Learn about Filipino sentence structure
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Intro |
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| Alisha: How are sentences structured in Filipino? |
| Danilo: And are the rules rigid? |
| Alisha: At FilipinoPod101.com, we hear these questions often. In the following situation, Ben Lee, a foreign-exchange student, thinks he sees a famous Filipino singer as he's walking with a friend. He gestures to his friend, Sonny Salazar, who then notices the celebrity and responds, "I know him; he's Bamboo." |
| Ben Lee: Kilala ko siya, siya si Bamboo. |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: Kilala ko siya, siya si Bamboo. |
| Sonny Salazar: Ako rin, kilala ko siya. |
| Alisha: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: Kilala ko siya, siya si Bamboo. |
| Alisha: "I know him; he's Bamboo." |
| Sonny Salazar: Ako rin, kilala ko siya. |
| Alisha: "I know him too." |
Lesson focus |
| Alisha: In this lesson, we will be discussing how sentences are structured in Filipino and how rigid the rules are. The good news is that the Filipino language is really one of the easiest to learn. Mastering the grammar and the learning the vocabulary will take no time at all compared to learning other, more complex languages. |
| The Filipino language is also more flexible than, for instance, the English language. English, and most European languages follow a subject-verb-object sequence, but, in Filipino, the verb can also come before either the object or the subject. Let's look at an example of this. We'll start with the subject-verb-object order: |
| Danilo: Si Jack ay nag-aaral ng Filipino. |
| Alisha: This means "Jack is studying Filipino.." Now, let's listen to the verb-subject-object order: |
| Danilo: Nag-aaral si Jack ng Filipino. |
| Alisha: Directly translated, this would be, "Studying Jack Filipino," and now let's listen to the verb-object-subject sequence: |
| Danilo: Nag-aaral ng Filipino si Jack. |
| Alisha: Directly translated, this would be, "Studying Filipino Jack.." This is a good example of how flexible the Filipino language can be. Let's look at it a little more closely. The subject-verb-object example that you heard first is usually used in formal or written Filipino and would not be commonly heard in the spoken language. You may also have heard that it was different from the other two constructions in that it contained that little word: |
| Danilo: ay |
| Alisha: There is some debate about how exactly this word can be understood from the perspective of an English language speaker. In most cases, it can probably be directly translated to "is." That's definitely how it's used in our example sentence. Listen again: |
| Danilo: Si Jack ay nag-aaral ng Filipino. |
| Alisha: There are those who argue that it is the same as the copula "to be" while others would argue that it functions more as a comma or a slight pause or perhaps as the equal sign is used in math. Still others say it can't be considered a verb because it can be used in a sentence with other verbs. Listen to this example: |
| Danilo: Ang pusa ay kumain ng daga. |
| Alisha: This means, "The cat ate a mouse." As you can hear, the word: |
| Danilo: ay |
| Alisha: is used in the same sentence as the verb: |
| Danilo: kumain |
| Alisha: which means "eat." The equivalent English sentence would be "The cat is ate a mouse," and, as you can hear, it sounds strange and wrong. For this reason, we can say that the word |
| Danilo: ay |
| Alisha: is not the same as the "to be" copula in English, even though it is often used in the same way. Think of it as a very flexible linking word that is unique to the Filipino language. One thing you can be sure of when it comes to this word is that it is only used in the subject-verb-object sequence. |
| I'm sure you also noticed another little word that was common to all these sentences. It sounds like this: |
| Danilo: ng |
| Alisha: This is an enclitic marker. What that means is that it is a marker that takes very little emphasis and often forms part of the preceding word. It is a marker because it tells us that the word following it is not the focal noun. Listen to our verb-subject-object sentence again: |
| Danilo: Nag-aaral si Jack ng Filipino. |
| Alisha: In this case, it is the marker for "Filipino," indicating that "Filipino" is the non-focused noun. |
| What marker is used to indicate the focused noun then? Well, that's usually the marker: |
| Danilo: ang |
| Alisha: Consider this example, which means "the name of the child": |
| Danilo: ang pangalan ng bata. |
| Alisha: In this case, the marker |
| Danilo: ang |
| Alisha: is placed before |
| Danilo: pangalan |
| Alisha: which means "name," thereby making "name" the focused noun in this sentence. It is because of these markers that Filipino sentence order can be so flexible. |
| Let's quickly look at the word: |
| Danilo: si |
| Alisha: which, as you will have heard in some of the sentences we have constructed, is used before a proper name. Listen again: |
| Danilo: Nag-aaral ng Filipino si Jack. |
| Alisha: This is not something we find in English, but it is quite an important word to use in Filipino. |
| Some more good news for learners of the Filipino language is that there is essentially only one preposition of place and time. It sounds like this: |
| Danilo: sa |
