User:Joemaza/Cebuano grammar

Cebuano grammar is the study of forms and uses of words in sentences. Cebuano is a language spoken in the southern Philippines.

Personal Pronouns
Pronouns are inflected for person, number and case. No gender distinctions are made for the third person singular: he and she are both translated in Cebuano as siya.

The three cases are absolutive, ergative and oblique.

* - Ta only when the object is the second person singular, i.e., ka, mo, etc. For example, Nakita ta ka, NOT *Nakita ko ka.

Usage of full and short forms
The short forms are used most often in conversation. However, the full forms must be used when they occur on their own as a predicate.

Examples (Those marked with an asterisk, "*", are ungrammatical):

Aku si Juan. I am John. *Ku si Juan.  Kamo'y moadto ngadto sa Banawa. You (plu.) are going to Banawa. *Mo'y moadto ngadto sa Banawa.

But... Mao ku si Juan. Mao mo'y moadto ngadto sa Banawa.

First Person Plural: Clusivity
In Cebuano, like most other Austronesian languages, the first person plural forms encode clusivity. This distinction, not found in most European languages, signifies whether or not the addressee is included.

Examples: Mo'adto mi sa escuela'han. We (someone else and I but not you) will go to school. Mo'adto ta sa escuela'han. We (you and I and perhaps someone else) will go to school.

Demonstratives
Cebuano demonstratives are as follows:

* When the demonstrative is used as a predicate, the full form must be used. ** Both forms, those beginning with 'ng-' and those with 'd-', are interchangeable and correspond to the deictives below. † Although not represented in the orthography, forms in this row end in a glottal stop: kana /kanaˀ/, na /naˀ/, niana /niˀanaˀ/, nganha /ŋanhaˀ/, diha /dihaˀ/, dinha /dinhaˀ/.

Examples:

Unsa kani? What's this? Kinsa na? Who is that? Gikan ni sa Presidente sa Filipinas, ning sulata. This letter is from the President of the Philippines Mangaon sila didto. They will eat there. Nikaon kadto ang mga tao ug mga bata didto sa fiesta. The people and children have already ate some of that in the festival.

Deictics
Deictics, words such as here and there, reference locations between the speaker and addressee. In addition to the same four-way distinction of proximity for demonstratives (near speaker, near speaker and addressee, near addressee and remote), deictics can express three tenses:


 * Present: "X is here/there now"
 * Past: "X was here/there"
 * Future: "X will be here/there"

The present and future tense forms can preceed or follow the words or phrases they modify by linking with nga. The past tense forms, however, only have a past meaning if they preceed their words or phrases. If they follow, they convey no tense.

The 'ng-' forms are always tenseless. They follow the words or phrases they modify and can substitute equivalent past forms. In addition, they show movement or motion to the relative location which past forms cannot.

† Forms in this row end in a glottal stop: naa /naˀaˀ/, anaa /ˀanaˀaˀ/, diha /dihaˀ/, dinha /dinhaˀ/, anha /ˀanhaˀ/, diha /dihaˀ/, dinha /dinhaˀ/, nganha /ŋanhaˀ/.

Examples: Dia diri ang bata. The child is over here. Toa ang lolo sa Amerika. Grandfather is in America. Dinhi ang Doktor gahapon. The doctor was here yesterday. Adto siya sa Maynila. She will be in Manila. Midagan ang bata ngadto sa balay niya. The child ran there (thither) to his/her house.

Nouns
Cebuano nouns are of two classes: personal and general. Personal nouns refer to persons or personified objects and animals and vocative names. General nouns are others than that. Nouns do not change form as they change for case as the pronouns do, but each case is introduced by case markers instead.

The use of sa VS. ug in the oblique case is a matter of definiteness when the noun is the object of an actor-focus verb.

Examples: (Definite) Mipalit si Juan sa sakyanan. John bought the car. (There was a car John was thinking about buying, so today he bought it. It was the one we were selling. etc.) (Indefinite) Mipalit si Juan ug sakyanan. John bought a car (I heard that John bought a car. I don't know more about the car.)

