Aspectual affixes of Cebuano Verbs:
Imperfective (Begun) | Perfective (Recent) | |
Not Begun | Begun | |
ma- | naka- / nagka- | na- |
mo- | nag- / ga- | ni- / mi- / hing- |
mag- | nag- / naga- | nag- |
-an | gina- .. -an | gi- ... -an |
-on | gina- | gi- |
i- | gina- | gi- |
mang- | nang- / nagpang- | nang- |
Verbs which have a perfective (recent) aspect denote action or state that has begun and completed. While those on the imperfective (begun) aspect denote or state that either begun but not completed or has not begun at all.
Examples:
Matulog ang bata. The child will sleep.
Nakatulog ang bata. The child had slept.
Natulog ang bata. The child is sleeping
Mokaon ko. I will eat.
Nagkaon ko. I am eating.
Mikaon ko. I had eaten.
Maghulat ko. I will wait.
Naghulat ko. I am waiting.
Naghulat ko og usa ka oras. I waited for an hour.
Hatagan niya. He will give.
Ginahatagan niya. He had been giving.
Gihatagan niya og kwarta. He gave him money.
Lung-agon niya. He will cook it.
Ginalung-ag niya. He is cooking it.
Gilung-ag niya. He cooked it.
Itaod niya. He will install it.
Ginataod niya. He is installing it.
Gitaod niya. He installed it.
Manglaba siya. She will go washing.
Nanglaba siya. She is washing.
Nanglaba siya gahapon. She was washing yesterday.
For rough translations you can map the Cebuano aspects to the English tense as:
Perfective aspect: Past tense
Begun aspect : Present tense
Not Begun aspect: Future tense
As stated above these are not exact equivalence, if the full nuances of the Cebuano language is desired one has to drop the reference to tenses.
Reference:
Luzares, Casilda E. "Cebuano verb morphology: An application of Case Grammar Part I"
Comments
Ang dila natong Bisaya
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