From the stem hed- of hedeg (“to fly”) with the suffix -fan (from Proto-Celtic *-man) forming a verbnoun. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pet-. Cognate with Latin petō (“to beg; to aim at”), Ancient Greek πέτομαι (pétomai, “to fly”) and Welsh adar (“bird”).
hedfan (first-person singular present hedfanaf, not mutable)
| singular | plural | impersonal | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| first | second | third | first | second | third | |||
| present indicative/future | hedfanaf | hedfani | hedfan, hedfana | hedfanwn | hedfanwch | hedfanant | hedfanir | |
| imperfect (indicative/subjunctive)/ conditional |
hedfanwn | hedfanit | hedfanai | hedfanem | hedfanech | hedfanent | hedfanid | |
| preterite | hedfanais | hedfanaist | hedfanodd | hedfanasom | hedfanasoch | hedfanasant | hedfanwyd | |
| pluperfect | hedfanaswn | hedfanasit | hedfanasai | hedfanasem | hedfanasech | hedfanasent | hedfanasid, hedfanesid | |
| present subjunctive | hedfanwyf | hedfanych | hedfano | hedfanom | hedfanoch | hedfanont | hedfaner | |
| imperative | — | hedfan, hedfana | hedfaned | hedfanwn | hedfanwch | hedfanent | hedfaner | |
| verbal noun | hedfan | |||||||
| verbal adjectives | hedfanedig hedfanadwy | |||||||
| Inflected colloquial forms | singular | plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| first | second | third | first | second | third | |
| future | hedfana i, hedfanaf i | hedfani di | hedfanith o/e/hi, hedfaniff e/hi | hedfanwn ni | hedfanwch chi | hedfanan nhw |
| conditional | hedfanwn i, hedfanswn i | hedfanet ti, hedfanset ti | hedfanai fo/fe/hi, hedfansai fo/fe/hi | hedfanen ni, hedfansen ni | hedfanech chi, hedfansech chi | hedfanen nhw, hedfansen nhw |
| preterite | hedfanais i, hedfanes i | hedfanaist ti, hedfanest ti | hedfanodd o/e/hi | hedfanon ni | hedfanoch chi | hedfanon nhw |
| imperative | — | hedfana | — | — | hedfanwch | — |
| Note: All other forms are periphrastic, as usual in colloquial Welsh. | ||||||