# verb focus



## BLU3YES

A native Tagalog-speaking friend is trying to explain verb tenses to me and we came to something that she wasn't able to answer.

When translating into English, what is the difference between:
nagbabasa ka ng libro
and
binabasa mo ang libro


A little more info I guess - she's basically having a problem explaining when to use nag/mag and inserting in/um.


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## Ajura

the nag- verb focuses on the person and the -in- focuses on the book in that sentence.


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## niernier

Maybe you were told about this already, but Tagalog verbs take a variety of affixes reflecting focus, aspect, mode etc. 

The difference mainly between nagbabasa and binabasa is the focus. Nagbabasa is actor focus, which indicates what the actor is doing whereas binabasa is object focus which indicates the reciever of the action.

nagbabasa ka ng libro = you are reading a book
binabasa mo ang libro = the book is being read by you

As you can see from your examples, actor and object focus verbs use an entirely different set of pronouns.
Actor focus pronouns are (ako, ka, kayo, siya, tayo, sila)
Object focus pronouns are (ko, mo, ninyo, niya, natin, nila)

which means I, you, you(plural), he/she, we, they respectively.

-in- verbs are object focus
-um- verbs are actor focus

Another example: (I hope this does not complicate things)

Kumain ako ng mansanas. I ate an apple. (actor focus) 
Kinain ko ang mansanas. I ate the apple. (object focus)

Again, notice that actor focus verb uses ako whereas object focus uses ko for the pronoun 'I'. We do not necessarily memorize the set of pronouns, we just know which pronoun should come with an actor or object focus verb.

Enjoy learning! If you have more questions about the focus, I am glad to help.


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## Ajura

niernier said:


> Maybe you were told about this already, but Tagalog verbs take a variety of affixes reflecting focus, aspect, mode etc.
> 
> The difference mainly between nagbabasa and binabasa is the focus. Nagbabasa is actor focus, which indicates what the actor is doing whereas binabasa is object focus which indicates the reciever of the action.
> 
> nagbabasa ka ng libro = you are reading a book
> binabasa mo ang libro = the book is being read by you
> 
> As you can see from your examples, actor and object focus verbs use an entirely different set of pronouns.
> Actor focus pronouns are (ako, ka, kayo, siya, tayo, sila)
> Object focus pronouns are (ko, mo, ninyo, niya, natin, nila)
> 
> which means I, you, you(plural), he/she, we, they respectively.
> 
> -in- verbs are object focus
> -um- verbs are actor focus
> 
> Another example: (I hope this does not complicate things)
> 
> Kumain ako ng mansanas. I ate an apple. (actor focus)
> Kinain ko ang mansanas. I ate the apple. (object focus)
> 
> Again, notice that actor focus verb uses ako whereas object focus uses ko for the pronoun 'I'. We do not necessarily memorize the set of pronouns, we just know which pronoun should come with an actor or object focus verb.
> 
> Enjoy learning! If you have more questions about the focus, I am glad to help.


I was thinking what if filipinos adopt chinese characters so that they can understand other regional languages without learning them since the grammar of the philippine languages had not changed from it's common ancestor although there are semantic drifts and phonetic changes....


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## niernier

BLU3YES said:


> A native Tagalog-speaking friend is trying to explain verb tenses to me and we came to something that she wasn't able to answer.
> 
> When translating into English, what is the difference between:
> nagbabasa ka ng libro
> and
> binabasa mo ang libro
> 
> 
> A little more info I guess - she's basically having a problem explaining when to use nag/mag and inserting in/um.



After having a good sleep, I found another way or probably much better way for you to understand the difference between actor and object focus sentences. 

The object and actor focus sentences answers two different questions.
Ex.
Q. What are you doing?
A. Nagbabasa ako ng libro. I am reading a book. (actor focus)

Q. What are you doing to the book?
A. Binabasa ko ang libro. I am reading the book. (object focus)

Q. What did you do?
A. Kumain ako ng mansanas. I ate an apple.(actor focus)

Q. What did you do to the apple?
A. Kinain ko ang mansanas. I ate the apple. (object focus)


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## BLU3YES

Thank you so much for your help, niernier.  I think that cleared it up for me.  I imagine I'll be back again at some point


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## rockjon

Another way to look at it that actor focus verbs focus on general action involving the actor doing something.  Object focus verbs focus on the object on which action is being done towards.  In other words, object focus verbs also tend to be specific.  

Q. Kumain ka na ba? Did you eat yet?
A. Oo, kumain na ako. Yes, I ate already.

Q. Ano ang kinain mo? What did you eat?
A. Kinain ko ang mansanas. I ate an apple.  

The first question just asks you in general if you ate already.  The second question asks you what did you eat which is well more specific.


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## a_lee

Hi, there. I'm very new to learning Tagalog, and the thing that I have the most trouble with is verbs. I know that there are four classes of verbs so far: um verbs, mag, verbs, in verbs, and i verbs. I thought that a verb's conjugations only depend on what verb type it is, but I see the same verb's conjugations changing in different sentences.

For example, I would see a sentence that says, "Kumakain ako ng pizza." And I understand that it means, "I ate the pizza." But then I would see another sentence that says, "Kinain ko yung pizza." And this means, "the pizza was eaten by me." These two sentences have almost the same meaning but different pronouns and verb types. So I'm just wondering if I have to use a certain conjugation with different pronouns.

