The Film Noir Experience

It has occurred to me that even though I have gone over the past tense and talked about how to say, "I like", that I haven't really talked a lot about vocabulary. Well, today I'm going to remedy that!

Vocabulary learning has always been the hardest part of learning any language that I've tried to learn for me. Grammatical items and structure are all very good and important to creating an effective message and being understood. However, the bulk of that message comes from the content items, the lexical items of the language. Given that any language you are learning you are going to be semi-literate in to start, you have few opportunities to pick up vocabulary from reading. I don't know about you, but much of my vocabulary in my first language I've gleaned through years of literacy. In a new language, you rely less on context to put the pieces together because you're still working out what things mean and how they work together. You have to look things up frequently. And, going to the dictionary every other word is hardly what you do in your first language, so when you have to in a new language it is very easy to get very frustrated very quickly. Now, dear reader, I wouldn't want you to get frustrated with your limited expressive powers, so here is a list of words you may find of you (and, that I've recently put on flashcards in order to facilitate committing to memory.)
In the following you will find "ll" to represent the sound described here and "dd" to represent the sound described here. and "ch" to represent what is in IPA /x/. This sound is also discussed here..

llysiau (said: llusheeai): vegetables
Gwyliau (said: gwileeai): holidays (vacation)
ddoe: (said: ddoi) yesterday
creision: (said: crayshun) crisps (American: chips)
ardderchog (said: arrdderchog) Excellent
echnos: (said: echnohs) the night before last
dechrau: (said: dechrai) to start
brechdan: (said: brehchdahn) sandwich
dŵr: (said: doo or) water
cwrw: (said: cooroo) beer
sudd: (said: seedd) juice
cinio: (saidL ceeneeoh) dinner*
oren: (said: o rehn) orange
afal: (said: avahl) apple
Cael: (said kail) to have as in get or obtain or consume
tŷ: (said: tee) house.

So, Now you can say "I like apple juice" dw i'n hoffi sudd afal. Or, I'm having a sandwich. Dw i'n cael y frechdan**. If you are ever caught in the Welsh mystery story and someone asks you where you were the night before last, you can say, Bues i yn y tŷ echnos, "I was in the house the night before last." But, as is always true in stories (and, frequently in life as well) you will have been home alone with no one to verify your alibi and Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Mark Sloane or Matlock will have to prove your innocence after you're arrested wrongly. Or, you can say Dw i ddim yn hoffi llysiau, if you don't like vegetables.

* dinner is frequently used to describe the midday meal on the island. So, "cinio" can be used for either lunch or dinner.
** Welsh has what are known as "mutations" that effect certain sounds when preceded by vowels and certain grammatical words. They have, if you will, an instutionalized way of describing the phonological processes of speech like Sanskrit's samdhi rules. "Brechdan" is a feminine word and is effected by the change.