Close
 


Hindi ko alam vs Alam ko?

« Back
Message Menu
Author Photo by: AMBoy Badge: SupporterBadge: Serious SupporterBadge: VIP Supporter
Jun 01 2019, 12:00am CST ~ 4 years ago. 
Hindi ko alam vs Alam ko?
Reply
 
Message Menu
Author Photo AMBoy Badge: SupporterBadge: Serious SupporterBadge: VIP Supporter
Jun 01 2019, 12:00am CST ~ 4 years ago. 
Can anyone explain why it's Hindi ko alam for I don't know, but Alam ko for I know? I mean it doesn't make sense. Why wouldn't it be "ko alam"?
 
Is there a real and verifiable rule and explanation of why this is?
 
Message Menu
Author Photo Tagamanila Badge: SupporterBadge: Serious SupporterBadge: VIP SupporterBadge: Native Tagalog Speaker
Jun 01 2019, 12:00am CST ~ 4 years ago. 
@AMBoy
 
“Alam” - a root word that means “know”, but more like the noun “know” (knowledge). It’s not a verb as is because you will still need to add affixes to it for it to be so.
 
“Hindi” - means “no” or “not” and is used to negate a positive sentence.
 
“Ko” - the possessive “my”, but may behave like the subject pronoun “I” (ako) when used with certain verb forms and root words.
 
Rule 1: “Ko” may be the subject/doer in a sentence, but it can’t be used to begin a sentence. Only “ako” can be used to do that. (The same goes with the other possessive pronouns, i.e., “mo, niya, namin, ninyo, nila”. You will have to use “ikaw, siya, kami, kayo, sila” if they are to begin a sentence. The rules that follow apply to them too.)
 
Rule 2: If “ko” functions as the subject/doer of the sentence and the sentence is stated in the negative and the negator starts the sentence, “ko” will immediately follow the negative word. (“Ako” works in the same way).
 
In the examples that will follow, the number appearing after each one refers to the above rules.
 
“Alam ko” = I know. (1)
 
“Hindi ko alam” = I don’t know (2)
 
Applied to the other pronouns:
 
“Alam niya” = He/She knows. (1)
 
“Hindi niya alam” = He/She does not know (2)
 
“Alam ninyo” = You (plural) know. (1)
 
“Hindi ninyo alam = You (plural) don’t know. (2)
 
The 2 rules given above would already address your question. It might not have made sense to you before because you might have been basing it on English sentence structure. Each language would have its own peculiarities though. If some Filipinos have difficulty expressing themselves in English, that would also most likely be because they are forming English sentences on the basis of Filipino sentence patterns. For example, if we say, “Isusumbong kita kay Mary”, in English that would be, “I’ll tell Mary on you”. A Filipino might just say that sentence as “I will tell you to Mary” because that’s its pattern in Filipino.
 
For longer sentences, additional rules will apply:

Rule 3: If a sentence starts with “ang”, then the word that follows it is the subject. (If “ko” follows the subject, then it functions as the possessive pronoun “my”. However, Rule 2 will still apply if the subject part is negated because “ko”, as a modifier of the subject, is part of it.)
 
“Ang alam ko ay ito”/“Ito ang alam ko” = What I know is this/This is what I know (3) (“Alam” is the subject here and “ko” is its modifier - “My knowledge (of it) is this”).
 
“Ang hindi ko alam ay ito”/”Ito ang hindi ko alam” = What I don’t know is this/This is what I don’t know (3 & 2)
 
“Ang alam ko ay hindi ito”/“Hindi ito ang alam ko” = What I know is not this/This is not what I know (It is the object “ito” that is being negated here, so the negation does not have any effect on the “alam ko”, the subject part)
 
Rule 4: When the negation is placed at the start of an “‘ay” sentence, the “ay” is removed. (See the preceding example also)
 
“Ako AY kumain” = I ate
“Ako AY hindi kumain” = I did not eat.
“HINDI ako kumain” = I did not eat.
 
Using “AKO” instead of “KO” in your sentence: (The sentence needs to be modified to be able to use “ako”).
 
“Ako ang nakakaalam” = It is I/me who knows. (1)*
 
“Hindi ako ang nakakaalam” = It is not I/me who knows. (2)*
 
* Note that I used “It is I/me” in the translation. That’s because the Tagalog sentence I used is actually in the reversed form (predicate-subject form). When we put it to its “ay” form or the subject-predicate form, it will be “Ang nakakaalam ay ako” = The one who knows is I/me. The subject is no longer “ako”. It is “the one who knows” and “ako”(I/me) is the predicate with the linking verb “is”. (English grammarians might insist on “I”, but casual style, and the one more commonly used, is “me”.)
 
“Ako ang nakakaalam” (1)* above may be stated as “Ako ay ang nakakaalam” (I am the one who knows) to make “ako” as the subject. This sentence is valid, but it’s unlikely that we’d say it with an “ay”. Anyway, just to illustrate Rule 4:
 
“Ako AY ang nakakaalam = I am the one who knows.
 
“Hindi ako ang nakakaalam” = I am not the one who knows.
 
- As expected, the “ay” disappears in the negative form, but if you will look again at sentence (2)* above, you will see that our last sentence has become just exactly that even if the positive form made use of "ay". It would mean that “hindi”, in effect, transforms a sentence to its predicate-subject form. Therefore, the “ako”, which we used as the subject in the positive form, returns to its status of a predicate when “hindi” is used to begin the sentence).
 
Message Menu
Author Photo TeacherRome Badge: Native Tagalog Speaker
Jun 01 2019, 12:00am CST ~ 4 years ago. 
@AMBoy I have never thought of that before! Good observation!
 
Message Menu
Author Photo AMBoy Badge: SupporterBadge: Serious SupporterBadge: VIP Supporter
Jun 01 2019, 12:00am CST ~ 4 years ago. 
@Tagamanila OMG my mind is blown. I never expected to get such a proper answer from anyone anywhere. I can dream someday that I will be able to digest and remember all these rules.
 
Thank you so much.
 
Message Menu
Author Photo Tagamanila Badge: SupporterBadge: Serious SupporterBadge: VIP SupporterBadge: Native Tagalog Speaker
Jun 01 2019, 12:00am CST ~ 4 years ago. 
@AMBoy You're welcome and do take your time. 😁
 
Post a Reply»




« Back to Main Page
Views: 64
See more of Tagalog.com by logging in
Join for the free language discussion group, flash cards, lesson tracking and more.