Learn Cebuano

We originally set this site up to judge how much interest there is in learning Cebuano and the results tell us that there is a lot of people out there who want a simple, easy to learn online Cebuano language course. For 2012 we will develop that program and offer it for sale. We welcome input as to what is considered a fair price, what level of expertise you wish to achieve and so on.

We are also looking for a course designer with fluent Cebuano skills to develop the course, so if you know someone, let us know. We apologize for any unanswered comments however we have not been able monitor each of the 65 web sites in our chain as completely as we would like due to issues beyond our control. This is da pilipeens, remember! Salamat, sige na!

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)