Benoît
mahirap ang tagalog talaga. Animnapu’t dalawang taon gulang na ako. Napakatanda ako upang pagaralan ang bagong wika! Nagiisip (I feel= ramdam??) ako ng teenager pa ako (joke lang...), pero napakabagal na ang aking utak!! Pasensya!
Sep 12, 2014 7:50 AM
Corrections · 4
1

Mahirap ang tagalog talaga -  This is correct, but we usuall put the modifier (talaga = really) closer to the word it is modifying (mahirap = difficult).  “Mahirap talaga ang Tagalog”  or ”Talagang mahirap ang Tagalog”. 

Animnapu’t dalawang taon gulang na ako. -  “Taon” should be “taong” because “taon” is year/years and “gulang” is age.   As in English, you’d say, “sixty-two years of age” and not “sixty-two years age”.  So the “years of age” is “taon na gulang”, but we just always say it as “taong gulang”.

Napakatanda ako upang pagaralan ang bagong wika! =>  Napakatanda ko na para pag-aralan ang isang bagong wika!

“Napakatanda ako...” should either be “Napakatanda ko na...” or “Ako ay napakatanda na...”.  We would add the “na” (already) because being “too/very old” here is only relative to learning a new language and does not refer to absolute age.  As in English again and at your young age, you’d most likely say it as “I am already too old to learn a new language” and less likely as “I am too old to learn a new language”.  Ask Methuselah.  

Although “upang pag-aralan” is all right, I think most of us would say it as “para pag-aralan”.  “Upang” and “para” can both mean “in order to”, but we use “upang” more in that sense and “para” more when we simply mean “to”.

“Ang bagong wika” is “the new language”.  “Ang isang bagong wika” is "a new language".

September 13, 2014
1

mahirap ang tagalog talaga ang tagalog.

Animnapu’t dalawang taon gulang na ako.
Napakatanda ako na upang mag-aralan ang bagong wika!
Nagiisip (I feel= ramdam??) a pakiramdam ko ng teenager pa ako (joke lang...), pero napakabagal na ang aking utak!!

Pasensya na!

September 17, 2014
1

Nagiisip (I feel= ramdam??) ako ng teenager pa ako (joke lang...), pero napakabagal na ang aking utak!! 


If you’d like to use “isip” (think), it would be better to use “iniisip” than “nag-iisip” even if both mean “thinking” because the former focuses on what you are thinking about.  “Nag-iisip” focuses on the act itself and can therefore do without an object.  “Nag-iisip ako.” = I am thinking.  “Nag-iisip ako ng...” = I am thinking of”.   “Iniisip”, on the other hand, requires an object to focus on, which happens to be the crux of your sentence.  “Iniisip ko na...” = I am thinking that...

“Iniisip ko na/kong teenager pa ako” = I am thinking that I’m still a teenager.

If you’d like to use “ramdam” (to feel/sense something) instead, “pakiramdam” (feeling - noun) is the word to use.  “Ang pakiramdam ko ay teenager pa ako” = My feeling is that I am still a teenager.  Some of us may omit the “ang” when saying this, thus treating “pakiramdam” like a verb.  “Pakiramdam ko ay teenager pa ako” = I feel like I am still a teenager.    

In “... pero napakabagal na ang aking utak!!”, the “ang” should be “ng”.  This may be a curiosity in our grammar though.  In the phrase, “mabagal na ang aking utak” (my brain/mind is already slow), the “ang” is correctly placed there.  However, when the adjective “mabagal” (slow) is intensified by making it “napakabagal” (very slow), that “ang” becomes “ng”.  Yet, when you state that in the superlative, “pinakamabagal na ang aking utak” (my mind is already the slowest), it’s “ang” that is used again.  I do not know if there is indeed a grammar rule behind it, but “napaka” goes with “ng” instead of “ang”.   Related to that, note also the following changes when “napaka” is used.  “Mabilis siya” (He/She is fast) becomes “Napakabilis niya” (He/She is very fast) - the personal pronoun “siya” takes the possessive form “niya” with “napaka”.  “Masaya si Maria” (Maria is happy) becomes “Napakasaya ni Maria” (Maria is very happy) – the “si” article, which is used before a name changes to the possessive “ni”.  My conjecture is that maybe it’s because “napaka” shifts the focus from its indicated subject or object to the intermediate process/action/behavior/attitude it is actually describing.  In the case of the brain, it would be the thinking process, while in the case of Maria, it would be her emotional state or attitude.  Maybe.

 

Pasensya! – For being just a single word and no physical cues to base it on, this may be subject to different interpretations.  It could mean “sorry for me/you” or “indulge me” or “I/You/We can’t do anything about it”.

September 13, 2014
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