Copyright, 1996 © Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc. FOCUS TIP For additional advice see Dale Carnegie Training® Presentation Guidelines. Tagalog Grammar - VERBAL FOCUS

What is FOCUS? In a Tagalog sentence, a Tagalog speaker will pick out a word that they most want to emphasize. This word could be the most important word in the sentence, or it could have some special sense of prominence. This chosen word of special emphasis is said to be the focus of the sentence.

Similarities in English Focus is closely similar to “stress” in English. In Tagalog, words in focus is marked with ang, ang mga, si, sina or if pronouns are used, ang pronouns.

Verbal Focus the relationship between the verbal affixes and the nouns in a sentence um, mag, ma are called Actor focus verbs. The actors/doers in the sentence are then marked with either ang/ang mga, si/sina or if pronouns are used, ang pronouns.

I, in, an are considered non-actor focus. The non actor nouns (receiver or instrument of the action) are then marked with ang/ang mga, si/sina.

Examples: Kumain si Ben ng saging at tinapay kaninang umaga. Kinain ni Ben ang saging at tinapay kaninang umaga. Naglalaro ang mga bata ng bola sa labas. Nilalaro ng mga bata ang bola sa labas.

In verbs - are usually the goal focus counterpart of um verbs I verbs - are usually the goal focus counterpart of mag (majority)

Magtapon ka ng basura. Itapon po ang basura Nagtapon si Ben ng basura. Itinapon ni Ben ang basura.

Uminom ka ng tubig. Inumin mo ang tubig. Iinom siya ng tubig mamaya. Iinumin niya ang tubig mamaya.