Language/Tagalog/Grammar/Basic-Sentence-Structure
Welcome to the "Complete 0 to A1 Tagalog Course"! As your Tagalog language teacher with 20 years of experience, I am excited to guide you through this journey of learning the language and discovering the rich culture of the Philippines. In this lesson, we will master the basic Tagalog sentence structure and how to form positive and negative simple sentences.
Basic Sentence Structure
In Tagalog, the basic sentence structure follows the subject-verb-object pattern. This means that the subject of the sentence comes first, followed by the verb, and then the object. Let's take a look at some examples:
| Tagalog | English Translation | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Si Maria | Maria | kumakain | is eating | ng tinapay. | bread. |
| Ako | I | nagbabasa | am reading | ng libro. | a book. |
As you can see from the examples above, the subject is always followed by the verb and then the object.
Another important aspect of Tagalog sentence structure is that adjectives and possessive pronouns come before the noun they describe. For example:
| Tagalog | English Translation | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maganda | Beautiful | ang | the | bulaklak | flower | ||||
| Ang | The | aming | our | bahay | house | malapit | is near | sa simbahan. | the church. |
In the first example, the word "maganda" (beautiful) comes before the noun "bulaklak" (flower). In the second example, the possessive pronoun "aming" (our) comes before the noun "bahay" (house).
Now let's learn how to form positive and negative simple sentences in Tagalog.
Positive Simple Sentences
To form a positive simple sentence in Tagalog, follow the subject-verb-object pattern. Let's take a look at some examples:
| Tagalog | English Translation | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Si Maria | Maria | nagluluto | is cooking | ng adobo. | adobo. |
| Nagbabasa | I am reading | ako | a book. | ||
| Sumasayaw | They are dancing | ang mga bata. | the children. |
In the examples above, we used the present tense markers "nag-" and "sum-" to indicate that the action is happening at the present time. You can also use the simple present tense marker "–um-" for actions that occur repeatedly. For example:
| Tagalog | English Translation | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kumakain | She is eating | siya | ng kanin. | rice. | |
| Umiinom | They are drinking | ng juice. | juice. |
Negative Simple Sentences
To create a negative simple sentence in Tagalog, add the negative marker "hindi" before the verb. Let's take a look at some examples:
| Tagalog | English Translation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hindi | I am not swimming | ako | lumalangoy. | . | |||
| Hindi | He does not | siya | play basketball | naglalaro | . | ||
| Hindi | We are not | tayo | nag-aaral | studying | ngayon. | today. |
In the examples above, we used the negative marker "hindi" before the verbs "lumalangoy" (swimming), "naglalaro" (playing), and "nag-aaral" (studying) to form negative sentences.
Congratulations on mastering the basic sentence structure and creating positive and negative simple sentences in Tagalog! In the next lesson, we will learn how to ask questions in Tagalog using question words.