Page 11 - Essential Tagalog - Speak Tagalog with Confidence (TUTTLE)

Nouns have three cases: nominative, as in ang balaraw ay matulis
(the dagger is sharp); possessive, as in ang pangalan ng aking ina
ay Maria (my mother’s name is Maria); and objective, as in ang
aking pera ay nasa ibabaw ng mesa (my money is on the table).
Predicates are of various kinds: verbal adjective, as in umiyak si
Clinton (Clinton cried); adjectival, as in mabaho si Todd (Todd is
smelly); nominal, as in manunulat si Sammy (Sammy is a writ-
er); and prepositional, as in para sa kapatid mo ang bisikleta (the
bicycle is for your brother). The predicate-topic pattern is used in
the above examples. Using the topic-predicate pattern they would
be si Clinton ay umiyak; si Todd ay mabaho; si Sammy ay isang
manunulat; ang bisikleta ay para sa iyong kapatid.

2 Verb conjugation
Some verbs are conjugated but some are not, such as ay (to be).
There are four commonly used ways of conjugating verbs in Taga-
log. These are the UM, MAG, MA, and MANG form conjugations.
1. In the um conjugation we duplicate the first syllable and
insert um for the present tense; insert um after the first sylla-
ble for the past tense; and reduplicate the first syllable for the
future tense. Example: root word takbo (to run); present
tumatakbo; past tumakbo; future tatakbo.

2. In the mag conjugation we change the prefix m to n and
reduplicate the first syllable for the present tense; change the
prefix m to n for the past tense; and reduplicate the first
syllable and prefix mag to the root word for the future tense.
Example: root word tanim (to plant); present nagtatanim; past
nagtanim; future magtatanim.
3. In the ma conjugation we change m to n and follow the same
procedure, using the prefix ma instead of mag. Example: root
word takot (to fear); present natatakot; past natakot; future
matatakot.
4. In the mang conjugation we change m to n and follow the
same procedure as for the mag and ma conjugations, except
for root words beginning with p or b, where mang becomes

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