LESSON 4: TYPES OF SENTENCES
There are two types of sentences in Tagalog:
Identificational and Predicational.
Type of sentence 1: Identificational
An identificational sentence consists of the topic (subject)
before the comment (predicate).
Topic
Comment
Si Steven
ang gobernador.
Steven
is the governor.
Both the topic and the comment are marked by the definite
particle ang before the common nouns or
si/sina before personal proper names.
Type of sentence 2: Predicational
A predicational sentence consists of the comment (predicate)
before the topic (subject). This is the more common sentence
type in Tagalog.
Comment
Topic
Gobernador
si Steven.
Steven is a governor.
There are three basic predicative sentence patterns in Tagalog:
1. Statement Pattern
2. Question Pattern
3. Response Pattern
(to Yes-No Questions)
Three basic predicative sentence patterns: Statement Pattern
1. STATEMENT PATTERN
A) Affirmative statement
Comment
Topic
Doktor
si Audri.
The comment can be a noun, an adjective, or verb. Unlike the comment of
an identificational sentence, this comment is unmarked by the ang particle,
because the sunject is a name of a person marked by si, a person name
marker.
Three basic predicative sentence patterns: Statement Pattern
1. STATEMENT PATTERN
B) Negative statement
Hindi
+
Hindi
Comment
titser
+ Topic
si Eileen.
Hindi, a negative particle, is placed before the basic sentence to make it
negative. When the topic is a pronoun, however, the topic precedes the
comment and follows hindi immediately as follows:
Hindi
+
Pronoun
+ Comment
Hindi
siya
maganda.
Hindi
ka
pulis.
Three basic predicative sentence patterns: Question Pattern
2. QUESTION PATTERN
A) Yes-No Question
Comment
+ ba
+ Topic
Pilipino
ba
si Vlad?
Doktor
ba
siya?
Ba is a question marker that usually follows the first word of a sentence. If,
however, the topic is the pronoun ka, then ba is placed after it.
Example:
Pangit ka.
Pangit ka ba?
Three basic predicative sentence patterns: Question Pattern
2. QUESTION PATTERN
B) Negative Question
Hindi ba
Hindi ba
Doktor
+ Comment
dentista
ba
+ Topic
si Nelson?
siya?
As before, when the topic is a pronoun, there is a shift in word order.
When the pronoun is ka, ba follows it. In fact, all one syllable words come
before BA.
Example:
Hindi ba estudyante si Angelo?
Hindi ba siya Pilipino?
Hindi ka ba Pilipino?
Three basic predicative sentence patterns: Response Patterns to Yes-No Questions
3. RESPONSE PATTERNS TO YES-NO QUESTIONS
A) Affirmative Response
Oo
+ Comment
+ Topic
Oo,
estudyante
si Angelo.
Oo,
karpentero
siya.
A simple “oo” can stand for the whole affirmative response.
Three basic predicative sentence patterns: Response Patterns to Yes-No Questions
3. RESPONSE PATTERNS TO YES-NO QUESTIONS
B) Negative Response
In contrast to a negative sentence, the negative response has two hindi’s.
Hindi, hindi siya dentista.
Hindi, hindi Pilipino si Xavier.
Another type of negative response is a combination of a negative statement
and an affirmative one. One hindi is used and a pause comes before the
true information about the topic.
Question: Pangit ba si Leezel?
Response: Hindi, maganda siya.
Other Type of Sentence Pattern:
The subject comes first like in English. Notice the
inversion marker AY in the following sentences:
Ex. Siya ay maganda. Or Si Mary ay maganda.