An Actual Lesson on Tagalog Yes/No Questions

In one of the previous entries, we talked about the different Tagalog sentence structures and addressed “ba” questions. Just in case you need a little bit of a reminder, here’s the sentence structure and a few examples:

predicate + “ba” + subject? predicate + “ba” + subject pronoun?

Estudyante ba ang batang babae? Titser ba si Rosa? Matalino ba sila? Magaaral ba sina Sam at Jen?

Along with the other sentence structures, there was a lot to memorize, and there’s a bit more to learn, too. So I just decided that it would be better to explain the rest about in this entry when we’re expressing negation, referring to someone in second person, including the word “ay”, and including a time/location indicator.

1. Negative “ba” questions

These types of questions ask if something isn’t true. They follow these sentences structures and can be applied to the following  sentences:

“Hindi ba” + predicate + subject? “Hindi ba” + subject pronoun + predicate ?

Hindi ba magtatrabaho si Lee? Hindi ba siya magtatrabaho?

2. “Ka ba” questions

These sentence are directed to a person that you are talking to. You can ask things like “Are you doing this?” or “Are you going to that?” You could sort of think of them as “you” questions, hence the “ka” pronoun. They follow these sentence structures and make these sentences:

predicate + “ka ba?” “Hindi ka ba” + predicate?

Magtatrabaho ka ba? Hindi ka ba magtatrabaho?

3. Questions with “ay”

“Ay” is the Tagalog equivalent to the English word “is”, and whenever this is present in a question, “ba” comes between it and the subject of the sentence.

subject + “ba ay” + predicate? subject pronoun + “ba ay” + predicate?

Si Lee ba ay magtatrabaho? Siya ba ay magtatrabaho?

Another easy way to remember this is to start off with a statement, and then insert “ba” between the subject and “ay” to turn it into a question.

Si Lee ay magtatrabaho. → Si Lee ba ay magtatrabaho?

Siya ay magtatrabaho. → Siya ba ay magtatrabaho?

4. Questions with time/location

Time/location indicators express when or where an action is going to happen. Examples of this in English would be “tomorrow”, “yesterday”, or “there.” If they were to be translated into Tagalog, these words would become “bukas”, “kahapon”, and “doon” (note that this is only used when referring to a place that is far from both the speaker and the listener).

When these words are a part of the question, “ba” is included after the indicator.

indicator + “ba” + predicate + subject indicator + “ba” + subject pronoun + predicate

Bukas ba magtatrabaho si Lee? Bukas ba siya magtatrabaho?

5. Another helpful tip

I had a bit of trouble trying to ask things with “ba” since there were a couple different sentence structures. But to remember them, I first started off with the statement version of what I wanted to say.

Hindi magtatrabaho si Lee

Hindi magtatrabaho siya.

Magtatrabaho ka.

Hindi ka magtatrabaho.

Si Lee ay magtatrabaho.

Siya ay magtatrabaho.

Bukas, magtatrabaho si Lee.

Bukas, magtatrabaho siya.

Then, I remind myself that “ba” comes after “hindi”, “ka”, subjects, and indicators, but it will precede a subject pronoun in the beginning of a sentence. This helps me to place “ba” in the appropriate place.

Hindi magtatrabaho si Lee Hindi magtatrabaho siya. Magtatrabaho ka. Hindi ka magtatrabaho. Si Lee ay magtatrabaho. Siya ay magtatrabaho. Bukas, magtatrabaho si Lee. Bukas, magtatrabaho siya.

→ → → → → → → →

Hindi ba magtatrabaho si Lee? Hindi ba siya magtatrabaho? Magtatrabaho ka ba? Hindi ka ba magtatrabaho? Si Lee ba ay magtatrabaho? Siya ba ay magtatrabaho? Bukas ba magtatrabaho si Lee? Bukas ba siya magtatrabaho?

6. Summary

Remember that “ba” comes after “hindi”, “ka”, subjects, subject pronouns, and indicators.

Negative “ba” questions	“Hindi ba” + predicate + subject? “Hindi ba” + subject pronoun + predicate?
“Ka ba” questions	predicate + “ka ba?” “Hindi ka ba” + predicate?
Questions with “ay”	subject + “ba ay” + predicate? subject pronoun + “ba ay” + predicate?
Questions with time/location	indicator + “ba” + predicate + subject indicator + “ba” + subject pronoun + predicate