| Alisha: It can be used as "at," "in," "on," and "to" for instance. Let's look at an example meaning—"He studies Filipino at home.": |
| Danilo: Sa bahay siya nag-aaral ng Filipino. |
| Alisha: And now another, meaning—"He studies Filipino in the evening." |
| Danilo: Sa gabi siya nag-aaral ng Filipino. |
| Alisha: As you can hear, it was used as both "at" and "in" in these sentences. |
| Another thing you might have noticed is that the preposition was placed at the beginning of these sentences. Translated directly into English, the last sentence you heard would be "In the evening, he studies Filipino." This is the most natural way to use prepositions or prepositional phrases in Filipino. It sounds natural when translated directly into English as well. One can also place the preposition after the object, just like in English. Listen to these sentences meaning "He studies Filipino at home: |
| Danilo: Nag-aaral siya ng Filipino sa bahay. |
| Alisha: As you can hear, the preposition comes after the object. Directly translated, it would be "Studies he Filipino at home." While this is similar to English word order, when it comes to writing in Filipino, the preposition can be placed before the object, unlike in English. Listen to this sentence: |
| Danilo: Nag-aaral siya sa bahay ng Filipino. |
| Alisha: This would translate directly as "Studies he at home Filipino." |
| As you can see, I was not joking when I said the Filipino language was flexible. |
| In this lesson, we've discussed several small words and markers that are unique to the Filipino language. Let's have a look at one more. This word can be used to transform a statement or a command into a question. It sounds like this: |
| Danilo: ba |
| Alisha: Let's look at some examples, beginning with the statement "Jack is studying Tagalog": |
| Danilo: Nag-aaral si Jack ng Tagalog. |
| Alisha: Now, let's change it into a question: |
| Danilo: Nag-aaral ba si Jack ng Tagalog? |
| Alisha: In this case, the question word was added after the verb. It can also be added after a noun or at the end of a sentence. Let's look at an example of how it is used after a noun. We'll begin with the statement, "Jack is studying.": |
| Danilo: Si Jack ay nag-aaral. |
| Alisha: Now, let's add our little question word: |
| Danilo: Si Jack ba nag-aaral? |
| Alisha: Simple, right? Sometimes, constructing a question sentence can be even simpler. All you have to do is change the intonation of a statement, if speaking, or add a question mark if writing. This works especially well if there is an aspect of surprise to the question. Let's imagine Jack hates studying, but our speaker has learned that he is studying. So, the speaker asks by changing the intonation of the statement sentence: |
| Danilo: Nag-aaral si Jack? |
| Alisha: Also very simple. As I mentioned before, Filipino is easy to learn. In fact, if you are wanting to learn a new language but unsure of where to start, I would highly recommend Filipino! |
| Recall 1 |
| Alisha: Let's now take a closer look at the dialogue. Do you remember how Ben says, "I know him; he's Bamboo?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Ben Lee: Kilala ko siya, siya si Bamboo. |
| Recall 2 |
| Alisha: Now, let's take a look at our second sentence. Do you remember how Sonny answers "I know him too?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Sonny Salazar: Ako rin, kilala ko siya. |
| Summary |
| Alisha: In this lesson, we talked about how sentences are structured in Filipino and about how flexible the language is. We pointed out that Filipino uses markers to indicate emphasis in a sentence. For instance, the marker: |
| Danilo: ng |
| Alisha: is used to indicate the non-focused noun and the marker |
| Danilo: ang |
| Alisha: is used to indicate which noun is focused. The tiny word: |
| Danilo: ay |
| Alisha: can function in several ways. It can be used in the same way as the "to be" copula in English, or it can act as a comma or a pause or even an equals sign. It is a very versatile word. Another tiny word is: |
| Danilo: ba |
| Alisha: and this can be used to convert a declarative or imperative sentence into an interrogative sentence. For instance, if I take the sentence, "You are studying.": |
| Danilo: Nag-aaral ka. |
| Alisha: and add our little word, I can change it into a question—"Are you studying?" |
| Danilo: Nag-aaral ka ba? |
| Alisha: We also looked at the word: |
| Danilo: sa |
| Alisha: which is a preposition of place and time and is very versatile because it can be used as "on," "in," and "at" among others. Here's an example, meaning—"The book on the table.": |
| Danilo: Ang libro sa mesa. |
| Cultural Insight |
| Alisha: Filipino is actually the fourth most-spoken language in the United States, which is all the more reason to learn it. Not only is it a simple language to learn, but you are bound to find people with whom you can practice using it if you live in the U.S and probably elsewhere as well. Not only that, but you will find that, in most daily situations, you can get away with having a basic vocabulary of about eight hundred words. Filipino also borrows a lot of words from English and Spanish, making it even easier to learn the vocabulary if you know either of those languages. |
Outro |
| Alisha: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Danilo: Paalam. |
| Alisha: See you soon! |
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