@kasong You're welcome!
The translation of “The boy met the girl” would depend on what " met " means.
Although “t
agpò” means “meet”, it usually refers to an agreement to meet. “Tagp
uan” means “an agreed-upon meeting place”. “Mat
ágpu
án” is the verb used to express finding someone or something that you were looking for.
To make your sentence grammatically correct, it should be “Ang lalaki at (ang) babae ay nagt
agpò (The boy and the girl met).” However, we are not likely to use that sentence just like that unless the context was already established. As is, it is begging for an explanation about the meeting. Hence, you would usually only see it in sentences with long predicates or in complex sentences. For example: 1) “Ang lalaki at babae ay nagtagp
ô para magkakil
ala sila nang mas mab
uti.” = The boy and the girl met so that they may get to know each other better. 2) “Ang lalaki at babae ay nagtagpo nang hindi inaas
ahan sa lo
ób ng bangko”. = The boy and girl met (found each other) unexpectedly/accidentally inside the bank.
To use “tagpo” in your sentence, you may use the verb “makip
ágtagpo (nakipagtagp
ô, nakikipagtagp
ô, makikipagtagp
ô) (to mutually agree to meet with someone)”:
Ang lal
aki ay nakipagtagp
ô sa bab
ae. = The boy met the girl (at the place and time they had agreed on).
If the meeting was about getting acquainted for the first time:
Ang lalaki at babae ay nagkakil
ala sa isang party. = The boy and girl met (got to know each other) at a party.
If the meeting was accidental and between persons who already know each other:
Ang lalaki at babae ay nagk
ásal
ubong sa harap
án/har
áp ng mall. = The boy and girl met each other in front of the mall (as they were coming from opposite or different directions). It could also simply mean that they just met in passing.
Other verbs may be used depending on the meaning of "meet".
Going back to your Tagalog sentence - “Ng lalaki ay nagtagpo ang babae.”
Assuming that your “ng” was a typo and you meant it to be “ang”, it would then appear twice and that would suggest that both of them are marking the subjects of the sentence. The sentence should, therefore, be “Ang lalaki at (ang) babae ay nagtagpo”. It is not uncommon for us to omit the second “ang” and without it, the sentence is the same as the second example I gave above.
If that “Ng” was really what you meant, then the sentence is wrong. You can’t start a sentence with “of” because it won’t make sense - “Of the boy met the girl”. However, since there is an “ang” in your sentence, then it marks the subject by default. The sentence becomes, “Ang babae ay nagtagpo ng lalaki”. It is not really correct grammatically, but if we’d hear it from a non-Tagalog speaker, one possible interpretation or misinterpretation is that the girl procures men for other men. That meaning would result from our mentally filling in the missing parts of the sentence to make it grammatically correct – Ang babae ay nagTAtagpo ng MGA lalaki. = The girl is making men meet. You’d end up describing her as a madam that way. 🤣
Just an extra info: “Ng bab
ae” or “ng lal
aki”, if orally expressed and just by itself with no basis for context will most likely be misheard or misunderstood as “nambab
ae" or “nanlal
aki ”, respectively. The verb “mambab
ae (nambab
ae, nambabab
ae, mambababa’’e)” is what a Don Juan (m
ámbabab
ae) does. Be aware though that these words are only used informally.
Its female counterpart is “manlal
aki (nanlal
aki, nanl
álal
aki, manl
álal
aki)” and the noun (man-eater?) is “m
ánlalal
aki”. Unlike that for men, these terms for a woman are not used as real labels but only in jest and a rude one if a man says it in the presence of women. 🤫🤐🤕