Tagalog grammar (Tagalog: Balarilà ng Tagalog) are the rules that describe the structure of expressions in the Tagalog language, one of the languages in the Philippines.
In Tagalog, traditional grammar recognizes nine parts of speech: nouns (pangngalan), pronouns (panghalíp), verbs (pandiwà), adverbs (pang-abay), adjectives (pang-urì), prepositions (pang-ukol), conjunctions (pangatníg), ligatures (pang-angkóp) and particles (pantukoy).
Overview
The grammar of Tagalog is agglutinative, predicate-initial, and organized around the Austronesian alignment system, in which intricate verbal morphology indicates which semantic role is associated with the topic ("ang"-marked) argument.
Tagalog verbs combine a wide array of prefixes, infixes, suffixes, circumfixes, and clitic particles to express voice/"trigger", aspect, mood, and valency changes, resulting in morphologically complex predicate structures.
Tagalog noun morphology is relatively simple compared to its verbal system, though nouns are also productively derived from a range of affixes. Grammatical roles are expressed not by case endings but by a three-way article system (ang, ng, sa) placed directly before the noun clause, distinguishing topic, non-topic, and oblique arguments. Pronouns reflect distinctions in person, number, clusivity, and case.
Word order is typically verb-initial, though SVO may be used in formal contexts. Because the voice/trigger system and article markers indicate grammatical roles, arguments can be freely rearranged to shift focus or emphasize different participants without changing the core meaning.
A defining feature of the language is its productive reduplication system, which includes partial and full reduplication. These patterns perform both grammatical and derivational functions, marking imperfective aspect, intensity, plurality, distributive or repeated action, among other functions.
Another important feature is phonemic stress, wherein the placement of stress is lexically contrastive: identical sequence of sounds can represent distinct words depending on stress and the presence or absence of a glottal stop (e.g., basa “to read” vs. basâ “wet”). Stress interacts with affixation and reduplication in systematic but sometimes nontransparent ways.
Morphophonology
Reduplication Reduplication in Tagalog is a complex yet productive process. It may be classified based on the phonological shape of the reduplicant (whether partial or full reduplication), degree of morphological productivity, and associated semantic functions.
Morphological productivity Productive reduplication is a regular morphological process that applies to a wide range of lexical items, expresses a predictable derivational meaning, and systematically interacts with grammatical categories such as verbal aspect, plurality, intensity, and distributivity. Because of its clear grammatical function, it is considered the “significant” type of reduplication in Tagalog. This process is synchronically analyzable by speakers and can be freely applied to new or foreign words. Examples: puntá "come" → púpuntá “will come” magandá "beautiful"→ magágandá “beautiful (plural)” kutitap "flicker" → kumúkutíkutitap “flickering intensively, here and there” tatló "three" → tatló-tatló “three at time”
Lexicalized reduplicative roots are words that appear reduplicated but are not synchronically analyzable as products of a productive reduplication process. As such, this may also be known as "non-productive" or "non-significant" reduplication. Although many such words may have originated historically through reduplication, modern speakers do not derive them from an independent word base. Examples include: babae “woman” (inherited from Proto-Austronesian *ba-bahi, reduplicated form of *bahi) tutubí “dragonfly” pakpák “wing” lupaypáy “exhausted” Most reduplicated-looking nouns and ideophones fall into this category.
Phonological shape of reduplicant Partial reduplication involves the repetition of a syllabic portion of the root or affixed stem. The various types of partial reduplication are as follows: Reduplication of the initial consonant and vowel (CV) of the root or affix. This is the most common type as it is central to aspect marking in verbs, among other functions – making it a highly productive pattern of reduplication. Examples: (reduplicant is underlined) susulat "will write" ← sulat "write, letter" makíkikain "will eat at someone else's place" ← makikain ("to eat at someone else's place", from maki- + kain) In root words beginning with a vowel, the reduplicated consonant corresponds to the glottal stop that inherently precedes word-initial vowels in Tagalog; e.g. íinóm (pronounced /ˌʔiʔiˈnom/, "will drink") from inóm (/ʔiˈnom/, "drinking") Certain words displaying initial-syllable reduplication (typically nouns) are synchronically unanalyzable as productive reduplication, and are therefore morphologically “non-significant”. For example, babae (“woman”), lalaki (“man”), and gagambá (“spider”) are not derived from independent roots (i.e., there are no such base words as *bae, *laki, or *gamba which they could have been derived from) and function as simple lexical items. Reduplication of the first two syllables in polysyllabic roots, minus the final consonant (coda) of the second syllable if present. This is used productively in polysyllabic roots in place of full reduplication. A hyphen may be orthographically placed between the reduplicant and the base word: baí-baitáng (“gradual”) ← baitáng (“step”); used instead of baitáng-baitáng which is seldom used balí-baligtád ("turned around continually", "all turned inside up") ← baligtád ("reverse"); notice how the coda of the second syllable (i.e., [g]) is not part of the reduplicant, as *balig-baligtad is never used Reduplication of the final syllable; this type is always non-productive: kilala ("known") kulimlím ("overcast"; compare limlím "brooding") bulaklák ("flower"; compare bulak "cotton") Reduplication of the final syllable of a disyllabic word, where the final syllable "copies" the initial consonant of the first syllable and the final vowel-consonant sequence of the second syllable; this is also always non-productive: tagaytáy ("mountain range"; compare taytáy "bridge, mountain range") halakhák (“boisterous laughter”) Reduplicated words of this type may have been historically derived from base words affixed with now non-productive infixes such as -al- and -ag-. Combination of partial reduplication types: bábalíbaligtád ("will turn around continually"), from CV- + CVCV- + baligtád makíkilala ("will get to know someone"), from ma- + CV- + kilalá
Full reduplication consists of repeating the entire word base or monosyllabic sequence of sounds. Examples include: Reduplication of an existing root word. This is a productive process, and a hyphen is always used to separate the base and the reduplicant: araw-araw ("every day") ← araw ("day" or "sun") háka-hakà (“rumor”) ← hakà (“idea, suspicion”) Reduplication of a word base that does not exist independently. These forms are lexicalized and are written as a single word, except when a hyphen is required to mark a glottal stop. alaala (“memory”), *ala alone does not exist ilang-ilang (“Cananga odorata”), *ilang alone does not exist Full reduplication with intervening connective (na/-ng, at/-’t, nang); always productive: paskóng-paskó ("truly Christmas, Christmas-Christmas"), from paskó + na + paskó isá’t-isá ("each other"), from isá + at + isá lakad nang lakad ("walking about a lot") Monosyllabic reduplication; [u] is lowered to [o] in final syllables; always lexical: pakpák ("wing") sipsíp ("suck up") tuktók (“summit”) Monosyllabic reduplication with an intervening vowel; always lexical: sagisag ("emblem") patupat ("cigarette holder") hayahay ("freshness")
Verbs Tagalog verbs are complex and are changed by taking on many affixes reflecting voice/trigger, aspect and mood. Below is a chart of the main verbal affixes, which consist of a variety of prefixes, suffixes, infixes, and circumfixes.
