Learn the basic facts concerning grammatical cases in Filipino
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Intro |
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| Alisha: How many grammatical cases are there in Filipino? |
| Danilo: And how do they work? |
| Alisha: At FilipinoPod101.com, we hear these questions often. In this scenario, Sasha Lee is confused about the number of cases in Filipino. She asks a befriended teacher, Rose Reyes, |
| "How many cases are there in Filipino?" |
| Sasha Lee: Ilang cases ang mayroon sa Pilipino? |
| Dialogue |
| Sasha Lee: Ilang cases ang mayroon sa Pilipino? |
| Rose Reyes: Mayroong tatlong cases. |
| Alisha: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasha Lee: Ilang cases ang mayroon sa Pilipino? |
| Alisha: "How many cases are there in Filipino?" |
| Rose Reyes: Mayroong tatlong cases. |
| Alisha: "There are three cases." |
Lesson focus |
| Alisha: In the dialogue for this lesson, Sasha Lee asked how many cases there are in Filipino and Rose replied that there were three. In this lesson, we will be looking at those three grammatical cases and learning how they work. To expand on what Rose said, the three cases she was referring to are all noun cases. They are the direct, indirect, and oblique cases. |
| While the fact that there are only three cases may make it seem like this will be a simple lesson, don't get the champagne out just yet. In order to know how to use the correct case, one must also understand some things about verb conjugation and word order in Filipino sentences. |
| Because there are so many layers to this grammatical cake, we are not going to be able to analyze verb conjugation and Filipino sentence structure in much detail. It would be a good idea to do your own research on these topics, and one way you can do that is to listen to the lessons in our Filipino series that deal with these topics. For now, let's just talk very briefly about verb conjugation and why it's important to understand. |
| In Filipino, verbs conjugate in two fundamental ways—they can be actor-focused or object-focused. In other words, the focus of the sentence might be on the person or thing performing the action, or on the object, and the verb must agree with this focus. Verbs conjugate through the attachment of various affixes. Actor-focus verbs are usually denoted by two affixes. These are: |
| Danilo: -UM |
| Alisha: and |
| Danilo: -MAG. |
| Alisha: Object-focus verbs are most often indicated by these three affixes: |
| Danilo: I-, -IN, and -AN |
| Alisha: As I said, the focus of this lesson is not on verb conjugation and you can learn more about that in our other lessons. The most important thing to take note of is that there are actor-focus and object-focus verbs. |
| Now that we've established that, let's move on to the topic of sentence structure in Filipino. Really, the only thing you need to keep in mind is that, in Filipino, the basic sentence structure is usually verb-subject-object. Where in English one might say "I ate bread," the Filipino structure would be "Ate I bread" or |
| Danilo: Kumain ako ng tinapay. |
| Alisha: In this sentence, you may have noticed the marker |
| Danilo: ng |
| Alisha: This was included in the sentence in order to tell us that "bread" or |
| Danilo: tinapay |
| Alisha: is the object of the verb. |
| And that brings us to the noun cases. Nouns, in Filipino, are not inflected. Instead, in order to indicate the case, a marker such as the one you just heard is used. As I mentioned earlier, the three noun cases are the direct, indirect, and oblique cases. Let's look at each of these in a little more detail now. We'll start with the direct case. The marker that is used to indicate the direct case in Filipino is: |
| Danilo: ang |
| Alisha: It tells us that the noun it modifies is the main focus of the sentence. Listen to this sentence, which means "The woman will cook the fish for dinner." Focus on the word |
| Danilo: isda |
| Alisha: which means "fish." Right, so here's the sentence: |
| Danilo: Iluluto ng babae ang isda para sa hapunan. |
| Alisha: Did you hear the marker for the word "fish"? It was |
| Danilo: ang |
| Alisha: and it tells us that the fish is the focus of the sentence. The verb in that sentence was |
| Danilo: Iluluto |
| Alisha: and, if you know your verb conjugations, then you will know that because it starts with |
| Danilo: I |
| Alisha: it is an object-focus verb. The fish, of course, is the object, and it is the focus of the sentence. Because of that, the verb must be an object-focus verb. Before we look at the indirect case, I want to point out that sometimes the marker |
| Danilo: ang |
| Alisha: can also indicate that the noun is one that has been mentioned previously in the conversation. For instance, if someone says: |
| Danilo: Kinain ko ang sopas. |
| Alisha: or "I ate the macaroni soup," then the soup they are referring to is soup that has been talked about at some earlier point in the conversation. |
| As you can see from these examples, this marker can sometimes be translated as the definite English article: "the." |
| Now that you have a basic understanding of the direct case, let's move on to the indirect case. When it comes to the indirect case, the marker that one needs is |
| Danilo: ng |
| Alisha: This marker tells us, for one thing, that the noun it modifies is not the focus of the sentence. It can mark the subject or the object of a sentence. Let's look at the same sentence we used earlier — the one about the fish — but this time, let's change the focus of the sentence. Listen carefully for where the two markers fall. Here is the new version of the sentence: |
