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Question: Re: sentence formation with more than 1 actor.

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Author Photo by: Nick
Jun 04 2020, 6:18pm CST ~ 3 years, 10 mos ago. 
Question: Re: sentence formation with more than 1 actor.
 
I've been plugging away at this for about 3 weeks and have trouble forming sentences when there's more than one actor in it i.e. "I want to tell you a secret" or "Tell me what you want" or "Tell me what gift to buy your baby".
 
I never know where to put the "ko" or "mo" or "siya". Even worse is when I read some of the articles in the reader I don't know who is doing what to whom!
 
Is there a general rule to help guide me when I'm forming or reading these sentences?
 
The help is much appreciated!
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Author Photo primesgenato
Jun 04 2020, 8:22pm CST ~ 3 years, 10 mos ago. 
Hi Nick. I’m a beginner myself. I feel ya. I know exactly what you’re going through. I’d use sabihan for your 3 sentences. Natives will hopefully correct any mistakes of mine.
 
Gusto kitang sabihan ng secret
 
Sabihan mo ako kung ano ang gusto mo
 
Sabihan mo ako kung anong regalo ang bilhin ko para sa sanggol mo
 
As for the order of those pronouns, look up enclitics. It’s a bizarre but interesting rule where enclitics jump to the position after the first word in a specific order. There seems to be 2 enclitic word orders: formal and casual. I’ll post tables of both orders here later when I have time.
 
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Author Photo jkos Badge: AdminBadge: SupporterBadge: Serious SupporterBadge: VIP Supporter
Jun 04 2020, 8:46pm CST ~ 3 years, 10 mos ago. 
@Nick
It depends on the verb, different verbs will act differently...
Do you have an idea of how verb focus works yet?
 
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Author Photo Nick
Jun 04 2020, 10:05pm CST ~ 3 years, 10 mos ago. 
@primesgenato That would be great! Thanks!
 
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Author Photo Nick
Jun 04 2020, 10:09pm CST ~ 3 years, 10 mos ago. 
@jkos I have no idea how it works! In fact I just tried looking it up and I don't think google understood what I meant!
 
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Author Photo primesgenato
Jun 04 2020, 10:44pm CST ~ 3 years, 10 mos ago. 
@Nick
Ah no wonder. I suggest reading up on focuses. Here's an introduction.
 
www.seasite.niu.edu/ Tagalog/Grammar%20Ac tivities/Grammar%202 /Verbal%20Focus
 
It's a bit hard to navigate that site. There are more clickable links in the left frame to further your reading.
 
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Author Photo Nick
Jun 04 2020, 10:45pm CST ~ 3 years, 10 mos ago. 
Pasintabi po! Please excuse any verb tense problems.
 
But here is my crack at it
 
"call me if you need money for your baby"= "tumawag mo ako kung kailangan mo pera para sanggol mo"
 
Is that in the ball park?
 
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Author Photo Nick
Jun 04 2020, 10:46pm CST ~ 3 years, 10 mos ago. 
@primesgenato Thanks for the link. Im reading up on it now!
 
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Author Photo primesgenato
Jun 04 2020, 10:53pm CST ~ 3 years, 10 mos ago. 
Tawagan mo ako kung kailangan mo ng pera para sa sanggol mo
OR
Tumawag ka sa akin kung kailangan mo ng pera para sa sanggol mo
 
That would be my guess for the sentences instead. Tawagan would be the Locative Focus verb. Tumawag is the Actor Focus.
 
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Author Photo Bituingmaykinang
Jun 04 2020, 11:10pm CST ~ 3 years, 10 mos ago. 
Hi Nick,
 
It seems that you need to focus on the focus (no pun intended) and the right pronoun to it pair with as well as the markers (ang, ng, sa) before attempting more complex sentences as the ones you gave.
 
Just a friendly suggestion.
 
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Author Photo Nick
Jun 04 2020, 11:28pm CST ~ 3 years, 10 mos ago. 
@Bituingmaykinang Thanks for the suggestion! I need to remind myself to walk before I run. I'm reading up on it now and things are making a lot more sense!
 
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Author Photo Nick
Jun 05 2020, 12:19am CST ~ 3 years, 10 mos ago. 
Is this correct so far? I looked at verb focus and it looks like the markers for focus and non-focus words are:
 
focus non-focus
ang ng
ako akin
ka mo
si Nick kay/ni Nick
siya kanya/niya
 
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Author Photo primesgenato
Jun 05 2020, 12:30am CST ~ 3 years, 10 mos ago. 
 
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Author Photo Bituingmaykinang
Jun 05 2020, 12:58am CST ~ 3 years, 10 mos ago. 
www.seasite.niu.edu/ Tagalog/Grammar%20Ac tivities/Grammar%201 /Pronouns/Prono
 
Using the correct pronoun is critical because "Kinain ko" has a different meaning from "Kinain ako"
 
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Author Photo JaneTagalogTutor Badge: Native Tagalog Speaker
Jun 08 2020, 3:34pm CST ~ 3 years, 10 mos ago. 
Question: Re: sentence formation with more than 1 actor. I've been plugging away at this for about 3 weeks and have trouble forming sentences when there's more than one actor in it i.e. "I want to tell you a secret" or "Tell me what you want" or "Tell me what gift to buy your baby". I never know where to put the "ko" or "mo" or "siya". Even worse is when I read some of the articles in the reader I don't know who is doing what to whom! Is there a general rule to help guide me when I'm forming or reading these sentences? The help is much appreciated!
 
@Nick "I want to tell you a secret" = Gusto kong sabihin sa iyo ang isang sikreto.
"Tell me what you want" = Sabihin mo sa akin kung ano ang gusto mo.
"Tell me what gift to buy for your baby". = Sabihin mo sa akin kung anong regalo ang bibilhin para sa iyong anak (sanggol).
 
These are all in an active voice in Tagalog, which means, the sentence starts with the verb. They are also in its infinitive form which you use for making a command or request.
 
Using different affixes also changes the pronoun to be used and its focus. For these examples, you used "hin" suffix which is an object focus. Ang marks the object. I hope this help.
 
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Author Photo Nick
Jun 11 2020, 6:46pm CST ~ 3 years, 10 mos ago. 
thanks to all that have replied. I am so new to learning tagalog that I don't even know what I don't know. Being pointed in the right direction with regards to verb focus has made my learning so much better and has really increased my reading comprehension.
 
Thank you all again!
 
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