Learn Cebuano

As a general rule QUESTION MARKER “BA” will precede a personal pronoun

Amerikano ba ko - Am I an American?

Amerikano ka ba - Are you an American?   (note the placement of ba)

Amerikano ba siya  - Is he an American?

Amerikano ba kita – Are we American?   (inclusive of who you are talking to)

Americaon ba kami – Are we American? (exclusive of who you are talking to)

Amerikano ba kamo – Are you all American?

Amerikano ba sila  - Are they American?

The “BA” precedes the personal pronouns except for “you”

Amerikano ba ka sounds very bad to Filipino ears.

Compared to English Cebuano has very few such exceptions.

Vocab:

Ba – Marker for a YES or NO question
Mahal - expensive
Balay - house
Abang – rent (more common)
Arkila – rent

You may have noticed Filipinos appending ba to English sometimes when they say something and expect a response that is either agreement or disagreement.

Mahal ang abang sa balay  -  The rent of the house is expensive

The addition of the ba question marker turns this statement into a question.

Mahal ba ang abang sa balay - Is the rent of the house expensive?

The ba question marker can only be used in YES or NO questions.
Vocab:

Maot – ugly
Salida – Show / Exit

The word maot translate to ugly but in Cebuano it can be used in a broader sense to describe something you did not like.

The word Salida is commonly used for show (TV or some live theater) but can also be used for exit.

So the following statement is a little ambiguous:

Maot ang salida

- The show was bad
- The exit is ugly

Both are correct translations but the first translation would be the most commonly used and understood in the absence of some contextual reference.  If you were standing in front of an ugly exit then the second meaning would be understood.

We can easily turn it into a question by adding ba

Maot ba ang salida – Is the show bad (ugly)

We will continue with the same vocab and phrases but changing to the more common abbreviated form of NGA.  Using this abbrebiated form has exactly the same meaning as the previous form with the separate NGA.

If the word ends with a vowel then the A is dropped from the NGA and NG is appended to the proceeding word.

If the word ends with a constantanent then you need to use the un-abrebiated form with the following excpetions:

• For words ending with N you can append the G to the preceeding word.
• For words ending with Y or W you append NG to the preceeding word.

Magtutudlo  ( mag-tu-tud-lo ) – teacher
Lalaki  ( la-la-ki ) – male
Babaye  ( ba-ba-ye ) - female

Magtutudlong lalake  (male teacher - ends with vowel so append NG)
Magtutudlong babaye (female teacher - ends with vowel so append NG)

Dako ( da-ko ) – big
Gamay ( ga-may ) - small
Balay ( ba-lay ) – house

Dakong balay (big house - ends with vowel so append NG)
Gamayng balay (small house - ends with Y so append NG)

Gwapa ( gwa-pa ) - beautiful for female
Gwapo ( gwa-po ) - handsome for male

Gwapang babaye (beautiful girl - ends with vowel so append NG)
Gwapong lalaki (handsome boy - ends with vowel so append NG)

Mahal ( ma-hal ) – expensive or precious (similar use to the English word dear)
Lami ( la-mi ) – delicious
Pagkaon ( pag-ka-on ) – food
Init  ( i-nit ) – hot (temperature)
Awto ( aw-to ) – car

Mahal nga awto (expensive car - ends with L so can not use abrebiated form)
Laming pagkaon (delicious food - ends with vowel so append NG)
Init nga buntag (hot morning - ends with T so can not use abrebiated form)

Buntag ( bun-tag ) – morning
Gabii ( ga-bi-i ) - night
Maayo ( ma-a-yo ) – good

Maayong gabii   (good night- ends with vowel so append NG  )
Maayong buntag  (good morning - ends with vowel so append NG)

The above comes from a review of my own hand written notes.

Using NGA creates a different meaning

Magtutudlo ( mag-tu-tud-lo ) – teacher
Lalaki ( la-la-ki ) – male
Babaye  ( ba-ba-ye ) - female

The connector NGA is used to join the two as in the description “male teacher”

Magtutudlo nga lalake  (male teacher)
Magtutudlo nga babaye (female teacher)

Dako ( da-ko ) – big
Gamay  (ga-may ) - small
Balay  ( ba-lay ) – house

Dako nga balay (big house)
Gamay nga balay (small house)

Gwapa  ( gwa-pa ) - beautiful for female
Gwapo  ( gwa-po ) - handsome for male

Gwapa nga babaye (beautiful girl)
Gwapo nga lalaki (handsome boy)

Mahal ( ma-hal ) – expensive or precious (similar use to the English word dear)
Lami ( la-mi ) – delicious
Pagkaon  ( pag-ka-on ) – food
Init  ( i-nit )  – hot (temperature)
Awto  ( aw-to ) – car

Mahal nga awto (expensive car)
Lami nga pagkaon (delicious food)
Init nga buntag (hot morning)

Buntag ( bun-tag ) – morning

Gabii ( ga-bi-i ) - night
Maayo  (ma-a-yo ) – good

Maayo nga gabii   (good night)
Maayo nga buntag  (good morning)

The above comes from a review of my own hand written notes.

Welcome to my Learn Cebuano blog. 

For the past few months I have had regular personal instruction with Sem P. Villar who is a Cebuano language expert with more than 20 years experience as a language consultant and private tutor providing language instruction and consultancy to foreigners, missionaries, tourists, expats, consuls etc…

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