Thursday, May 6, 2010

Cebuano Essentials: Expressing Basic Needs 2

This lesson will be about expressing what one needs:  Kinahanglan is the word for need in Cebuano.  How is it used?

With a noun:

I need some water.
(nag)kinahanglan ko ug dyutayng tubig. 

"Dyutay" means a little.   If you notice the nag is placed in parentheses, it's because native speakers have the tendency to omit this affix.

The subject in the sentence is Ko. You can substitute it with any subject such as the following pronouns:

ka (you)
siya  (he or she)
sila  (they)
kami (we, excluding listener)
kamo (you, plural)
kita (we, including listener)


or other possible subjects such as:

si Ben
silang Ben ug Jun
ang bata
ang mga estudyante 

Now, substitute water with any object such as:

pagkaon (food)
uyab (girlfriend or boyfriend)

You may create your own sentences from this basic structure.