When to use it
Use it with a child or classmate after school to check whether the teacher explained the homework.
The sentence in English: “Did the teacher explain the homework?”
In “Did the teacher explain the homework?” ‘Did’ carries the past, so ‘explain’ stays bare; both nouns take ‘the’.
- Did
- auxiliary verbdo · tense: past · auxiliary that makes a question in the past
- the
- determinerdefinite article
- teacher
- nounnoun
- explain
- verbexplain · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · after "did" the verb stays in its base form
- the
- determinerdefinite article
- homework
- noununcountable noun; it has no plural
The sentence in Filipino: “Ipinaliwanag ba ng guro ang takdang aralin?”
In “Ipinaliwanag ba ng guro ang takdang aralin?” the verb is in object focus (i-), so ‘ang takdang aralin’ (the homework) is the topic and the doer is marked ‘ng guro’ (by the teacher). The infix ‘-in-’ shows a completed action, and ‘ba’ makes it a question.
- Ipinaliwanag
- verbpaliwanag · focus: object (i-) · aspect: perfective (done) · i- + -in- + paliwanag 'explained', object focus
- ba
- particlequestion particle
- ng
- prepositionng marks the doer in object focus
- guro
- nounnoun 'teacher'
- ang
- prepositiontopic marker ang
- takdang
- adjectivetakda 'assigned' + linker -ng
- aralin
- nounnoun 'lesson'; takdang aralin = homework
What changes from one language to the other: English × Filipino
English puts the past in ‘Did’; Filipino in the verb's infix. In English the doer is always the subject; here Filipino makes the homework the topic.
Example conversation
— Ipinaliwanag ba ng guro ang takdang aralin?
— Did the teacher explain the homework?
— Oo, pero ang unang bahagi lang.
— Yes, but only the first part.