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AdelAdel

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Location
Poland
In fact, Chinese language is grammatically very easy. The main challenge to learn Chinese for a foreigner is not grammar, but Chinese character reading and handwriting! xyes

What about tones? I was taught that the Chinese language is a tonal language, which means that the same word can be pronounced using different tones, changing the meaning of the word completely.
 

r3gg13

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December 23, 2010
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Location
Westchester - Los Angeles
:ph: Filipino/Tagalog :ph:



Alpabeto: Alphabet

We do have a pre-Spanish writing system called the Baybayin. It is a syllabic writing system so each character corresponds to a syllable (typically a consonant + a vowel)

No one ever uses this now, but here's a photo of the chart for the sake of showing it:

Baybayin_Visual_Aid_by_Nordenx.jpg


The Roman alphabet modified for Tagalog

A B K D E G H I L M N NG Ñ O P R S T U W Y



Word order:

The canonical word order is Verb-Subject-Object. However you can change the word order as long as have the correct case markers preceding the nouns that they belong with.



Pangngalan: Nouns


There's 3 basic cases: direct, indirect and oblique

Direct: This is the absolutive case. In essence it is the subject.

Indirect: This is the ergative, accusative and genitive cases. This is in essence the object and possessive.

Oblique: This is the locative case. This is basically the case that marks location or the equivalent of prepositions in English.


Chart of markers

Direct: ang (common singlular equivalent of 'the one'), yong (common singular, equivalent of 'this one') ang mga (common plural, equivalent of 'the ones'), yong mga (common plural, equivalent of 'these ones'), si (personal singular marks people as subjects), sina (personal plural, marks people as subjects).

Indirect: ng (common singular equivalent of 'of the one') niyong (common singular, equivalent of 'of this one') ng mga (common plural, equivalent of 'of the ones') niyong mga (common plural, equivalent of 'of these ones) ni (personal singular, equivalent of 'of he/she/it' or 'by him/her/it') nina (personal plural, equivalent of 'of/by them')

Oblique: sa (common singular, equivalent of 'to/in/at/on this') sa mga (common plural, equivalent of 'to/in/at/on these') kay (personal singular, equivalent of 'to/in/at/on him/her/it) kina (personal plural, equivalent of to/in/at/on them)

Side note:
For the linguistics junkies out there: Tagalog has Philippine alignment which is almost like a mix between nominative case system and ergative case system. That should clear out a lot of things for those wondering why the heck the language is formatted like that.

Examples:

Sa bahay ni Reggie (Oblique, house, of, Reggie) (In Reggie's house)
Ang pangalan ko ay Reggie (Direct marker, name, mine, existential marker, Reggie) [my name is Reggie]
Kakain tayo (Will-eat we) [We will eat]
Ang pinagkainan natin (Direct marker, the place where the eating has occurred, by us) [The place where we ate]



Articles:

There are no articles in Tagalog, definiteness (the) and indefiniteness (a, an) are marked by the voice of the sentence.

Active sentences: definite
Passive sentence: indefinite



Panghalip: Pronouns

Direct:
Ako (I)
Ikaw (You)
Sya (He/She/It)
Tayo (We)
Kayo (You plural)
Sila (They)

non-existent in English: Kata (1st person dual, like saying 'we, us two'), Kami (1st person plural exclusive, like saying 'we, just us')

Indirect:
Ko (of me, mine, by me)
Mo (of you, your, by you)
Niya (of him/her/it, his/her/its, by him/her/it)
Ninyo (of you plural, your, by you)
Natin (of us, our, by us)
Nila (of them, their, by them)

non-existent in English: Nita (1st person dual, like saying 'by/of/ us two'), Namin (1st person plural exclusive, like saying 'by/of just us')

Oblique:

Akin (to/at/in/on me, mine)
Iyo (to/at/in/on you, your)
Kanya (to/at/in/on him/her/it, his/her/its)
Atin (to/at/in/on us, our)
Inyo (to/at/in/on you plural, your)
Kanila (to/at/in/on them, their)

non-existent in English: Kanita (1st person dual, like saying to/at/in/on 'us two'), Atin (1st person plural exclusive, like saying to/at/in/on 'just us').

