The "Bawal Umihi Dito" Sign as a Metaphor of the Pinoy Mentality

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One of the many "bawal" signs in the Philippines I remember riding on a trycicle with Tito  Benje, my Filipina wife's uncle.  After overtaking a bus on a double solid line (as Filipinos always do), he said something along the lines of " sa Pilipinas lahat ay pwede", basically meaning that in the Philippines you can do whatever you want and that road signs and markings are, more often than not, mere decorations. Bawal Umihi Dito, Bawal Magtapon ng Basura Dito.... One of the features of the Philippine landscape is the huge amount of signs that remind people that urinating against a public or private wall, on a sidewalk or against a pole and disposing of the garbage on the side of the road, in a river or a canal is not socially acceptable and that the offender might (theoretically) be given a multa, should a  buwaya be around. My bayaw told me in a very straightforward manner that Filipinos love urinating and disposing of their garbage exactly there where a sign s
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Adjectives in Tagalog

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 An adjective describes a noun


Adjectives are words like beautiful, awesome and any other word that gives some information about the thing, the place, the person, the idea or the animal described by a noun.


In Tagalog there are adjectives that are formed by a root word+an affix (like maganda=beautiful) and adjectives that don't require an affix (like bobo=stupid).


Here is a list of affixes that are used to form compound adjectives


1 ma- having a certain quality

Example: maganda=beautiful


2. maka- having a certain inclination

Example: makalaman=fleshly


3. maka- having a certain ability

Example: makadurug-puso=having the ability to break one's heart


4. mala- being like

Example: malasibuyas=like an onion


5. mapag- having a certain habit

Example: mapagbiro=having the habit to joke


6. mapang~ mapan~ mapam~ one who does on a regular basis the thing described by the root word

Example: mapang-away= one who regularly engages in a quarrel


7. pala- one who is constantly doing the thing described by the root word

Example: palaisip=always thinking


8. pang-~ pan-~ pam- instrumental

Example: pampatibay=encouraging


9.-an~ han one who possesses the quality described by the root word to a large extent

Example: duguan=inclined to a large extent toward bloodshed


10. in- like the thing described by the root word

Example: sinampalok=like a tamarind


11. in/-hin one who easily catches the thing described by the root word

Example: lagnatin=one who easily catches the flu


12. ma- -in/-hin one who possesses the quality described by the root word to a large extent

Example: maawain=full of mercy

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