Everyday Tagalog Verbs

When I first started to practice learning Tagalog several people told me "know the root". They were talking about verbs and knowing their root form. Trying to jump into a new language is hard; trying to do that while knowing each grammatical rule is even harder.

Imagine attempting to explain word conjugations to a foreign speaker. Think its easy? Look at "think" and "eat". They're two straightforward verbs. To conjugate them in the action of doing you just add the suffix "-ing": "thinking" and "eating". Simple enough. What about past tense? "Thought" and "Ate". How do you explain that? There is no simple rule. Its just having experience with language.

In an effort to keep things simple (the KISS principle) I decided to compile a list of everyday verbs and their root Tagalog translation.

• wake up - gising
• to shower/bathe - maligo (Thanks Mae!)
• to cook - luto
• to eat - kain
• to go - punta
• to wash - hugasan
• to walk - lakad
• to talk - usap
• to drink - inumin
• to sit - umupo
• to sleep - tulog
• to clean - linis
• to know - alam
• to leave - alis
• to wait - antay
• to go down - baba
• to read - basa
• to buy - bili
• to get up - bangon
• to carry - karga
• to knock - katok
• to get or take - kuha

Are there any daily verbs that I am missing? Let me know in the comments and I'll find their root translation. Also, if I'm wrong please let me know. I know my Mom will eventually read this and correct me but every little bit helps.

Tagalog: Conversation from 2/15/11 Part 1

Vocabulary

• din - "too"
• hapon - "afternoon"
• umaga - "morning"
• gabi - "night"
• kahapon - "yesterday". To say last night you would prefix "gabi" with "ka", "kagabi"
• punta - "to go" (v)
• nagpunta - "went" (v, past tense)
• masama - "bad"
• ramdam - "felt"
• pakiramdam - "feel"
• sayaw - "dance"
• sumayaw - "to dance"
• sayawan - "dancing"
• Nasa bahay si Ryan - "Ryan is home"
• Nasa bahay si Ryan niyon - "Ryan is home now"

Quick Trivia on the Philippines

The Philippines consists of thousands of islands. The main islands are Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The capital city, Manila, is located on the island of Luzon.

Tagalog: Conversation from 2/12/11

I'm starting a new topic today. As I alluded to in a previous post, I wanted to start writing reviews of some of the conversations that I have in Tagalog with my Mom. Here, she'll be able to correct some of the things that I misunderstood. I also hope that writing about it will help me build a stronger understanding of the rules/phrases and not have to ask my Mom to explain the same thing over again.

Phrases and Vocabulary

• Magandang umaga po - "Good morning". The "po" is to indicate respect similar to Sir and Mam in English.
• Paano sabihin ... - "how do you say... ?" This is a phrase that I use often to ask how to say something in Tagalog.
• lakad - walk (n)
• Kamusta ang lakad sa Reston? - This litterally translates to "How you walk in Reston", but "lakad" is used in phrases when you have something to do or somewhere to go. So I believe This phrase means "How was the trip to Reston?". If I wanted to say "How was your trip to Reston?" it would be "Kamusta ang lakad mo sa Reston?"
• May lakad ako - "I have somewhere to go."
• lalakad ako dito - "I am going to walk here"
• lalakad ako - "I am going to walk"
• lalakad ako duon sa park - "I am going to walk at the park." This is a little bit of Taglish which is a mixture of Tagalog and English. Sometimes its just easier to use the English word.
• Anong niluluto mo? - "what are you cooking?"
• ang mga damit - "the clothes"
• lahat ng damit - "all the clothes"
• Magdadamit ako - "I am going to wear clothes"
• ako may dadamit - "I am going to wear clothes now"
• Anong damit ang susuotin mo? - "What clothes are you going to to wear?"
• suotin - "to wear"
• susuotin - "going to wear"
• azul asul - "blue". NOTE: There is no 'z' in the Tagalog alphabet
• kulay - "color"
• may - "with", "has", "have"
• Anong ginagawa niyo? - "What are you doing?" (plural)
• Anong ginagawa mo? - "What are you doing?" (singular)
• Para saan? - "what for?" This phrase is particular because "what" is "ano" but for this phrase "para" (where) is used instead.
• tabi - "side"
• itabi - "set aside"

UPDATE: I made all the corrections my Mom suggested. Thanks Mom! Love you.