Example

Sentence that translates to English very easily:

Ginuhit ko ang mukha niya sa kwaderno ko (Drew, by me, direct marker, face, of her, oblique, notebook, of me) [I drew his/her/its face on my notebook]

The grammatical subject matches the agent, like how it is in English. However that's not always the case

Sentence that doesn't translate easily to English:

Ang mukha nya ay ginuhit ko sa kwaderno ko (Direct marker, face, his/her/it, existential marker, drew, by me, oblique, notebook, of me) [I drew his/her/its face on my notebook].

Note: the grammatical subject of the sentence is the 'face' not the 'I' which is still the agent in this sentence. So it's a bit confusing. As long as you separate the concepts of grammatical subject and thematic agent, you will not have a hard time.



Pandiwa: Verbs

This is the most complicated thing in Tagalog. Pandiwa literally means the 'essentializer' it is not necessarily an action, it just has to give the sentence an 'essence'. Verbs in Tagalog do more than just indicate actions.

Little note:

There is no verb 'to be' in Tagalog. What we have is an existential marker, ay. In translations you will see ay translated as the verb 'to be' in English.

Easy stuff:

There are 3 verb tenses: Completed, Progressive and Contemplative, basically past, present and future. However it has very different connotations. When using the contemplative/future tense, you are literally saying that you are thinking of doing the action.

Hard Stuff:

In English and many Indo-European languages, the verb ending changes when you conjugate a verb. Conjugation is basically suffixational.

However, in Tagalog, you have prefixes (comes before the verb), infixes (comes within the verb), circumfixes (surrounds the verb), and suffixes (comes after the verb)


Another different thing: Unlike in Indo-European languages where verbs can only be conjugated on the basis of the grammatical subject, verb conjugation in Tagalog is triggered by the THEMATIC: agent (who does the action), object (the thing receiving the action is being done to), benefactive (the thing receiving the action), locative (where the action takes place), instrument (the instrument used to do the action) and reason (the reasoning behind the action) You conjugate a verb based on the function you want it to perform, the essence that you want it to give in the sentence. The grammatical subject has nothing to do with the conjugation of the verb.

Here's the chart:

Tagalogverb_zpsbb9d6f72.jpg



Luckily there is no such thing as an irregular verb in Tagalog! Also, even though you conjugate based on the the thematic roles, you don't have to worry about the number of actors/object/etc since it's all the same for everything. You just have to worry about the essence of what you're trying to say.

Let me do 1 verb for you: isip (to think)

verbchart1_zpsa20e45da.jpg
.

Example

Inisip ko ng mabuti (thought, I, indirect marker, well) [I thought hard]

Note: In this sentence, the verb conjugation is triggered by the actor since it is the person's thought that is being emphasized.

Inisipan ko sya ng masama (thought, I, him/her/it, indirect marker, bad) [I thought badly of her]

Note: In this sentence, the verb conjugation is triggered by the object since it is the the object of thought that is being emphasized.

Emphasis changes based on what you want.

Cool thing:

You can conjugate English verbs using this same format!

You can make a noun in to its action form and conjugate it like that. For example, instead of saying Eat a mango, you can say mag-manga ka, which literally means 'to mango'



Words

Nouns:
Puno - a tree
Lalaki - a boy
Babae - a girl
Pabo - a duck
Aso - a dog
Pusa - a cat
Bahay - a house
Bintana - a window
Kanta - a song
Bato - a stone
Kuchilyo - a knife
Bansa - a country
Bayan - a town

Adjectives: These are pretty much just modified verbs in Tagalog
Mabuti, maayos- good
Masama - bad
Maganda- pretty
Mayumi - beautiful
(ma)Pangit - ugly
Malaki - big
Maliit - small
Maingay - loud
Matahimik - quiet

Colors:
Pula - red
Bughaw/asul - blue
Dilaw - yellow
Luntian/berde - green
Itim - black
Puti - White
Kayumanggi - brown
Lila - purple
Rosa - pink
Kahel - orange

Prepositions:
Kasama ng/ni- with
Walang- without
Pagkatapos, tapos - after
Bago - before
Sa ilalim - under
Sa taas- over
Sa harap - in front of
Sa likod - behind
Sa paligid - around
Sa pagitan - between

