When to use it
Use it to say where someone works; ‘siya’ works for a man or a woman.
The sentence in English: “He works at a hospital.”
In “He works at a hospital.” ‘works’ takes ‘-s’ for ‘He’, and ‘at a hospital’ gives the workplace.
- He
- pronounpersonal pronoun, third person singular
- works
- verbwork · tense: present · person: third · number: singular · the -s marks the third person singular
- at
- prepositionpreposition of place
- a
- determinerindefinite article
- hospital
- nounnoun
The sentence in Filipino: “Nagtatrabaho siya sa isang ospital.”
In “Nagtatrabaho siya sa isang ospital.” the verb comes first: ‘Nagtatrabaho’ is the imperfective of magtrabaho (to work), formed by repeating the syllable ‘ta’. ‘siya’ can mean he or she, and ‘isang’ is ‘isa’ (one) + the linker ‘-ng’.
- Nagtatrabaho
- verbtrabaho · focus: actor (mag-) · aspect: imperfective · mag- + reduplication + trabaho: works, ongoing
- siya
- pronoun'he' or 'she'; no gender in Filipino
- sa
- prepositionmarker sa for place
- isang
- numeralisa 'one' + linker -ng
- ospital
- nounnoun 'hospital', from Spanish
What changes from one language to the other: English × Filipino
English chooses ‘He’ or ‘She’; Filipino has one word, ‘siya’. English starts with the subject, Filipino with the verb, and aspect is shown by repeating a syllable.
Example conversation
— Nagtatrabaho siya sa isang ospital.
— He works at a hospital.
— Doktor ba siya o nars?
— Is he a doctor or a nurse?