentence is precisely that it doesn't begin with a verb. Let's look at the formation of a focused subordinate clause:
(original)
(subordinate) Dw i'n meddwl I think
Ron sy'n dod yfory It's Ron that's coming tomorrow mai Ron sy'n dod yfory that it's Ron. that's coming
tomorrow
The main problem with this is not the procedure, which is straightforward enough, but knowing when to implement it, i.e. identifying what you want to say as a focused subordinate. Usually you have to listen for the intonation and related sentence stress, e.g. 'I think Fred told her' - Dw i'n meddwl mai Fred wedodd wrthi. See the previous unit for translation correspondences. Further examples:
Wedon nhw wrthat ti mai ddydd Gwener dyn ni'n mynd? Did they tell you that we're going on Friday?