| Danilo: Magluluto ang babae ng isda para sa hapunan. |
| Alisha: It means exactly the same thing — "The woman will cook the fish for dinner." However, this time, the focus is on "the woman." Did you hear the words |
| Danilo: ang babae? |
| Alisha: This tells you that now "the woman" is the focus of the sentence. You may have noticed that the verb at the beginning of the sentence was different too. Previously, it was |
| Danilo: Iluluto |
| Alisha: but this time it was |
| Danilo: Magluluto |
| Alisha: which tells us that we are now dealing with an actor-focus sentence because the verb is an actor-focus verb, beginning with |
| Danilo: mag. |
| Alisha: Our indirect case marker is now in front of the word for fish: |
| Danilo: ng isda |
| Alisha: Let's compare those two sentences one more time. Listen for the positions of the markers. First, the noun for "fish" is in the direct case: |
| Danilo: Iluluto ng babae ang isda para sa hapunan. |
| Alisha: and now in the indirect case: |
| Danilo: Magluluto ang babae ng isda para sa hapunan. |
| Alisha: Hopefully, that makes the distinction quite clear. |
| The last case we will be learning about is the oblique case. Oblique markers are not unlike prepositions in English in that they can tell us about location. They are also the indirect object of the verb. Let's look at an example sentence in order to explain. Listen for the oblique marker |
| Danilo: sa. |
| Alisha: Here is the sentence: |
| Danilo: Pupunta sina Maria at Roberto sa bahay ni Miguel. |
| Alisha: It means "Maria and Roberto will go to Miguel's house." The marker I asked you to listen for came before the word for "house" and it could be translated as "to." Listen to the part of the sentence that means "to Miguel's house: |
| Danilo: sa bahay ni Miguel |
| Alisha: That should make the oblique case a little easier to understand. |
| You might have noticed that, in this sentence, you could hear none of the markers that we have talked about. And yet, there was definitely a noun or nouns in the sentence that were the focus. Why is that? |
| Well, that is because case markers fall into two classes. There are markers we use with people's names and then there are markers we use for everything else. The ones we use with people's names are called "personal" markers, and the others are called "common" markers. Let's quickly look at the personal case marker that was used in this sentence. It is plural because there were two names mentioned. Listen again to just the beginning of the sentence: |
| Danilo: Pupunta sina Maria at Roberto... |
| Alisha: The marker is |
| Danilo: sina |
| Alisha: and it is the personal plural equivalent of |
| Danilo: ang |
| Alisha: telling us that the two people are the focus of this sentence. For the record, the personal singular equivalent is |
| Danilo: si |
| Alisha: Unfortunately, we won't be able to discuss all of these marker variations in this lesson, so it's a good idea to research them on your own. In terms of grammar, these are not easy concepts to wrap one's head around. Filipino grammar differs greatly from English grammar, and the best way to understand it is to practice! The more you use it, the more you will start to understand it intuitively as well as logically. Be patient, practice a lot, and you will get it soon enough! |
| Practice Section |
| Alisha: Let's review what we heard in this lesson. I will say the target sentence in English, then you should respond by saying the sentence out loud in Filipino. Danilo will then model the correct answer. Listen to him carefully, with the focus on pronunciation, and then repeat. |
| The first sentence is "How many cases are there in Filipino?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Danilo: Ilang cases ang mayroon sa Pilipino? |
| Alisha: Did you get it right? Listen to Danilo again, and repeat. |
| Danilo: Ilang cases ang mayroon sa Pilipino? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Danilo: Ilang cases ang mayroon sa Pilipino? |
| Alisha: The second sentence is "There are 3 cases." |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Danilo: Mayroong 3 cases. |
| Alisha: How did you do this time? Again, listen to Danilo and repeat. |
| Danilo: Mayroong 3 cases. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Danilo: Mayroong 3 cases. |
| Cultural Insight |
| Alisha: On a final note — it is important to add that pronouns are also affected by noun cases in Filipino. For instance, the first person singular in the direct case is |
| Danilo: ako |
| Alisha: Let's listen to it in a sentence, meaning "I am a husband." |
| Danilo: Asawa ako. |
| Alisha: However, in the indirect case, the first person singular is |
| Danilo: ko |
| Alisha: Here's a sentence to illustrate it: |
| Danilo: Siya ang asawa ko. |
| Alisha: It means "He is my husband." And finally, in the oblique case, it is |
| Danilo: akin |
| Alisha: Let's hear it in a sentence meaning "My husband gave a ring to me." |
| Danilo: Nagbigay sa akin ng singsing ang asawa ko. |
| Alisha: Naturally, all the pronouns can be modified in the same way and it's not that difficult to learn them. As I said, with a bit of practice and study, you will soon get the gist of the grammar. Filipino is, after all, one of the easiest languages to learn! |
Outro |
| Alisha: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Danilo: Paalam. |
| Alisha: See you soon! |
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