Elementary Tagalog: Tara, Mag-Tagalog Tayo! Come On, Let's Speak Tagalog! (Online Audio Download Included)

By Jiedson R. Domigpe and Nenita Pambid Domingo

"Lessons in this book cover basic grammar, reinforcing instruction through dialogue and exercises and presenting common scenarios where typical everyday language would be applied. The result is a top pick for any do-it-yourselfer who would learn Tagalog and actually apply it to a visit to the Philippines. --Midwest Book Review"

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
• Release date: Jun 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781462914562

Book preview

UNIT 1

TUNGKOL SA SARILI

About Self

Culturally, in their personal behavior and social interactions, Filipinos tend to emphasize the collective as opposed to the individual. According to the late University of the Philippines professor Virgilio G. Enriquez, who is known as the father of Philippine psychology, kapwa, meaning both or the self in the other, is the core value among Filipinos. One cannot think of oneself without thinking about the other, and vice versa. This core value is manifested in a variety of ways. For example, a person will not cross or dispute with members of her or his barkada, or peer group, if it means burning bridges. This is also why many Filipinos are very family- and community-oriented. Other Filipino values stem from this concept of kapwa, for example pakikisama or pakikipagkapwa-tao (getting along with the group or treating another as a fellow human being) and bayanihan (collective spirit). Hence, the self is seeing yourself in your fellow-human being.

A group of Filipino friends playing basketball, a typical leisure activity in the Philippines.

A woman makes sure her mother’s needs are attended to, illustrating the concept of utang na loob.

Hiya, or shame, is another concept that is central to the Filipino identity. People will go to great lengths to avoid being shamed or having shame fall on their family, even if doing so is beyond their means financially. For example, if a person is planning to host a large party, such as a wedding, the guest list has to include almost everyone that the person knows, regardless of whether she or he can afford it, for fear of being shamed by others. To be known as having no shame, or walang hiya, will ruin your and your family’s reputation.

Humor is often used as a tool to strengthen kapwa, for example, to diffuse tension between arguing friends. Humor can also be self-deprecating or gently mocking. By transforming a mistake into a light moment, one can relieve the other person of the embarrassment of having to correct her- or himself and allow that person to take responsibility for the error in a way that saves face.

A Filipino system for keeping relationships and communal ties intact is known as utang na loob, literally debt of one’s inner self or debt of gratitude. Utang na loob can be understood as reciprocity. Simply put, if someone has done a favor for you, in the context of Filipino culture, it is advisable to repay that person in a socially acceptable way. Failure to fulfill this moral debt subjects you to being labeled walang hiya (no shame) and thus ostracized from the collective.

Bahala na, literally translated as leave it to God or come what may, is another common value among Filipinos. Said to be derived from Bathala, the pre-Hispanic term for Supreme Being, bahala na is the recourse that remains when you are faced with a difficult challenge and have exhausted every solution, without success. You go forth, trusting that events will follow their natural course, essentially leaving it in God’s hands. However, Virgilio Enriquez interpreted bahala na as the Filipinos’ courage and owning up to the consequences of an action or situation in the face of uncertainty.

LESSON 1

Unang Araw ng Klase

The First Day of Class

An Overview of Lesson 1

Objectives

• Ask questions using the interrogative pronouns sino (who) and ano (what)

• Respond to inquiries using short and long responses

• Construct identificational and predicational statements

Vocabulary

• Majors/Courses

• Nationalities

• Officials

• Professions and Occupations

• Marital Status

• Gender

• Religion

• Pronouns

• Adverbs

• Markers

• Idioms and Expressions

Dialogue: Kumusta Ka? How Are You?

Dialogue Comprehension

Activities

Activity 1: Interview

Activity 2: Interview

Activity 3: Fill in the Blanks

Grammar

Definition of Terms: Sentence, Subject, Predicate, Markers, Ang Marker in an Ang Phrase, Ang Pronouns, Ang Form, Interrogative Pronouns, Identificational Sentence, Predicational Sentence, Proper Noun, and Common Noun

Examining Form

I. Sino (Who): Interrogative Pronoun Sino (Who)

Grammar Presentation: The Interrogative Pronoun Sino and the Identificational Sentence

Grammar Notes

II. Ano (What): Interrogative Pronoun Ano (What)

Grammar Presentation: The Interrogative Pronoun Ano and the Predicational Sentence

Grammar Notes

Practice

I. Speaking Practice

II. Reading Practice

III. Writing Practice

IV. Listening Practice

Vocabulary (01–1)

The vocabulary below will help you speak about yourself and participate in the activities in this lesson. Memorize the vocabulary words before proceeding to the dialogue.

