Question: Hello, I am trying to learn Tagalog grammar. I have le

Here's an example of a clause in the "near past" (you also see it called "recent past" or "recent perfective"):1. Kararating lang namin.
"We just arrived"This form is used to describe things that just happened recently. The verb has a prefix ka-, and you reduplicate the first consonant and vowel of the verb. The new syllable will behave for stress like the reduplicated syllable of the contemplated form.Sentences with this form of the verb always have 'lang' in them, and they don't (usually) have anything in them that's in the 'ang' form; you can see in 1 that the subject is 'namin', whereas if you had any other form of the verb it'd be 'kami'.

Thank you so very much ... this was exactly what I was looking for ! "Recent past" ... the only grammar book, that I found dealing with that topic, stated that they will NOT go into any details about it ... So I wonder: why do all the grammar books that I use, do not deal with or not even mention that topic ? Is it "obsolete" .... or is is "hardly used" ... or what else is the reason for avoiding it so much .... I think I found real sentences in the net containing e.g. "kakakain", so "recent past" does not seem to be totally irrelevant after all ... I have added your explanation to my "personal grammar book" ... but maybe you or someone else can explain the background a bit in further detail ! Maraming salamat at magandang araw !

@Jimmy329 I don't know why a grammar book would leave it out! Maybe it's just because it's unlike the other verb forms in not having anything in the 'ang' form. As you said, it's not that it's obsolete, or never used. Googling around to look for examples, I came across something I'd forgotten about, which is that some Tagalog speakers (maybe especially younger speakers, especially in Manila?) will form this kind of the verb by prefixing kaka-, rather than by prefixing ka- and reduplicating the verb. So that kind of speaker might say 'kakarating' rather than 'kararating'. But I am not a native speaker, so we should wait to hear from a real expert about how common that kind of thing is.

This online grammar reference includes what it terms as "recently completed" and "intensive recently completed" : learningtagalog.com/ grammar/verbs/aspect s.html. I can't speak to Tagalog frequency but I use it in English regularly.

@Jimmy329
It is pretty common. If you haven’t gotten familiar with it yet, you should check out the Corpus Tool here on Tagalog.com - it can help you get a feel for frequency of different terms:
www.tagalog.com/exam plefinder/index.phpTry searching for…kakagising, kagigising, kakabili, kakagaling, kakaisip, kakauwi, kauuwi, kakabasa, kakakuha, kakanood…many examples there!
Often the “kaka-root” version is more common than the “ka-ro-root” version.

Thank you so much ... the links you provided are extremly helpful ! I think, I understand the topic "recently completed / near past" now.
Maraming salamat para sa tulong ninyo !

@Jimmy329 Good. When you learn it you can explain it to the rest of the world ... They need an explanation di ba?

Hi NikNak,do I really have to explain it still ? I think @Norvin et al. did a super job in doing so already ! But maybe I can add a few remarks to it now. This is what I found out about it in the meantime: Recent Past: For some actions there exists the tense "recent past" to indicate, that an action has ended just recently. It is always combined with LANG. The actor requires the NG-case, even though the verb would normally require the ANG-case.For UM-verbs recent past is formed by prefixing KA and duplicating the first syllable of the root.Halimbawa: gising - kagígising lang niya (he/she just got up).For MAG-verbs the root is prefixed with KAPAG. Halimbawa: mag-aral - kapag-áaral lang ko (I have just finished studying)For MA-verbs MA will be replaced by PA, so the verb will start with KAPAPA always.Halimbawa: mamili - kapápamiliRemark: recent past can also be used as a noun, when the effect follows the action immediately.Halimbawa: Busog na ako sa kakákain ng adobo (I am full now just after eating an adobo)This is all I found out about "recent past" ... I hope it is all correct. I tried my best, but be aware that I am neither an English nor a Tagalog native speaker. And I am almost sure this is not all that has to be said about the topic, but I am feeling quite comfortable with it now.

... quite ... but not TOTALLY ! Of course I have tried to apply my new knowledge (because what is grammar good for after all, if we dont use it!) : magtext ka sa akin kapag kakakain ka. Obviously recent past is NOT applicable in this case ! It should be: Mag text ka sa akin kapag tapos ka ng kumain. Of course my filipina kausap could not explain the REASON, WHY this is so ! She simply says my phrase is wrong ... and as a native speaker (and as a woman) she is always right ! She claims "Katatapos kulang kumain it means just finished eating. " and not "kakakain" ... BAKIT ! Can anyone give me a clue when to apply "recent past" and when not ....

Hmmm nobody has an answer ? ... well it seems to be quite complicated ... nevertherless it seems I have managed to get my first correct sentence using "recent past": kababalik mo lang sa bahay .... She said YES .... ! (maybe she just gave up correcting me) ...

@Jimmy329
Usually it’s best translated as “just/recently” having done something for a completed event. “Just ate,” “Just bought,” etc.Your wrong example above was about a future even that hadn’t yet happened, so I think that’s why it sounds off to a native speaker.