Months:
Enero
Pebrero
Marso
Abril
Mayo
Hunyo
Hulyo
Agosto
Setyembre
Oktobre
Nobiembre
Disyembre

Days:
Lunes
Martes
Myerkoles
Hwebes
Biernes
Sabado
Linggo (the only Tagalog one still used)

Numbers (non-money ; money)
1 Isa ; uno
2 Dalawa ; dos
3 Tatlo ; tres
4 Apat ; kwatro
5 Lima ; singko
6 Anim ; sais
7 Pito ; syete
8 Walo ; ocho
9 Syam ; nuwebe
10 Sampu ; dyis
11 Labingisa ; onse
12 Labingdalawa ; dose
13 Labingtatlo ; trese
14 Labingapat ; katorse
15 Labinglima ; kinse
16 Labinganim ; disisais
17 Labingpito ; disisyete
18 Labingwalo ; disiocho
19 Labingsyam ; disinuwebe
20 Dalwampu ; bente




Useful words and sentences:
Ooy, hi, musta (Hi)
Sige (informal bye), paalam (Bye)
Kumusta ka? (How are you?)
Ok naman (I'm fine)
Anong pangalan mo? (What's your name?)
Ako si (My name is ...)
Taga saan ka? (Where do you come from?)
Ako'y taga ... (I come from ...)
Nagtatagalog ka? (Do you speak Tagalog)
Oo, nagtatagalog ako (Yes, I speak Tagalog)
Hindi, Hindi ako nagtatagalog (No, I do not speak Tagalog)
Mahal kita (I love you)
Gusto ko ... (I love ...)
Di ko gusto ... (I hate ...)
Gusto ko ... (I like ...)
Punyemas, paano ba magayon ng pandiwa sa Tagalog? (How the hell can one conjugate Tagalog verbs?)
Ang Tagalog ay marihap pagaralan (Tagalog is difficult to master)
Ay nako (I give up)


Another cool fact about Tagalog, since you can turn nouns into verbs, you can turn celebrities into verbs for sake of humor. Everybody does it, it stemmed off the LGBT community in the Philippines, it is just a fun thing to do and everybody seem to like it :lol:

For example to say "It's raining outside" you can say "Jumujulanis Moreisette sa labas" since "Umlan" sounds like "Alanis" xrofl2.


Here's a video of a Philippine news show, so you can hear the standard Tagalog (Filipino)

 

Medousa

Member
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April 2, 2013
Posts
14
Location
lamia
What a wonderful subject!!! I will make something like this for Greek sometime. But, what about the pronunciation??? Ι am interested about swedish for now. :D
 

cegs5

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Joined
March 6, 2012
Posts
6,335
Something about :fi: Finnish language, not much so you'll not get scared :lol:

The Persons
Minä (I)
Sinä (You)
Hän (He/She)
Se (It)
Me (We)
Te (You)
He (They)
Ne (They, plural of It)

The Articles
There're no articles in Finnish, there's gender equality even in the language :lol:

Words
(Add "t" at the end of every word to get the plural form)
Nouns:
Puu - tree
Poika - boy
Tyttö - girl
Ankka - duck
Koira - dog
Kissa - cat
Talo - house
Ikkuna - window
Laulu - song

The Numbers
1 Yksi
2 Kaksi
3 Kolme
4 Neljä
5 Viisi
6 Kuusi
7 Seitsemän
8 Kahdeksan
9 Yhdeksän
10 Kymmenen
11 Yksitoista
12 Kaksitoista
13 Kolmetoista
...
20 Kaksikymmentä
21 Kaksikymmentäyksi
22 Kaksikymmentäkaksi
23 Kaksikymmentäkolme
...
100 Sata
101 Satayksi
102 Satakaksi
...
200 Kaksisataa
300 Kolmesataa
...
1000 Tuhat
2000 Kaksituhatta
3000 Kolmetuhatta
...
10 000 Kymmenentuhatta
20 000 Kaksikymmentätuhatta
...
1 000 000 Miljoona
2 000 000 Kaksimiljoonaa
...
1 000 000 000 Miljardi
2 000 000 000 Miljardia