Dialogue: Kumusta Ka? How Are You?

The dialogue illustrates how to use the words and expressions you studied above. Read it aloud with a partner and complete the Dialogue Comprehension activity that follows.

Dialogue Comprehension

For each of the following statements about the dialogue, place a check mark in the appropriate blank, depending on whether the statement is true, Tama, or false, Mali.

Activities

Activity 1

Work with a partner. Write down all the classes you are taking this semester or quarter, then interview each other in order to exchange information about your professors or teachers and teaching assistants for each class. The example below illustrates how to use sino (who) in your interview.

Using the chart below, write your classes in column 1, the names of the professors in column 2, and the names of the teaching assistants in column 3. Then practice using sino in questions and responding appropriately.

Activity 2

This time, use the interrogative ano (what) to obtain the information. Work with a partner, and ask each other the questions listed below. Using complete sentences, record your partner’s responses in the space provided. After filling in all the information, report your findings to the class.

Notice that to answer the question, you simply replace ano with the answer and replace mo (your) with ko (my). Notice too that the word order in Tagalog is PREDICATE/SUBJECT. The predicate comments on the subject or topic of the sentence.

Activity 3

For more practice with the interrogative sino (who), take turns with your partner asking who the following people are. For your answers, use the word bank provided below.

Grammar

Definition of Terms

The grammatical terms below will be used throughout the lessons in this book. Familiarize yourself with them and learn what they mean.

Examining Form

Let’s review what we have covered so far. Read the sentences below and complete the tasks that follow. Discuss your answers with a partner.

Now, in the section that follows, let’s analyze the sentence into its parts in order to understand the grammatical forms associated with sino and ano.

I. Interrogative Pronoun Sino (Who)

The interrogative pronoun sino is used to ask questions about a person or people. The English equivalent of sino is who. The basic pattern of a sino question is: Sino + ang PHRASE ? The ang phrase is made up of an ang marker and the noun it marks.

EXAMPLES:

Sino ang doktor?

Sino si Mr. Natividad?

The response to the question, which is the subject of the sentence, comprises an ang phrase made up of an ang marker and the noun it marks, as shown below:

Sino ang/si______________?

The subject comprises the ang marker and the thing it marks:

Si + name of a person or animal

Sina + name(s) of people or animals

Ang + noun or proper name of a place or a thing

Ang mga + noun(s) or proper name of a place or a thing

1.  When responding to a question that uses sino (who), it is necessary to use a marker in front of the noun in your response.

Sino ang titser mo? Who is your teacher?

Si Dr. Ramos. Dr. Ramos.

Ang can also be used to mark the proper name of things (objects) and places.

Ang Malacañang Palace. Malacañang Palace.

Ang Magnolia ice cream. Magnolia ice cream.

2.  An ang marker + noun can be replaced with ang pronouns. Below is the list of ang pronouns.

The pronouns ikaw and ka are synonymous. However, they are not interchangeable. In identificational sentences you use ikaw, while in predicational sentences you use ka. Identificational and predicational sentences are defined above. We will study predicational sentences in the next lesson. Here is an example of each, using ikaw and ka.

Ikaw ang presidente. (identificational sentence)

Presidente ka. (predicational sentence)

Grammar Presentation

The Interrogative Pronoun Sino and the Identificational Sentence

1.  The chart below shows the order of words in a question with sino. When constructing an interrogative sentence with sino, you can follow the structure shown.

EXAMPLES:

Sino ang titser? Who is the teacher?

Sino ang mga lalaki? Who are the men?

2.  When responding to an interrogative sentence that uses sino, it is mandatory to use ang markers or ang pronouns.

EXAMPLES:

Si Mayta. Mayta.

Ang guro. The teacher.

Ikaw. You.

3.  Normally, one uses an identificational sentence when responding to a sino question or when making an equation with a sentence, as shown in the chart below.

EXAMPLES:

Si Patrick ang estudyante. Patrick is the student.

Ang estudyante si Patrick. The student is Patrick.

Ako ang estudyante. I am the student.

Sino ang estudyante? Who is the student?