Conventions used in the chart: CV~ stands for reduplication of the first syllable of a root word; that is, the first consonant (if any) and the first vowel of the word. N stands for a nasal consonant, which are m, n, or ng. m is used when the prefixed word starts with the consonants b or p n is used before the consonants d, t, and l in all other cases, ng /ŋ/ is used ∅ means that the verb root is used, therefore no affixes are added. Punctuation marks indicate the type of affix a particular bound morpheme is: hyphens mark prefixes if placed after the morpheme (e.g., mag-), or suffixes if placed before it (e.g., -han) marks infixes, which is typically placed before the first vowel of the word, and after the first consonant if there is any. Thus, the word "sumulat" (sulat) is composed of the root word sulat and the infix . ~ is used to separate the reduplicated morpheme (CV), from the root word, such that "susulat" is written as (su~sulat) and "sumusulat" as (su~sulat).
CompleteProgressiveContemplativeInfinitiveImperativeActor trigger I bumasa CV~bumabasa CV~babasa bumasa∅ (verb root) basaActor trigger IInag-nagbasanag-CV~nagbabasamag-CV~magbabasamag-magbasapag-pagbasaActor trigger IIIna-nabasana-CV~nababasama-CV~mababasama-mabasapa-pabasaActor trigger IVnaN- (nang-, nam-, nan-) nangbasa (nambasa)naN-CV~nangbabasa (nambabasa)maN-CV~mangbabasa (mambabasa)maN-mangbasa (mambasa)paN-pangbasa (pambasa)Object trigger I binasa CV~binabasaCV~ ... -(h)inbabasahin -(h)inbasahin -a (or verb root)basahaObject trigger IIi-ibinasai-CV~ibinabasai-CV~ibabasai-ibasa -(h)an/-(h)inbasaanObject trigger III ... -(h)anbinasahanCV~ ... -(h)anbinabasahanCV~ ... -(h)anbabasahan -(h)anbasahan -(h)i basahinLocative trigger ... -(h)anbinasahanCV~ ... -(h)anbinabasahanCV~ ... -(h)anbabasahan -(h)anbasahan∅Benefactive triggeri-ibinasai-CV~ibinabasai-CV~ibabasai-ibasa∅Instrument triggeripaN-ipinambasaipaN-CV~ipinambabasaipaN-CV~ipambabasaipaN-ipambasa∅Reason triggerika-ikinabasaika-CV~ikinababasaika-CV~ikababasaika-ikabasa∅
With object-focus verbs in the completed and progressive aspects, the infix -in- frequently becomes the prefix ni- if the root word begins with , , , or ; e.g., linalapitan or nilalapitan and inilagáy or ilinagáy.
When suffixing -in and -an to a word that ends in a vowel, an epenthetic h is inserted. This helps to distinguish them from words that have a glottal stop, which is usually not written except when diacritical marks are applied, such that "basa" (to read) becomes "basahin" while "basa" (to be wet, otherwise spelt as "basâ") becomes "basaín" pronounced with a glottal stop.
The imperative affixes are not often used in Manila, but they do exist in other Tagalog speaking provinces.
Archaic Forms CompleteProgressiveContemplativeInfinitiveImperative Archaic Actor trigger I(Unassimilated) or bungmasa, tingmingin CV~ or CV~bungmabasa, tingmitingin CV~babasa bumasa∅ Archaic Actor trigger I(Assimilated) b/p → nnasa b/p → n + REDUPnanasa CV~babasa b/p → mmasa∅
In old Tagalog, the complete and progressive aspects of actor trigger I was marked with the affix "-ungm-" or "-ingm-', while "-um-" was used solely as the infinitive form. The rule is that when a verb has an "i" in its initial syllable, the infix used is "-ingm-" like "tingmingin" (looked, complete aspect) and "tingmitingin" (is looking, progressive aspect), otherwise "-ungm-" is used. This is a case called vowel harmony.
Another archaic feature is when a verb starts in a "b" or "p", which becomes an "n" for the complete and progressive aspects, and "m" for infinitive while contemplative is still CV- reduplication. The word "pasok" (to enter) therefore becomes "nasok" (complete), "nanasok" (progressive), "papasok" (contemplative), and "masok" (infinitive).