Euroviisu laulukilpailu kaksituhattakolmetoista - Eurovision Song Contest 2013 xbb
 

Sultana

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June 29, 2012
Posts
8,491
Location
Матушка Россия
Little Russian lesson by Miss Nora Zineb, your personal teacher.
This time I will speak with you about alphabet and some stuff connected to it :)
So, lets begin with history.
Russian language is a member of Indo-European Language Family, which consists of a great number of Subdivisions :
Albanian
Anatolian (extinct)
Armenian
Balto-Slavic (Baltic and Slavic)
Celtic
Germanic
Hellenic (Greek)
Indo-Iranian (Iranian and Indo-Aryan)
Italic (includes Romance)
Tocharian (extinct)

Russian language belongs to Balto-Slavic group,and is one of three living members of the East Slavic languages.(Belarusian, Russian, Ukranian). Russian language is widely spoken as Wikipedia says.
Language is native for:
Russia, other post-Soviet states, Germany, Israel, the United States, Canada, and other parts of Western Europe
Native speakers:
155 million (2010)
So I think that's enought history and other facts let's begin our education. Firstly, I want to say that I'm not good at teaching so if you don't understand something - ask me) And Correct me If I wrote something wrong.
First thing that every foreigner should know - Russia use Cyrillic system. I think there are no problems with it :D For ppl who writes on other system our Cyrillic looks like something strange, difficult like Chinese or Arabic symbols. But in fact it is rather easy. Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters and it looks very simmilar with Bulgarian, which if I'm not mistaken has only 30 letters.
So if you know bulgarian you will easy learn Some Russian words.
230px-00Russian_Alphabet_3.svg.png

35732710.png

11937681.png

About ,ъ,ь this letters have no sound
Ы - is not I it is something harder :D
ъ and ь first letter "disconnect" syllable remember it has No sound! And this letter don't make consonant softer
ь also silent but it makes Consonant letter soft and also sometimes when it is between Consonant and vowel it makes Something sounds like "Mya" in Myanmar :D

_____
For example verb объединять to unite
Transcription looks like that [obiedin'at']
Also in Russian in some words we don't pronounce letters. Like in English or other language. For example word Сердце Serdtse - Heart Д is silent but some ppl pronounce it. Or word Гигантский - giant We pronounce like "Гиганский" in this case letter "t" is really silent.
In my opinion it is the thing that you should just learn by heart. If you learn Russian you should sleep and see the alphabet :D
Russian language is also full of dialects :D For example in Moscow people say instead of "o" "a"
like in Молоко - Milk instead of Moloko or Molako they say Malako :)
Along the Volga River typically pronounce unstressed /o/
I know that in my region when we speak we short words when we speak briefly or just speak
For example Хорошо - Horosho Good we say like Hrsho
-------------------

Summary
- Russian language is Indo European language based on Cyrillic
- It has 33 letters
- Some letters are silent always, some silent in different cases
- There are a great number of dialects in Russian BUT it doesn't look so clear. Every Russian can easy understand Byelorussian person who speaks Russian :) The same situation in Russia. Person from European part easy understand person from Asian part and etc

So it was quite short course that I cut for you I've tried to add as much facts as possible.
Se ya next time!
 

Sultana

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June 29, 2012
Posts
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Location
Матушка Россия
pronouns/ Russian Language
Я Ya
- I​
Мне, мой, меня mne moy menya - me

мы mi
- we​
тебя, вас, вам, тебе trebya, vas,tebe -you

ты/вы ti vi
- you​
его, ему ego, emu - him

он on
- he​
её, ей yeyo ,yej-her

она ona
- she​
( inanimate) его, её yego yeyo it

оно ono
- it​
нас, нам nas, nam -us

они oni
- they​
их, им ih, im -them

* Symbol - ' - above letters means stress, I made it for you, because it is important to say words correctly :)
It looks like like that. When we speak about somebody male we use он for example :
- Where is Pasha?/ Где Паша? Gdé Pásha
- He is in the shop / Он в магазине. ón v magazíne
When we speak about something that belongs to a male person we use его egó in this case it means his
- Whose wife is she?/ Чья она жена? Chya oná zhená (zh like "s" in usual)
- She is his wife/ Она его жена. Oná egó zhená