Cases of nouns and uses in the sentence
Cebuano nouns are of two classes: personal and general. Personal nouns refers to persons or personified objects and animals and vocative names. General nouns are others than that. Nouns do not change their spelling as they change case as in pronouns but are introduced by case markers instead.

The first case that has to be learned is the kinsa (nominative) case also called the absolutive case. This case is the topic case. The topic can easily identified most of the time by looking for the word or term introduced by the nominative case marker. The nominative case marker for personal nouns is "si" and the nominative case marker for general nouns is "ang".

Examples: The only case where the kinsa case is not the topic is in equational type sentences, in which the topic and the predicate are both in kinsa case.

Examples:

Who is the President of the Philippines?.

Kinsa ang Presidente sa Filipinas?

The next important case to learn is the gitagan'an case also known as oblique case. The gitagan'an case tells to whom a thing or an action is intended to. The case marker for general nouns in this case is the particle "sa". For personal nouns the marker is "kang".

Examples: The tag'iya case is also known as the ergative case. The tag'iya case tells to whom a thing or an action belongs (who is doing it) and functions like an adjective either as a modifier or an adjective that stands by its own. For general nouns the case marker is "sa" while for personal nouns the marker is "ni" except when it function as an adjective that stands by its own in which the marker is "kang".

Examples:

The owner of the company.

Tag'iya sa mga compania.

''When an adjective stands by its own it is treated as a base word and therefore can be modified by case markers and function like a noun.

The word "nga"
The word "nga" is used when a word (such as an adjective) modifies another word (such as noun). The word being modified is the substance while the modifier is the antecedent. Nga appears between the substance and the antecedent. It is often clipped into ng after a word that ends in vowel. If the antecedent is a noun it comes after nga and the substance; otherwise, it usually follows the two.

Examples:

Enclitic particles

 * 1) ba: used for yes-and-no questions and optionally for other types of questions.
 * 2) gayud/gyud : indeed; used in affirmations or emphasis.
 * 3) kay: because
 * 4) lang/ra/da: limiting particle; just, only.
 * 5) man: even, even if, even though, although
 * 6) na: now, already (past positive tense), anymore (past negative tense)
 * 7) pa: still, else
 * 8) ug: and
 * 9) usab, upod : also

Na and pa are not used in the same sentence.

Interrogatives

 * Unsa?                       What?
 * Asa?                        Where? (for a place or person)
 * Diin?, Dis'a?           Where?
 * Hain?, Saa?             Where? (for an object)
 * Kinsa?                      Who?
 * Ngano?                      Why?
 * Kang'kinsa?                 To whom?
 * Giunsa?                     How? (past)
 * Unsaon?                     How? (future)
 * Kanus'a?                    When?
 * Pila ka buok?, Pila?    How many?
 * Tagpila?                    How much?
 * Diay ba?                    Really?

The word asa and hain:

Asa and hain&mdash;both mean where&mdash;have distinct uses in formal Cebuano usage.

Asa is used when asking about a place.
 * Asa ka padulong? (Where are you going?)
 * Asa ta molarga? (Where are we traveling to?)

Hain is used when asking about a food or thing.
 * Hain na ang gunting? (Where is the pair of scissors?)
 * Hain na ang pag'kaon sa fiesta? (Where is the food for the festival)

In spoken Cebuano, however, asa is commonly used to replace hain. You rarely hear hain being used, except by older generations of Cebuano-speakers.

Verbs
The functionalist school of grammar maintains that Cebuano verbs have no tense but rather aspect, specifically the aspect of inception, that is whether the action has been initiated or not. The aspect of completion is not readily shown by verbs in Cebuano.

There are only two aspects: the pagasugdan (incepted) aspect and the nasugdan (to be incepted) aspect.

Past actions are basically in the nasugdan aspect. Present actions are in the nasugdan aspect too unless they are habitual actions.

Habitual actions and future actions are in the to be pagasugdan aspect.

Examples on NASUGDAN ASPECT:

Past actions

1. The carpenters have began building the house.

The act had been started in the past therefore the Cebuano translation is:

"Ang mga trabahador nag sugod na ug himo sa balay."

2. It is finish.

The act had been started in the past therefore the Cebuano translation is:

"Na hu'man na gyud"

Present actions

1. "I' am going to the kitchen".