Tagalog grammar is such a huge mess, though not as bad as English. Whenever I ask natives to explain the grammatical rule that a sentence implies ("Why is it this instead of that"), they get a bit confused and just kinda say that's that. The grammar guide by Learning Tagalog is the resource, in my opinion. I no longer hold this opinion. I found a multilingual native Tagalog speaker who explained to me grammar patterns that didn't make sense to me. People just don't understand linguistics well enough to explain a grammar rule. Plus grammatical patterns in casual situations by those who aren't 100% fluent in a language (e.g. they use a few English words in Tagalog conversations) can be incorrect.My current way of learning grammar in Tagalog (note I'm B1) is to memorize a bunch of sentences a native speaker would likely use from comics and videos so I'd know the context of the sentences (and I don't get them from an old textbook). Also consuming a lot of Filipino stuff. I should be speaking more Tagalog and hope people correct me. In my experience there's a sad bereft of Tagalog-written literature - not many novels or essays, almost no academic works. So while grammar that's wrong but widely accepted by the masses might raise the eyebrow of a professor in Philippine literature, it's otherwise OK. Avoid Filipino in forums as examples since there are chances of typos.I was told by a native that many people in a university course on Philippine literature, taught in Tagalog (so no one spoke English except in Taglish), failed writing correctly. It's "niyo", not " nyo"! I don't know if there were many corrected on grammar though but textbook sentence examples always strike the native speakers as stupidly deep.

@chocnot
About these:

If we’re going to consider the population of Tagalog-written literature, excluding comics and potboilers, we can still find a substantial number of academic-level literary works. The problem might be more about where you can find them. If you are in the city of Manila, there is this Solidaridad (aka La Solidaridad) bookstore in Padre Faura St., Ermita, (a couple of blocks from the US Embassy), where you will find them.
There are just a handful of Philippine universities that would meet global standards of excellence in education. In those universities, English is the dominant, and usually even required, medium of instruction and Taglish is frowned upon. Also, since a significant number of notable Philippine literature is written in English, Tagalog cannot be assumed as the default language to be used in teaching the subject.
No, it should actually be “ninyo”. It is a combined form of the linker “na” and the possessive pronoun “inyo” – bahay na inyo = bahay ninyo (your house (pl.)). Informally, some write it as “n’yo”, “niyo”, or “nyo”, but such clipped forms are not found as entries in reliable Tagalog dictionaries.
Tagalog textbooks, just like English textbooks, are expected to be written in the formal style using proper grammar. Well, the native speakers you talked to and who commented that sentence examples used in grammar books are “stupidly deep” might have never been aware of the true nature of textbooks.

In my experience there's a sad bereft of Tagalog-written literature - not many novels or essays, almost no academic works.
You're right, and "sad bereft" is not accurate - "limited" is. I should not have compared the Filipino language, spoken natively only by one country and those for on that contry, to English. Almost everything that's popular has an English translation. Apparently When In Manila wrote an article on that bookstore. I really wanna visit La Solidaridad now. No, it should actually be “ninyo”. It is a combined form of the linker “na” and the possessive pronoun “inyo” – bahay na inyo = bahay ninyo (your house (pl.)). Informally, some write it as “n’yo”, “niyo”, or “nyo”, but such clipped forms are not found as entries in reliable Tagalog dictionaries.Ha ha, my bad. I was supposed to correct that yesterday. It was not "niyo". It was something like "kuwento" or "puwede" instead of "kwento" or "pwede". Friend can't remember the exact example.Reliable dictionaries can have slang and colloquialisms as long as they're properly labelled as such, but you are right that "niyo" is not proper or formal to the point of having no entry in the UP Diksiyonaryong Filipino.There are just a handful of Philippine universities that would meet global standards of excellence in education. In those universities, English is the dominant, and usually even required, medium of instruction and Taglish is frowned upon. Also, since a significant number of notable Philippine literature is written in English, Tagalog cannot be assumed as the default language to be used in teaching the subject.I asked my friend again. Says it was a course for Philippine literature written in the Filipino language, a course taught in Filipino verbally and Tagalog otherwise. They were told to write essay answers. Some of them didn't spell correctly - e.g. like how some English might write "I don't wanna join" in their school essay and completely forget for a moment that "wanna" wasn't formal. (Most were fluent in English and conversationally fluent in Tagalog, and many of them knew another Philippine language.)Tagalog textbooks, just like English textbooks, are expected to be written in the formal style using proper grammar. Well, the native speakers you talked to and who commented that sentence examples used in grammar books are “stupidly deep” might have never been aware of the true nature of textbooks.You are right and I'm glad you didn't borrow any outdated textbooks like I did. "Stupidly deep" might have been too harsh of choice of words but it kinda captures my native friends' expressions of disbelief. I'm speaking not about proper grammar though, but the choice of words of old textbooks:
www.youtube.com/shor ts/Qt1m8YNpRKALearners might find it helpful to find out from a native how sentences in a resource, like a textbook, sound like (e.g. unnatural and poorly written, literary and deep, respectful and polite, conversational and casual, only simple sentences) so they can at least know what they're getting into. Note that there are people who learn Nihonggo from anime and it just takes some practice for them adjust to the actual ethnolect of the Japanese people they encounter.

@chocnot
Oh yeah, there was this awesome guy who took me there once... The store was started by famous Filipino author F Sionil Jose, who passed away not too long ago. I tried to meet him at the time, but no luck.Like @Juantutri said, access is the hard part. I really wish some of the Filipino publishers would digitize their stock and allow people overseas to buy them on Amazon.com or another online publisher.I made a long list and had someone find Tagalog language books, scan them locally in Manila, and send me the digitized files for personal use. I can't distribute them for copyright reasons though.There are so many Filipinos in the US, and now with a growing number of colleges offering Filipino language degrees...it would be really nice to have better access.