We use the same construction when we speak about stuff, character related to a male person. Also instead of его we use ему in 2 cases
- Something belongs to a person
- When person should do something, when he recieved something
For example
He should read loudly / Ему стоит читать громче emú stóit chitát' grómche
He recieved a new letter / Ему пришло письмо emú prishló pis'mó
The same thing with female. We use Она Oná ( she) when we speak about person in third person
Её or Ее - eyó - her when we speak about things belongs to a female or about character of the person
Ейej - When we speak about things that female person should do or when she recieved something
We use Оно onó ( it) when we speak about things but here are a lot of words that mean stuff and this words are female or male
for example
Male :
Phone - Телефон - Telephón
Stone - Камень - Kámen'
etc
When I speak about this words I will use Он - he and all pronounce related to them
Female
Painting - Картина - Kartína
Lamp - Лампа - Lámpa
When I speak about it I will use Она She and all pronounce related to them
It depend on the last one letter or two and there is a special rules but I don't want to make you tired so the one thing you should remember from this sentences - When we speak about thing we use оно (it) but also он (he) она (she)
Sentences with "it"
This is it - Это оно - Etó onó
So you now know what we use when we speak about one person or a thing, but what should you use when you speak about a large group of people?
When you speak about a large group of people in third person you use Они- oní ! The gender doesn't matter. If it is a company of 3 boys and one girl, or it is only a girls or boys company you use Они
I think it is the same thing as we have in English.
When we speak about things beloning to them we use Их í:h or Им i:m - Their
Whose car is it? Чья это машина? Chya éto mashína?
This is their car Это Их машина éto ih mashína
Note: Ж и Ш Zh and Sh write with letter И "i" ALWAYS!We study this rule in first grade :)
When you speak with person in English language we use "you" in Russian when we speak with our parents or friends or people who is the same age as you or even younger you use Ты - Ti - You
When you speak with person who is older than you or with your boss or in formal situation you should ( even must) use Вы - Vi - you
Also a little thing to wide your knowledge. When you use ВЫ for example with your Boss or Teacher or Professor or your friend's mother/father you should name him with his patronymic
When I will be a teacher students will call me this way
Elizaveta Sergeevna,____
When you use Ты you can call this guy how you like :D Sometimes I ask my friend with his patronymic :D :D

Also in English we have the word combination "you guys" when we mean all members of the group in Russian the same situations for example You are my friends. In English we use YOU in Russian Вы.


Summary
- When you speak about male use он, его ему on ego emu
- When you speak about Female - Она её ей ona eyo ej
- When you speak about things - Оно Ono But! There are a great number of things which have female and male pronouns
-When we speak with somebody we use Вы Vi ( if it is an older person or our Boss or Formal situation) and Ты If it is our friend or parents or relatives/ Both of them = you
- When you speak about a group use Они - Oni and when you speak with group use Вы Vi

See you next time in my class! The lesson is over
 

Narmina

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Joined
October 10, 2010
Posts
8,008
Location
Azerbaijan, Baku
Я люблю само понятие жизнь...В нем есть взлеты и падения, радость и переживания, холодный северный порыв и теплый южный ветерок...жизнь прекрасна!

xcrazy
 

Sultana

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Joined
June 29, 2012
Posts
8,491
Location
Матушка Россия
Я люблю само понятие жизнь...В нем есть взлеты и падения, радость и переживания, холодный северный порыв и теплый южный ветерок...жизнь прекрасна!

xcrazy

Ну выдала блин!
 

Sultana

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Posts
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Location
Матушка Россия
хахахах, я хорошая ученица ))))))))
Блин, где логика?
Пост Советские страны знают родной язык и многие знают русский, в Рашке же все знают русский, но никто не знает ни один язык бывшей союзной республики
Я б была не прочь знать некоторые :D
 

Narmina

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October 10, 2010
Posts
8,008
Location
Azerbaijan, Baku
Блин, где логика?
Пост Советские страны знают родной язык и многие знают русский, в Рашке же все знают русский, но никто не знает ни один язык бывшей союзной республики
Я б была не прочь знать некоторые :D

Как-нибудь научу тебя паре фраз на азербайджанском )
 
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