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Showing posts from November, 2020

Why Filipinos Have Spanish Surnames

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  All Filipino people have surnames: some have Spanish sounding ones, some have native Tagalog ones, some have Chinese sounding ones....the only one who does not have an "apelydo" or surname is Gloc 9 because " nandito na si Gloc 9, wala siyang apelydo"! As husband of a Filipina I have regular social interactions with Filipinos and I know plenty of De La Cruz, Ramos, De Ramos, Lopez, Lachica and many other Filipino people who have Spanish surnames I also have Pinoy friends who have non Spanish-sounding surnames like Binaban, Macaraig, Macaraeg. My wife's surname is Eco and this particular surname is actually common in Italy and Umberto Eco is one of the most famous Italian writers and best-selling authors. I also know many whose surname is Tolentino , which could also be Italian and, actually, here in Italy we have the town of Tolentino and Nicola da Tolentino is viewed as a saint by the Catholic church. While a lot of Filipino people have Spanish surnames, th
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Italian for Filipinos (and Foreigners in General)

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L'Italia è un bel paese (Italy is a beautiful country) Here in Italy we have a population of over 300,000 Filipinos. What makes communication difficult between Italian employers and their Filipino domestic helpers is the language barrier, as few Italians, including highly educated ones, are fluent in English and Filipinos (who, generally speaking are rather fluent in English) really struggle to learn Italian. I have published a few posts, both in Tagalog and in English, about Tagalog (for the benefit of foreign expatriates in the Philippines, Western husbands of Filipinas or Filipinos who want to learn their own language in a more systematic way). I also have a post about the Tagalog grammar written in Italian (which I haven't completed yet). In this post I will attempt to introduce the Italian language to Filipinos (or other foreign expatriates) who live here or are planning to come here. Italian is a very tricky language, very very tricky. One of the things that make Italian
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Simuno at Panaguri sa isang Pangungusap

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  "Ang kape ay pampagana". Ano ang simuno dito, at ano ang panaguri? Sa isang pangungusap (o "sentence" sa English) ay mayroon dalawang bahagi: ang SIMUNO at ang PANAGURI. Ano ang SIMUNO at ano ang PANAGURI? SIMUNO Ang isang tao (o grupo ng mga tao) o ang isang bagay na pinag-uusapan. Ito ay ang paksa ng pangungusap. Halimbawa, sa isang pangungusap katulad: "si Maria ay maganda" sino ang pinag-uusapan? Syempre "si Maria". Sa pangungusap "ang bahay ko ay nasa ibabaw ng isang bundok" ano naman ang pinag-uusapan? Syempre "ang bahay". Kaya, sa mga halimbawa na nasa itaas ang tao (si Maria) na pinag-uusapan at ang bagay (ang bahay ko) na pinag-uusapan ay ang paksa o simuno. PANAGURI Ano kaya ang "panaguri"? Ang "panaguri" ay ang bahagi ng pangungusap na "nagsasabi" tungkol sa "simuno". Kaya sa dalawang halimbawa na nasa itaas ang mga panaguri ay: "ay maganda" At "ay nasa ibaba
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Verbal Aspect vs Tense in Tagalog

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" Sumakay ako sa kariton": then I got down to take the picture above. If I said "sumasakay ako" I'd mean that I am still on the kariton There are Filipinos who use the expressions "kapanahunan ng pandiwa", which is the Tagalog term for "tense", and "aspekto ng pandiwa" interchangeably. But are "tense" and "aspect" the same thing? Are there real "tenses" in Tagalog, and in the Philippine languages in general? Even some English books and teachers mix the two and when they are asked about tenses in English they say that the past simple, the past continuous, the past perfect, the present simple, the present continuous and the present perfect are "tenses". In reality in the English language only the past and the present are, strictly speaking, "tenses" in the real sense of the word, as past and present deal with time. The "simple", the "continuous" and the "perfec
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