{"id":5795,"date":"2011-08-31T10:13:24","date_gmt":"2011-08-31T10:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/blog\/?p=5795"},"modified":"2011-08-31T10:13:24","modified_gmt":"2011-08-31T10:13:24","slug":"mynd-ir-afael","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=5795","title":{"rendered":"Mynd i’r afael"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mynd i’r afael<\/strong> is a Welsh expression I’ve noticed quite a bit recently on Radio Cymru, and from the context in which it is used, I think it means something like “to try hard to deal with something”.<\/p>\n

Here are some examples:<\/p>\n

Angen i Brifysgol Cymru fynd i’r afael<\/strong> \u00e2 dilysu canolfannau newydd, medd y Gweinidog Addysg, Leighton Andrews.
\nThe University of Wales needs to address the validation of the new centres, said the Education Minister, Leighton Andrews.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[Source: BBC Newyddion<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Mae ‘na lawer o gymorth a chefnogaeth ar gael i bobl sy’n poeni am droseddu ac i’r rhai sydd am helpu i fynd i’r afael<\/strong> \u00e2 throseddu.
\nPlenty of help and support is available to people who are worried about crime and those who want to help tackle crime.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[Source: www.direct.gov.uk<\/a>]<\/p>\n

NB. In both these examples mynd<\/em> has mutated to fynd<\/em>.<\/p>\n

From these examples it seems that mynd i’r afael<\/strong>, which literally means “go to the grip\/grasp\/handle\/hold”, means “tackle” “address” or perhaps “get a grip on”. Google translate gives “(to) address” for this term, as does the BBC Welsh dictionary<\/a>. I got the impression from the context that quite a bit of effort was involved, but perhaps this is not always the case.<\/p>\n

These days I tend to learn new words and expressions in Welsh, and in my other fluent languages, through extensive listening and reading. If I notice a word or phrase that crops up frequently, I’ll try and work out its meaning(s) from the context, and sometimes it takes a while to hone in on exact meaning(s). When I learn things in this way I tend to remember better than if I just look them up in a dictionary, though I do remember dictionary words if I use them quite a bit after looking them up.<\/p>\n

How do you learn new vocabulary?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mynd i’r afael is a Welsh expression I’ve noticed quite a bit recently on Radio Cymru, and from the context in which it is used, I think it means something like “to try hard to deal with something”. Here are some examples: Angen i Brifysgol Cymru fynd i’r afael \u00e2 dilysu canolfannau newydd, medd y […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,10,13,77,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-language","category-language-learning","category-welsh","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}