Question: whats different between ''ka'' and ''mo''?

*NOTICE: I am a learner as well take any answer with a grain of salt*I don't think this will be that helpful for you because it's such a hard concept to grasp when you don't already have it, but the pronouns change based on the focus on the sentence. I suggest you find a book / web page explaining ang/ng/sa phrases.ka = you (ang phrase)
mo = you (ng phrase) can also be seen as possessive maganda ka = you are beautiful
ang ganda mo = you are very beautiful (focus on the beautiful, and you possessing it)

Salah...I am going to give you a great AhhhHah moment of your own self-discovery...and it won't be hard to grasp at all.Look at the great sentence examples here in the dictionary.For Actor Focused verbs such as Mag, Um, etc...look at the pronoun following the verb..."KA" or another ang pronoun or ang phrase. Ang always marks the subject...here the Actor...of an Actor Focused Verb. Wow. Try to find that in two simple sentences anywhere.For Object Focused verbs such as In, An, etc.,... look at the pronoun following the verb..."MO" or another ng pronoun or ng phrase. NG always marks the non-subject which here is the Actor. Then look for the Ang pronoun or Phrase after the NG...AGAIN ang always marks the topic...here the Object...of an Object focused verb. Wow...right. Yes...Topic follows the Focus and determines the pronoun case. Those Tagalogs are CRAFTY naman! Now BEWARE of the nuance junkies...look at 10 Actor Focus verb examples here and 10 Object Focus verb examples here...and your intuition will have dived...to DhhEEEEEEP TAGALOG.Good luck! Enjoy.

@AMBoy thanks for this, I'm struggling with this right now too!From what you say, it seems the first example (maganda ka) is about the person being beautiful, and the second example (ang ganda mo) is about the person having beauty.In every day terms they seem very similar, but it seems to me a situation quite like the difference between a metaphor and a simile.To my mind, a similie is when something is like another thing (the moon is like a white ball tonight) and a metaphore is when it is directly compared to being the other thing (the moon is a white ball tonight). Subtle difference... So... taking this thinking (and realising it isn't metaphor and simile), would this be about the person being actually beautiful... and in the other the person possesses beauty (is like beauty)?

@halmaclean have you studied the concept of focus? When to use ka and mo is highly dependent on that.
Using the wrong pronoun can change the meaning.Kinain mo - you ate (something)
Kinain ka - you were eaten (by something)This is why people who want to learn Tagalog should drill themselves on the grammar and not rely on word-for-word translations"Ang ganda mo" literally means "your beauty". "Mo" here is acting as a possesive pronoun. In this usage though, it is an "expression" to say "you are beautiful".An example of a sentence where "ang ganda mo" is more "literal":"Nakakahumaling ANG GANDA MO" (Your beauty is enchanting).

@Bituingmaykinang Thanks for that... no, I am just starting out, so I have much to learn!A Filipino friend of mine suggested I should think like a Jedi... I am not entirely sure I know what he means, except for the way the sentences are structured compared to English - 'Hungry I am' instead of 'I am hungry'.But I will take time to study 'focus' (or subject, I guess) and see if I can crack the code

The most common word order for Tagalog is VSO/VOS. There's the SVO, but it uses the inverter "ay", but this form considered very, very formal and/or poetic.Think of it as "Let's go to New York" vs "To New York, we go".

@Bituingmaykinang ah right - so:
'learning I am the language'... as opposed to I am learning the language... VSO, where as in English that sentence is SVOI'll get there... eventually