# Kakatuwa ah… Ang liit ng bunsong babushka



## Seb_K

Hi guys, 

What does this mean --- "kakatuwa ah… ang liit ng bunsong babushka"

I know that it's about the Babushka doll but ain't too sure about the whole meaning of the phrase.


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## Qcumber

Seb_K said:


> "kakatuwa ah… ang liit ng bunsong babushka"


How droll! How small the smallest babushka doll is!


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## guymelef

Seb_K said:


> Hi guys,
> 
> What does this mean --- &quot;kakatuwa ah… ang liit ng bunsong babushka&quot;
> 
> I know that it's about the Babushka doll but ain't too sure about the whole meaning of the phrase.



 it's like saying, "aw, look at how cute that smallest babushka doll is!"  literally, it can be "...uh, funny... the smallest babushka doll is so small/cute!"


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## Seb_K

So "kakatuwa" literally means "funny" and "bunsong" is "small" (?)

Correct me if I am wrong.

What if I want to reply this in Tagalog (Yes, it's cute, isn't it) ... How would I phrase it?


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## guymelef

Seb_K said:


> So "kakatuwa" literally means "funny" and "bunsong" is "small" (?)
> 
> Correct me if I am wrong.
> 
> What if I want to reply this in Tagalog (Yes, it's cute, isn't it) ... How would I phrase it?



yup, "kakatuwa" is literally "funny", but used expressively as sort of an amusement to what the person sees...

"bunso" ("ng" is like suffixed for conjunction), when taken literally refers to the youngest of siblings, but used here to refer to the smallest doll... "bunso" in colloquial-speak is usually used also to refer to the smallest (e.g. for a group of close peers, the smallest member is usually referred to as "bunso", regardless of age -- oftentimes to the amusement of the group).

small in tagalog is "maliit", as cute doesn't have a direct translation -- usually "cute" is expressed with awe only - sometimes in conjunction with the word "maliit" (ma-li-it) or its derivatives (i.e. "pinakamaliit" or smallest), or we simply use the english word...

so to reply as in "Yes, it is cute, isn't it?", you can say "Oo nga, cute nga sya, di ba?" You can also skip, "di ba?" as basically your reply is a rhetorical question, so it becomes, "Oo nga, cute nga sya...". 

Although you can say, "Oo nga, maliit nga sya..." this one doesn't express much about how "cute" or amusingly small the babushka doll is.

an alternative way of replying is "Oo nga, (na)kakatuwa nga sya, (di ba?)", emphasizing more on the amusing aspect of seeing the babushka doll.


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## Seb_K

Salamat!

What is the usage of "nga" though?

And whenever I want to translate English phrases to Tagalog; do I do it directly or there are ways to write it properly?


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## Qcumber

Seb_K said:


> What is the usage of "nga" though?


Ngâ [Na?] is an emphatic particle that could be translated as "indeed" in some cases, but that is untranslatable in most cases.
e.g. *óo* = yes Vs *óo ngâ* = yes, indeed.


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## Seb_K

Oo, now I do understand. Salamat po!


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