Conjugations

The concepts in this lesson form the foundation of Hiligaynon. This is a lot of information to take in at once, so don't get discouraged when you don't catch it all. Just keep reviewing it, and it will make a little more sense each time.

---

Here is the conjugation chart you'll need to refer to as you practice making sentences. For now, just ignore the Ability/Accidental column.

Focus	Regular	Ability / Accidental
Actor / Action	Future: Mag__ (Ma) Present: Naga__ (Ga) Past: Nag__	Future: Maka__ (Ka) Present: Naka__ (Ka) Past: Naka__ (Ka)
Object	Future: i__, __on/hon Present: Gina__ Past Gin__	Future: Ma__ Present: Na__ Past: Na__
Recipient	Future: __an/han Present: Gina__an/han Past: Gin___an/han	Future: Ma__an/han Present: Na__an/han Past: Na__an/han

---

Basic Conjugation Example

As a quick example, let's conjugate the verb "dalagan" (run). This is done by adding the conjugation to the beginning of the verb.

• Past: nagdalagan (ran)
• Present: nagadalagan (running)
• Future: magdalagan (will run)

It gets more complex, but that's the basic idea.

(Note: Present tense also covers things you do regularly, i.e. "I play sports.")

Sentence Focus

Like most languages, Ilonggo verbs have different forms for past, present, and future. However, Filipino languages also consider the focus of each sentence. The focus is the part that is most interesting or important.

Actor Focus - This focuses on the subject (the person/thing that's doing something) in a sentence.

Action Focus - This focuses on what the subject is doing.

Object Focus - This focuses on the person/thing something is happening to.

Recipient Focus - This focuses on the person/thing receiving something, or a location something is happening to.

The focus you choose determines which conjugations to use. That means that you must choose a focus before you build a sentence.

Finding the Focus

Sample Sentence: "The dog ran."

Actor Focus: focuses on the dog.
Action Focus: focuses on what the dog is doing.
Object Focus: not applicable, because there is no object in this sentence.
Recipient Focus: not applicable, because there is no recipient in this sentence.

Sample Sentence: "The dog chased the ball."

Actor Focus: focuses on the dog.
Action Focus: focuses on what the dog is doing.
Object Focus: focuses on the ball.
Recipient Focus: not applicable, because there is no recipient in this sentence.

Sample Sentence: "I will give him some bananas."

Actor Focus: focuses on "I," the person that's doing something.
Action Focus: focuses on giving.
Object Focus: focuses on the bananas.
Recipient Focus: focuses on "him," the person receiving bananas.

---

Building a Sentence

Now we apply everything you've learned so far.

Translate: "The boy will sit on the floor."
(boy = lalaki, sit = pungkô, floor = sal-og)

Order - The verb ("sit") will come first, then the actor ("boy"), and then the rest of the sentence. (In this case, there's no object or recipient.)

→ pungkô lalaki sal-og

Focus / Tense - This sentence will be Action focus, which is commonly used. It is future tense ("will sit"). Knowing the tense and the focus, you can use the conjugation chart to figure out what to do next. Look under Actor/Action Focus and find future tense. It says to use "Mag" at the beginning of the verb. So, we add "Mag" to "pungkô" to make "will sit."

→ magpungkô lalaki sal-og

Markers - Now we mark the nouns. With Actor/Action focus, the actor is marked with "ang." The location ("floor") will be marked with "sa," because it needs a preposition (i.e. on, in, under, etc.). In this case, "sa" will be used for "on the."

Completed Sentence: "Magpungkô ang lalaki sa sal-og."

Translate: "He ate the apple."
(eat = kaon, apple = mansanas)

Order - The verb ("ate") will come first, then the actor ("he"), then the object ("apple"). (In this case there's no recipient.)

→ kaon siya mansanas

Focus / Tense - This sentence will be object focus, which is also quite common. It is past tense ("ate"). If you check the conjugation chart under Object Focus and past tense, you'll see we need to add "gin" to the beginning of the verb to change "eat" into "ate."

→ ginkaon siya mansanas

Markers - With object focus, the object is marked with "ang." That means we have to use the "sang" form of "siya," because it is not the focus.

Completed Sentence: "Ginkaon niya ang mansanas."

Translate: "We taught them."
(teach = tudlo)

Order - The verb ("taught") will come first, then the actor ("we") and the recipient ("them"). (There's no object in this one.)

→ tudlo kami sila.

Focus / Tense - This sentence is going to be recipient focus, and it is past tense. On the conjugation chart under Recipient Focus, past tense shows that we add "gin" in front of the verb and "an" after the verb.

→ gintudloan kami sila

Markers - With recipient focus, the recipient is in ang form ("sila"). That means we have to use the "sang" form of "kami" ("namon") because it isn't the focus.

Completed Sentence: "Gintudloan namon sila."

---

More Sentence Building: Changing Focus

Using the conjugation chart, along with the words below, let's build some sentences with each focus type.

Vocabulary

dog - idô
run - dalagan
chase - lagas
ball - bola
give - hatag
bananas - saging

"The dog ran." (past tense)

Actor Focus: "Ang idô nagdalagan." - The actor (ang idô) comes first in Actor Focus, then the verb (dalagan). "Nag" is attached to the front of "dalagan" to make it past tense.
Action Focus: "Nagdalagan ang idô." - The verb (nagdalagan) comes first, then the actor (idô). The actor is labeled with "ang" in both Actor & Action Focus sentences.
Object Focus: (no object in this sentence)
Recipient Focus: (no recipient in this sentence)

"She chased the ball." (past tense)

Actor Focus: "Siya naglagas sang bola." - The actor (siya) comes first, then the verb (lagas) and the rest of the sentence. The actor (she) is in ang form (siya), and the object (bola) is marked with "sang" because it's not the focus.
Action Focus: "Naglagas siya sang bola." - The verb (naglagas) comes first, then the actor (siya) and the rest of the sentence.
Object Focus: "Ginlagas niya ang bola." - Object focus/present tense uses the "gin" conjugation. The focus is now on the object (bola), so we mark it with "ang." The actor (she) is in sang form (niya) because she's no longer the focus.
Recipient Focus: (no recipient in this sentence)

"I will give bananas to them." (future tense)

Actor Focus: "Ako maghatag sang saging sa ila." - "Mag" is attached to the front of "hatag" to make it future tense. The pronoun "I" is in ang form. "Saging" is not the focus, so it is marked with "sang." "Them" would be the recipient, which means it needs to be in "sa" form ("sa ila"). In this case "sa ila" means "to them."
Action Focus: "Maghatag ko sang saging sa ila." - The verb (maghatag) comes first, then the actor (ako, shortened to ko) and the rest of the sentence.
Object Focus: "Ihatag ko ang saging sa ila." - To focus on the object in future tense, we conjugated the verb ("hatag") by adding "i" to the front. "Ako" is no longer the focus, so we use the sang form, which is "nakon," shortened to "ko." The object ("saging") is labeled with "ang" now that it's the focus.
Recipient Focus: "Hatagan ko sila sang saging." - We conjugated the word "hatag" for future/recipient focus by adding "an" to the end. Now "they" (sila) is the focus of the sentence, so it's in it's ang form. "I" is still in sang form (nakon, shortened to ko), because it's not the focus. "Saging" is marked with sang because it's not the focus.

Note: The full word "ako" is used when it is in front of the verb. When it comes after the verb, it can be "ako" or shortened to "ko," which it often is. Same thing with "ikaw" and its shortened form "ka."

~~ There is flexibility in how you order the words in a sentence. These examples are just basic guidelines. ~~

Quiz   ▶