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Magandang araw po sa inyong lahat!

Nache-check ko lang po kung mayroon bang mga Filipino dito sa forum na ito. Kung mayroon, pasensiya ka na talaga sa aking Tagalog. Kahit lahing Pilipino ako hindi ako'y pinakamagaling speaker ng Tagalog. Magtiis nalang ho kayo ha ;)

'Yun lang. Kahit rin hindi ka Pilipino pero marunung ka magtagalog, gusto pa rin ako makailala tayo Pero feeling ko walang mga Filipino dito, wala eh nagpopost ng mga Tagalog translations sa translation section eh...

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I have a question, is Filipino (tagalog) easy to learn? I mean is it a hard agglutinativ language or an inflexional?

How is plurar/gender determined
How is verb tense/mood determined? Is it a suffixe or a word apart

Btw, is this sentence correct: ay pag-aaral ako tagalog

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Fluent: | Learning:

The absolutive/ergative-ness of the language is a bit tricky, but I didn't have a problem learning it when I moved there last year. Of course, that could just be because both my parents speak it and I've heard it spoken all my life. (I was raised in Canada but most of my family spoke Filipino.) In other words, I learned mainly through immersion and by hearing, without really studying grammatical features and such; you could say I learned it in a similar manner as one would their mother tongue.

I'm not too sure about those technical grammatical terms, but I would say it is agglutinative.

Plurality is either inferred by context or marked by the word "mga" (pronunced manga, XSAMPA: /mANA/):
aklat > mga aklat
book > books
There is no gender in the sense of the Romance languages (e.g. the difference between le/la in French). Even relationships are generally gender-neutral; e.g. "asawa" is the word for "spouse". We have no word for husband or wife. "Kapatid" is "sibling", again without any gender distinction.

Verb tense and mood are shown entirely in affixes, as far as I know.

You have the basic words :) The conjugation and order, however, is incorrect:

Nagaaral ako ng Tagalog.
naga-aral ako ng tagalog
PRES-study I INDIRECT.MARK tagalog
I am studying Tagalog.

"aral" is the root form of the verb, meaning "study" or "learn." To conjugate into the present tense, we normally take the future and past form of the verb together. Example:

Nagaral. Aaral. Nagaaral.
I studied. I will study. I am studying.

I noticed you included the word "ay" in your sentence. "Ay" is unnecessary there, as it's sole purpose is to invert word order. Example:

Nagaaral ako ng Tagalog. Ako ay nagaaral ng Tagalog.

Doing it this way means that you are emphasizing that it is you that is learning Tagalog.

Again, I'm not a linguist, but feel free to ask me any questions and I'll try and help as best I can!

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How many verb tenses exists? Is there a difference between "I learn" and "I am learning" (the first means for example "i learn tagalog", while the other is "i am learning tagalog at the moment i'm writing this")

Adding personal pronouns after verbs is the only way to determinate who is affected by the verb?

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Fluent: | Learning:

There are four tenses: contemplative (future), progressive (present), completed (past), and the infinitive.

As for conjugation, there are three main types of verbs: "mag-", "ma-", and "-um-". These affixes refer to their infinitive marker.

"MAG-" VERBS
Infinitive: magdala (to bring)
Past: nagdala
Present: nagdadala
Future: magdadala

"MA-" VERBS
Infinitive: matulog (to sleep)
Past: natulog
Present: natutulog
Future: matutulog

"-UM-" VERBS
Infinitive: kumain (to eat)
Past: kumain [*note how the infinitive and the past tense conjugate the same]
Present: kumakain
Future: kakain
OR (if there is no initial consonant)
Infintive: umulan (to rain)
Past: umulan
Present: umuulan
Future: uulan




As far as I know there is no difference between those two, ordinarily it is simply taken from inference or from context.


Yes, almost always.

There are cases where none is needed - I forget the grammatical term, but it is during sentences such as "It is raining." Nothing can really "rain", but English requires the "it". Just as French requires the "il" in "Il pleut." In Tagalog, however, you can simply say "Umuulan."

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You're a very good tagalog teacher!
isang napakahusay kayo na guro ng Filipino

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Fluent: | Learning:

Really? Thanks!! :D I'm not very good with all the technical grammar things though. D:

"Isang napakahusay kayo na guro ng Filipino."

Almost there :)

"Isang napakahusay na guro ng Filipino kayo."

Yeah, just slightly wrong word order, but other than that it was very good! Even I get confused with those more complex sentences.

The actual words are a little off, though. There's nothing grammatically wrong, but the words are not exactly what you might have been trying for.

Specifically, "mahusay" translates more to "skillfull" or "knowledgeable." That makes the sentence correct still, but if you are going for "very good" I might have phrased it "napakagaling" instead. "Magaling" roughly means "good" or "good at ____."

Also, "kayo" is the 2nd person plural direct object. You probably meant "ka", which is the 2nd person singular direct object. However, "kayo" is acceptable as well since we often use this to be respectful. Much how, in French, you use "vous" as both plural and respectful.

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I tried to train myself:
Ang mga bahay asul = the PLURAL.MARKER house BLUE[color] (lit: the houses blue)
Ang aking bahay asul. = the 1stSING-POSSESIVE house BLUE[color] (lit: the mine house blue)
Ang aking mga bahay asul = the 1stSING-POSSESIVE PLURAL.MARKER house BLUE[color] (lit: the mine houses blue)

Did I do it right?

Also, I heard that the tone can change meaning of a word, is it true? (I don't want to learn a language that has tones, i find them too hard)

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Sorry to reply so late. You've left, but I'm just going to reply anyway in case you visit back again.

Very good! Almost perfect - you're missing the "ay" particle between "bahay" and "asul." Alternatively, you could place "asul" at the beginning of the sentence and retain the rest of the order, and it would mean the same thing. The only difference is that if you place "asul" at the start, you are emphasizing the "blue-ness" of the house; if you place house at the beginning like you have, you emphasize that it is the houses that are blue. Also, the using sentences that require "ay" generally sound more formal. That, however, is a broad way of looking at it.

Also, no. I hate tones also, so I'm glad Tagalog has none. The only way tone has any affect on a sentence is when asking a question, just like English.

Stress can have an impact, though. "Sukà", with stress on the "ka", means vinegar. "Suka", with equal stress on both syllables, means vomit. There aren't many of these words, though, and so stress is almost always left unmarked. I've only seen the accent marks used when teaching or in archaic contexts.

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