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Tagalog is an agglutinative Philippine language that is most commonly spoken in the Philippines and the wider Filipino diaspora. It has a standardized variety called Filipino. While officially recognized as separate languages, Tagalog and Filipino are agreed to be linguistically similar by linguists. This article describes the grammar of both Tagalog and Filipino. It should be noted that this article describes the grammar of formal Tagalog as described by linguists and the Philippine government through the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF). Taglish is the non-standard variety of Tagalog, a code-switching which actively uses English vocabulary into grammatically Tagalog sentences. There are also Tagalog-based argots, most notably swardspeak, used by the LGBT community.

Tagalog has nine recognized word classes or parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, ligatures, and particles. Nouns do not conjugate; it instead use markers to denote information, such as using the particle mga (pronounced ma-nga) to denote plurality. Pronouns only conjugate for number. However, verbs are morphologically more complex, as it uses affixes (prefixes, suffixes, and circumfixes) to conjugate for trigger and aspect in a unique system called the Austronesian alignment.^[a]

Adjectives and adverbs do not conjugate, and can be prepositive or postpositive. Adjectives are almost always marked by the prefix ma-. Ligatures are used to connect adjectives and adverbs to the word they are describing to. There are two ligatures used that depends on the ending letter of the antecedent: the suffix -ng for vowels and the particle na for consonants. Tagalog uses a number of conjunctions, as well as the particle sa to indicate prepositions.

Tagalog is commonly classified as a VSO language, but it also allows construction of sentences in SVO order through the use of the inversion marker ay. A comma can also be used to invert the word order; such style is prevalent in newspapers and media. Tagalog sentences can be written in different ways to give emphasis or definiteness. In informal writing, this flexibility also stretches to words themselves; a noun for example can use verb conjugations to act like a verb.

Word classes

There are nine recognized word classes in Tagalog: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, ligatures, and particles. Tagalog words can be grouped into multiple classes, such as the word aral, which can be "a learning" as noun or "to learn" as verb. This extends further in informal setting. For example, Facebook is a proper noun, but it can be conjugated as a verb (nag-Facebook, "to use Facebook").

Nouns

Nouns in Tagalog are classified into two: common and personal. Common nouns refer to anything that is not named, including nouns which are commonly classified as proper nouns in English. Personal nouns, on the other hand, refer to nouns that are named. These mostly refer to humans, but it can also extend to other animate and inanimate beings that has a name. Sometimes, Tagalog speakers would use particles reserved for personal nouns for nouns that were anthropomorphized or personified, such as brand names. This is used especially in informal setting, and is common in advertising.

Cases

Tagalog nouns do not inflect, but they are instead marked by prepositive case particles based on number and role, of which there are three: direct, indirect, and oblique. The following table shows the particles used for each case and number.

The direct case is used for intransitive clauses. Usually, definiteness is coded in in direct case through the particle ang, but indefiniteness similar to English "a/an" can be made through the word isang (lit. 'one'). In the example below, the word lalaki ("male" or "man") is marked by ang (translates to "the") to denote that the one who performed the action dumating ("to arrive".AGFOC1.NPFV) was him.

However, on transitive clauses that uses the default patient trigger in Tagalog, the direct case marks the patient (direct object in English), while indirect case marks the agent (subject in English). In the example below, Juan is marked indirectly to show that he was the one who did the action nakita ("to see".AGFOC3.NPFV), while Maria is marked directly to show that she receives the action.

The similarity of this construction to the passive voice found in English have led many to erronously believed that Tagalog is using passive voice by default. This construction have led some linguists to argue that Tagalog is an ergative language as well, a claim that is a subject of debate by linguists.

The particle sa denotes the oblique and locative cases for nouns. It also acts as an prepositional marker, marking location and direction. In the example below, sa bahay ni Juan ("Juan's house".LOC) is marked obliquely to show the location of where the action pupunta ("to go".AGFOC1.CTMPL) will be done by the agent Maria, marked directly.

Possession

Possession of nouns in Tagalog are marked by the particles ng for common nouns and ni for personal nouns. These particles mark the possessor of an object, as indicated in the pattern possessed + possession marker + possessor.

Plurality

Nominalization

Semantic classes

Notes

References

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