Reading with confidence – WJECSpotting the answers in written texts

When trying to spot the correct answer in a written text, you need to carefully consider what type of answer is required, eg do you need to find the name of a person, a place name, a time, a price or perhaps a reason?

Look at this table to know the meaning of certain question words:

You should be able to spot some answers quite easily if you follow this general advice:

Pwy? (Who?) questions:

Look for a reference to a person, eg ffrind or a group of people, eg pobl ifanc. They may even be named, in which case, there may be a capital letter.

Gyda phwy? (With who?) questions:

Again, look for references to people.

Beth? (What?) questions:

Look for an object, an activity or an idea to answer this type of question.

You might also see a gwneudbeth? (does what?) question, in which case you need to look for an activity or a verb (a doing word).

Ble? (Where?) questions:

The answer will always be a place. It could be a venue such as canolfan hamdden or canolfan siopa. The answer could also be a town, village, city etc, therefore you will need to look out for a word that begins with a capital letter such as Caerdydd or Bangor.

Pam? (Why?) questions:

The easiest way to find the answer to this type of question is to look for the word achos but don’t rely on this every time because the word may not always be used.

Pryd? (When?) questions:

Look for a reference to time, eg a day of the week, a date or a word that denotes time such as yfory or ddoe. Again, you could look out for the capital letter at the beginning of the word such as Mai or Ionawr.

Faint o’r gloch? (What time?) questions:

Look for a time, eg hanner awr wedi pedwar or chwarter i ddeg.

Faint?/Sawl? (How many?) questions:

The answer will usually be a number – it could be a figure but it may also be a word.