Sina Mike at Greg po ang mga estudyante. Mike and Greg are the students, sir/madam.

Notice that an identificational sentence doesn’t require a verb in the predicate to be complete.

Grammar Notes

II. Interrogative Pronoun Ano (What)

The interrogative pronoun ano is used to ask questions about things. The English equivalent of ano is what.

1.  When responding to a question that uses ano (what), subject markers are not necessary.

Ano ang klase mo? Tagalog.

Ano ang kurso mo? Communication.

2.  It is very common to employ a question using ano to inquire about people’s status, profession, religion, nationality, and/or gender.

Normally, what the speaker is inquiring about can easily be inferred from the context of the conversation.

Grammar Presentation

The Interrogative Pronoun Ano and the Predicational Sentence

1.  When forming a question with ano, you can follow the structure below.

EXAMPLES:

Ano ang kurso mo? What is your major?

Ano ang trabaho mo? What is your work? (What do you do?)

2.  When responding to a question using ano, it is NOT necessary to use markers.

EXAMPLES:

narsing nursing

Aleman German

Budista Buddhist

→ To summarize, when answering a question using ano, a predicational sentence can be used. This sentence structure is the most common type of sentence in Tagalog. It is used when stating a piece of information. There are different types of predicational sentences, and these types will be covered in the next lesson. The word order is always: PREDICATE + SUBJECT. Note that the predicate does not take markers, while the subject is always in ang form.

EXAMPLES:

Tagalog ang klase ko. My class is Tagalog.

Estudyante si Patrick. Patrick is a student.

Ano ang mga klase mo? What are your classes?

Titser siya. He is a teacher.

Estudyante po sina Patrick at Mike. Patrick and Mike are students, sir/madam.

Grammar Notes

Practice

I. Speaking Practice

Work with a partner. Referring to the grammar explanation that you have just studied, take turns asking each other about the kind of work done by the people listed below. Use the example to model your dialogue.

EXAMPLE:

Q: Ano si Nicanor? What is (the work of) Nicanor?

A: Negosyante si Nicanor. Nicanor is a businessman.

II. Reading Practice

Read the dialogue between Raul and Miriam and answer the Reading Comprehension questions in Tagalog.

Reading Comprehension

1. Sino si Greg?

______________________

2. Ano si Greg?

______________________

III. Writing Practice

Complete the dialogue below in Tagalog. The English equivalent has been provided.

IV. Listening Practice

Listen to audio file (01–2) and answer the following questions in English.

1. With whom was Eric speaking?

______________________

2. Who was Eric with yesterday?

______________________

3. Who is Mindy and what does she do?

______________________

LESSON 2

Pagpapakilala

Introductions

An Overview of Lesson 2

Objectives

• Introduce yourself and others

• Ask and respond to questions eliciting basic biographical information

• Ask and respond to yes-no questions

Vocabulary

• Parts of the House

• Places

• Countries

• Verbs

• Pronouns

• Adjectives

• Location Markers

• Idioms and Expressions

Dialogue: Pagpapakilala Introductions

Dialogue Comprehension

Activities

Activity 1: Interview

Activity 2: Interview

Activity 3: Information Gap Activity

Grammar

Definition of Terms: Enclitics and Question Marker Ba

Examining Form

I. Taga Saan (From Where): Interrogative Pronoun Taga Saan (From Where)

Grammar Presentation: Taga Saan and Types of Predicational Sentences: Information Questions; Short Answers; Affirmative Statements; Negative Statements; Interrogative Statements; Affirmative Responses; Negative Responses

Grammar Notes

II. Nasaan (Where): Interrogative Pronoun Nasaan (Where)

Grammar Presentation: The Interrogative Pronoun Nasaan and Types of Predicational Sentences

Grammar Notes

III. Saan (Where): Interrogative Pronoun Saan (Where)

Grammar Presentation: The Interrogative Pronoun Saan and Types of Predicational Sentences

Grammar Notes

Practice

I. Speaking Practice

II. Reading Practice

III. Writing Practice

IV. Listening Practice

Vocabulary (02–1)

The vocabulary below will help you ask and answer questions and participate in the activities in this lesson. Memorize the vocabulary words before proceeding to the dialogue.

Dialogue: Pagpapakilala Introductions

Read the dialogue between Sheila, Janice, and Martha and answer the Dialogue Comprehension questions in Tagalog.