Learn Cebuano

Second class MARKERS for use with proper nouns - ni / nila ni

ni ( ni ) – of (proper noun)

nila ni ( ni-la-ni ) - same as above but plural

Using the same example from the lesson on SECOND CLASS personal pronouns:

Gamay ang balay niya - His or Her house is small

We will replace the personal pronoun with proper noun

Gamay ang balay ni John – The house of John is small (John’s house is small)

Negosyo ( ne-gos-yo ) – business

Ug ( ug ) - and

Here is another example:

Negosyo niya – The business of him or her (His or Her business)

Negosyo ni John – The business of John (John’s business)

If we want to include John’s business partner:

Negosyo nila ni John ug nila ni Peter – The business of John and Peter

Or refer to a house belonging to John and his wife Mary.

Balay nila ni John ug nila ni Mary – The house of John and Mary

You should review the FIRST CLASS personal pronouns before moving to the SECOND CLASS.

Here are the SECOND CLASS personal pronouns:

nako ( na-ko ) – My
nimo ( ni-mo ) – Your
niya ( ni-ya ) – His or Her
nato ( na-to ) – Our (inclusive of the person being addressed)
namo ( na-mo ) – Our (exclusive of the person being addressed)
ninyo ( nin-yo ) – Your (plural)
nila ( ni-la ) - Thier

As stated with FIRST CLASS there can only be one used in a sentence but with SECOND CLASS there is no limit on how many you can use.
Gamay ang balay. (The house is small)

Now lets expand this sentence to denote ownership of the house.

Gamay ang balay nako  - My house is small

You can see we are using the SECOND CLASS personal pronoun.

Attaching SECOND CLASS personal pronouns to objects denotes ownership.

In a previous lesson we had:

Gamay ang balay ako / ko WOULD PROBABLY BE UNDERSTOOD BUT VERY WRONG GRAMMAR

Using the wrong CLASS of personal pronoun can often change the entire meaning of the sentence.

So here is the example for each SECOND CLASS personal pronoun expanding our description of a small house to denote ownership:

Gamay ang balay nako – My house is small
Gamay ang balay nimo – Your house is small
Gamay ang balay niya - His or Her house is small
Gamay ang balay nato – Our house is small (inclusive of the person being addressed)
Gamay ang balay namo – Our house is small (exclusive of the person being addressed)
Gamay ang balay ninyo – Your house is small (plural as in belongs to those being addressed)
Gamay ang balay nila – Their house is small

The MARKER ANG is FIRST CLASS and identifies the topic of the sentence which in this case is the house.

There are other ways to construct sentences with the same meaning but making other parts of the sentence the topic.

This is often done for emphases or continuation of a previous topic.

It can also be the personal choice of the speaker what form the like to use.

This is an advanced area we will look at in the future but for now I just wanted to touch on it here.

In our next lesson we will attach SECOND CLASS personal pronouns to VERBS.

Filipino Grammar is very different from English and any attempt to try to directly relate its structure to that of English will result in confusion.

My teacher uses a grammar method that classifies pronouns and markers into three different classes

Here are the FIRST CLASS personal pronouns:

ako ( a-ko ) / ko – I
ikaw ( i-kaw ) / ka – You
siya ( si-ya ) / s’ya – He or She
kita ( ki-ta ) / ta – We (inclusive of the person being addressed)
kami ( ka-mi ) / mi - We (exclusive of the person being addressed)
kamo ( ka-mo ) / mo – All of you (you plural)
sila ( si-la ) – They

There should only be one of these FIRST CLASS pronouns or markers (coming later) in a sentence.

They identify the topic or subject of the sentence and using more than one can be confusing as well as sounding bad to a Cebuano’s ears.

All of the above personal pronouns have a corresponding SECOND CLASS and THIRD CLASS variations.

In previous lessons we had the word balay which means house. You can not use the FIRST CLASS personal pronouns to denote ownership.  You need to use the SECOND CLASS personal pronouns.

This is the meaning when using the FIRST CLASS personal pronoun:

Balay ko – I am a house
Balay ka – You are a house
etc.

Lamesa kini – This is a table (close usualy within reach)
Lamese kana – That is table (futher away usualy out of reach)
Lamesa kadto – That over there is a table (far away)

The above examples of distance above are a guide only. 

Really the use is contextually based dependant on the distance relationship of one object to another.

If you were talking about the house you lived in you could use
…Kini nga balay (kining balay) – “this house”.

Kana can be used to describe an adjoining house
…kana nga balay (kanang balay) – “that house”.

Kadto could be used to refer to a house in another barangay
…kadto nga balay (kadtong balay) – “that house over there”

If for example you owned three houses and were referring to each as above you could use kini for the house where you are currently located while kana could be describing house in a different city and kadto could be describing a house in a different country.

How to specify a specific object

In the last lesson we had the example of how to say this is a table

Lamesa kini – This (here) is A table

To specify a specific table you can use the ANG marker.

Kini ang lamesa – This (here) is THE table (specific table that becomes the subject)

The ang marker makes the table the topic of the sentence.  There may be other tables in the Proximity but this sentence structure is pertaining to a particular table.

In a previous lesson we had the example of how to say she is beautiful.

Gwapa Siya – She is beautiful

We can se the ANG marker to specify a particular girl as being the beautiful one.

Siya ang gwapa – She is the beautiful (she is the beautiful one)

This specifies one girl as being beautiful and it is implied that is more attractive other girls that might be with her or part of a grouping.

In the previous lesson we saw the example of how to say She is the beautifl one.   This emphased the beautiful of one particluar girl over any other present or part of a grouping of girls.

There are actualy more direct ways of specifying comparisons using Mas, Kaayo and Pinaka.

Kaayo ( ka-a-yo ) – very
Mas ( mas ) (prefix + adjective) – more
Pinaka ( pi-na-ka ) (prefix + adjective) - most

If we want to say that a girl is very beautifuly then the instensifyer kaayo is used.

Gwapa kaayo siya – She is very beautiful

If we want to say one girl is more beautiful than others in comapirson then the prefix Mas is used.

Masgwapa siya – She is the more beautiful (the other girl or girls she is being directly compared to)

If we want to say that one girl is the most beautiful of all the girls in comparison then Pinaka is used.

Pinaka-gwapa siya – She is the most beautiful (of all the girls)

You can use these to make comparative descriptions about the size of a house.

Dako kaayo ang balay – The house is very big

Masdako ang balay – The house is bigger (than the other house it is compared to)

Pinaka-dako ang balay – The house is the biggest (of all houses)