Welsh to Swedish: choosing de, dem or dom from role and register
Welsh nhw does not settle the Swedish subject–object distinction
The Welsh Foundation guide uses nhw with third-person plural verb forms. Its preposition tables also show personal forms ending with nhw, including atyn nhw in the sending and writing context. A Welsh plural reference can therefore appear as the actor in one clause and inside a recipient expression in another.
In written standard Swedish, Isof recommends de as the subject pronoun and dem as an object or after a preposition. Translating Welsh nhw consequently requires identifying its role in the complete clause. Choosing one Swedish form for every visible occurrence would erase a distinction the target spelling normally makes.
This is useful in a Welsh message about a group exchanging information. The group may send the first message and receive the reply. The same people remain involved, but the Swedish pronoun need not retain the same form. Following the people alone is insufficient; follow what each clause says they do or receive.
The beginning of a sentence is not proof of subjecthood
Isof explicitly discusses Dem skjutsade vi, where the object comes first. The initial dem refers to the people being driven, while vi identifies the people doing the driving. Moving an object forward does not make it the subject or change its standard written form.
For Welsh-to-Swedish translation, this matters when the source highlights a recipient or another affected participant. Preserve that emphasis without converting the highlighted person into the actor. The target choice must come from the resulting Swedish clause structure, not from a rule that its first personal reference must be de.
The Welsh Foundation tables are helpful here because their inflected prepositions encode a relationship to a participant. At in a recipient construction is not a free pronoun meaning they. When reorganizing the clause in Swedish, preserve the sending or directing relationship before selecting the pronoun. Otherwise a fluent-looking sentence can reverse who sends information to whom.
A conversational Welsh source does not require dom everywhere
Isof describes de and dem as neutral choices in standard written Swedish, including workplace texts and correspondence with authorities. It also recognizes dom in personal writing and in dialogue representing speech. These are register choices; dom is not simply a spelling error whenever it occurs.
A Welsh chat and a Welsh message being submitted to an institution may contain the same plural pronoun, yet their Swedish translations can reasonably differ in presentation. The intended text type supplies information that the Welsh pronoun itself cannot provide. A translation for a formal submission should not become conspicuously conversational merely because the original was typed quickly.
Conversely, quoted informal dialogue may benefit from preserving its spoken character. Decide whether the translation is reproducing a person’s voice or presenting information in neutral writing. Only then choose how to represent the plural reference. In this pair, grammatical role determines de versus dem under the standard pattern, while register determines whether the more conversational dom serves the passage.
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