Learn Cebuano

Archive for the ‘General’ Category

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)

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…

During that time he has developed his own unique method of instruction drawing upon the work of others and his own in depth study.

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