Greek to Welsh: a short yes needs the grammar of the preceding question
The affirmative answer is not always one fixed Welsh word
Greek ναι can supply an affirmative reply without repeating the verb or participant. Welsh short answers can use forms connected with the question’s verb and person. A translation of a one-word Greek reply therefore needs the preceding question, especially when the speaker asks permission or confirms a future action.
The Greek overview lists ναι as yes and όχι as no. That compact source answer can be fully meaningful in its conversation. It does not mean that the translator is free to choose any Welsh affirmative form, however, because the target reply can carry information that the Greek answer leaves recoverable from the question.
The Learn Welsh South Wales guide contrasts permission questions and their answers using cael. Its example Gaf i adael? receives Cei: the person asking may leave. The reply does not repeat I from the question mechanically. The questioner’s first-person reference becomes the responder’s second-person reference to the same individual.
The participant stays the same while the speaking viewpoint changes
Imagine a Greek speaker asking whether they may leave and receiving ναι. In Welsh, the answer must grant permission to the asker, not declare that the responder may leave. Choosing Caf simply because the source question contains I would shift the permission to the wrong person. The event remains the asker’s departure even though a different person now speaks.
The guide also gives future-do answers such as Gwnaf and Na wnaf in its helping examples. These forms belong to a different verbal pattern from the permission answer Cei. A Greek affirmative reply to will you help cannot automatically be translated with the word used to answer may I leave. The source ναι stays the same while the recovered target predicate changes.
Time creates another contrast. For the concise past tense, the guide specifies do and naddo as its affirmative and negative answer pattern. Thus a Greek confirmation that an event happened belongs with the corresponding Welsh past-question construction. It should not acquire a future willingness reading merely because the translator reuses an affirmative learned from a request about helping.
Compare two original exchanges: did you help yesterday, followed by yes, and will you help tomorrow, followed by yes. The first confirms an earlier event; the second can commit to a later action. A Greek ναι is enough in both contexts, but the Welsh answer needs to fit the event being confirmed. Preserving the answer’s positivity alone would leave the time and conversational act unresolved.
The examples here follow the South Wales learner guide rather than claiming that every Welsh variety uses identical wording. For a short Greek reply, recover the question’s verb, participant, and time before choosing the Welsh response. The apparent extra grammatical work is how the target preserves the meaning already supplied by the source conversation; it does not justify adding a new promise or granting permission to a different person.
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