The act has been started before the statement is spoken therefore the Cebuano translation is:

"Nag padulong ko sa kusina."

2. "I am washing the dishes".

The act has been started before the statement is spoken therefore the Cebuano translation is:

"Nag hugas ko sa plato."

Examples of PAGASUGDAN ASPECT

Future actions

1. "The President of the Philippines has won."

The act has not happen yet therefore is has not yet started:

"Na kada'ug na ang Presidente sa Filipinas".

2. "Nag sogod na ang escuela'han".

The act has not happen yet therefore is has not yet started:

"The school have started".

Habitual actions

1. "The people from the province goes to the city to work."

Although the act had already happened she will still have to start the same act again and again (every morning) so the act itself is still to be started or pagasugdan pa and therefore:

"Ang mga ta'o sa provincia mo'adto sila sa ciudad para mo trabajo."

2. "How much is the cigarette?"

Although the act had already happened she will still have to start the same act again and again (always) so the act itself is still to be started or pagasugdan pa and therefore:

"Tag pila ang sigarillio?"


 * Cebuano verbs act as predicate or words that tell about the subject or the topic. This topic can either be the doer of the action, the recipient of the action, the purpose for the action, or the means by which the action was made possible. The form of the verb is dependent on the function of the topic in relation to said verb. Some Cebuano grammar teachers call it focus of the verb but some others call it voice.

Sentences
1) equational ( topic = predicate ) ~ in this sentence type you can interchange the topic and the predicate without changing the thought of the sentence.  a) "Mao kini ang Kabisay-an". = This is the Visayas. b) "Magbinisaya mi diri"                  = We speak Cebuano here.   c) "Ka'mao' ka mag binisaya?" = Do you know how to speak Cebuano?.

2) non-equational ( topic < predicate ) ~ in this sentence type the topic and the predicate are not interchangeable.  a) "Filipino ang mga Bisaya." = Visayans are Filipinos. b) "Unsa ang imong kinahanglan?"         = What do you need?   c) "Na unsa na ang politika?               = What is wrong with politics.

3) existential sentence of presence ~ sentences of this type tells the existence of a thing or idea.  a) "Adunay Diyos sa langit." = There is God in heaven. b) "Didto'y halas sa kahoy."               = There was a snake in the tree.

4) existential sentence of possession ~ sentences of this type tell about someone or something possessing something.  a) "Ang mga anghel sa langit adunay diyos." = (The angels in heaven have a God.) b) "Naa koy ilimnon sa balay."                                                          = (I have something to drink at home.)

5) locative sentence ~ this type of sentence tells the location of a thing.  a) "Ania ang kwarta." = Here is the money. b) "Tua siya sa bukid."                    = He/she is in the mountain.

6) meteorologic sentence ~ this type of sentence tells about weather condition, noise level, etc., of a place.   a) "Tugnaw dinhi sa Baguio City." = It is cold here in Baguio. b) "Init kaayo ang adlaw diri sa Sugbo."    = The weather is very hot in here in Cebu.

7) exclamatory remark ~ praises and unexpected discoveries belong here.

a) "Daghana nimo'g sakyanan!"            = You have plenty of cars   b) "Guapaha nimo!" = You are pretty c) "Kasaba ba ninyo!"                    = You are so noisy

8) imperatives ~ commands and requests  a) "Isugba kanang isda." = Grill that fish. b) "Ngari/Ali/Hali diri."                = Come here.   c) "Ayaw mo pa'nabako diri"               = Do not smoke here.

9) interrogatives ~ questions that are not answerable by yes or no.  a) "Kinsa ka?" = Who are you? b) "Unsay imong ngalan?"                  = What is your name?

10) confirmation ~ questions that are basically answered by yes or no. constructed like the first 6 sentence type with the insertion of the particle "ba" as a second term.  a) "Kini ba ang Kabisay-an?" = Is this the Visayas? b) "Kamao ba ka mo langoy?"               = Do you know how to swim?   c) "Unsa ba ang sinultihan ninyo?" = What language do you speak? d) "Isugba ba kining isda?"               = Shall this fish be grilled?