Thanks.


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## Change1031

Verb doesn't conjugate depend on pronoun. I used to study French and I am so used to conjugate verb depend on pronoun, that studying Tagalog was super confusing. 

Verbs in Tagalog is conjugated depend on the focus of the sentence. To an extent, it is similar to active and passive voice, though don't think of it directly as it is.

*Kumain* and *kinain* both mean "ate."

*Kumain ako ng pizza* = I ate the pizza. _Ako_ is the ang-pronoun. You use _ang_ to signify the focus.
*Kinain ko ang pizza* = The pizza was eaten by me. _Ko_ is the ng-pronoun. You use _ng_ to signify something that is in focus.

*Bumili ako ng pusa para sa iyo* = I bought a cat for you.
*Binili ko ang pusa para sa iyo* = A cat is what I bought for you.
*Ibinili kita ng pusa* = You are whom I bought a cat for.

*Nagluluto ka ng isda para sa ama mo* = You cook a fish for your dad.
*Niluluto mo ang isda para sa ama mo *= A fish is what you cook for your dad.
*Ipinagluluto mo ang ama mo ng isda* = Your dad is whom you cook the fish for.

There are five different focuses: actor, object/goal, directional, beneficiary, instrumental.


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## a_lee

Thanks for the response and all the examples. If you don't mind, can you tell me how I change the conjugations depending on the focus? I see that *kumain* (an -um verb) changed to *kinain* (an -in verb) when you shifted the focus. Does this mean that all -um verbs change to -in when you use focus on the object? Thanks again.


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## Change1031

You don't change -um verb to -in verb, but rather, you change the root word into one of those two focuses.

The base word/root word from the previous example is *kain*. *Kain* means eating/eat. Now, to conjugate that into a verb, you will have to add either -um or -in depending on the focus of the sentence. *Kain* is a noun, but you add the affixes to change it into a verb. Think of it as adding "to."

*K**um**ain* = to eat (This is the actor-focus verb. To do so, you add -um after the first consonant)
*Magkain* = to eat (Also actor-focus. Mag- and -um are both affixes for actor-focus. Some verbs follow mag- and some follow -um)
*Kainin* = to eat (This is the object-focus verb. To do so, you add -in after the word)

Here's where it gets tricky. Although you don't conjugate the verb depending on the pronoun (like they do in French), you do conjugate them depending on tenses (to express time). These are called aspects, but you can think of them as simple tenses. Each focus has their own conjugation for aspects.

*Kumain* = to eat (base verb)
*Kumain* = ate (simple past or completed aspect: pretty easy to remember because the construction is the same as the base verb)
*Kumakain* = eat(s) (simple present or contemplate aspect: _First_ you duplicate the first two letters on the verb. _Then_ you add -um after the first consonant)
*Kakain* = will eat (simple future or incomplete aspect: You just need to duplicate the first two letters)

*Kainin* = to eat (base verb)
*Kinain* = ate (simple past or completed aspect: you basically add -in after the first consonant)
*Kinakain* = eat(s) (simple present or contemplate aspect: same thing as -um verb, but with replace the -um with -in)
*Kakainin* = will eat (simple future or incomplete aspect: you just take the base verb and repeat the first two letters)

Also, be careful of conjugating word into object-focus verb. You don't always add -in at the end of the word. I'd posted a thread in the past about my observation for the various rules with conjugating word. 
Object focus affixes


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## tigfa

Change1031 said:


> Verb doesn't conjugate depend on pronoun. I used to study French and I am so used to conjugate verb depend on pronoun, that studying Tagalog was super confusing.
> 
> Verbs in Tagalog is conjugated depend on the focus of the sentence. To an extent, it is similar to active and passive voice, though don't think of it directly as it is.
> 
> *Kumain* and *kinain* both mean "ate."
> 
> *Kumain ako ng pizza* = I ate the pizza. _Ako_ is the ang-pronoun. You use _ang_ to signify the focus.
> *Kinain ko ang pizza* = The pizza was eaten by me. _Ko_ is the ng-pronoun. You use _ng_ to signify something that is in focus.
> 
> *Bumili ako ng pusa para sa iyo* = I bought a cat for you.
> *Binili ko ang pusa para sa iyo* = A cat is what I bought for you.
> *Ibinili kita ng pusa* = You are whom I bought a cat for.
> 
> *Nagluluto ka ng isda para sa ama mo* = You cook a fish for your dad.
> *Niluluto mo ang isda para sa ama mo *= A fish is what you cook for your dad.
> *Ipinagluluto mo ang ama mo ng isda* = Your dad is whom you cook the fish for.
> 
> There are five different focuses: actor, object/goal, directional, beneficiary, instrumental.




I would say

kumain ko yung pizza
bumili ko yung pusa para sayo


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## DotterKat

tigfa said:


> I would say
> 
> kumain ko yung pizza
> bumili ko yung pusa para sayo


Incorrect.
For an actor-focus sentence (-um- verb), you have to use the ng marker since the focus is not the object (the focus is the actor).
The correct sentence is _Kumain ako *ng* pizza_.

For an object-focus sentence (-in- verb), you have to use an ang marker pronoun since the focus is indeed the object.
The correct sentence is _*Binili *ko 'yung pusa para sa iyo_.


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