Hello! I'm Chris currently living in the U.S. Nagsasalita ako ka

@chrisdelica Welcome!

@chrisdelica welcome!

Salamat sa mga welcome ninyooo

@chrisdelica Hi Chris!A tip on how to improve your Tagalog sentence.Nagsasalita ako kaunting Tagalog = I am speaking (right now) a few TagalogNAKAPAGSASALITA ako NG kaunting Tagalog = I can/am able to speak a little Tagalog.MARUNONG ako NG kaunting Tagalog = I know a little Tagalog. ("Marunong" is "intelligent", but we use it to mean "know" when referring to skills.)MAY ALAM AKONG kaunting mga salitang Tagalog = I know a few Tagalog words. ("May alam" is literally, "to have knowledge of". "Akong" is "ako na" combined. It is different from "ako ng").

@Tagamanila Awesome! Thank you!

@chrisdelica Walang anuman, Chris!

How would you say "It was hard teaching the kids earlier"?

@chrisdelica The translation of this would depend on: 1) whether it is being said based on a specific experience of the speaker/teacher; or 2) whether it is a general statement about teaching kids in the past compared to the present; and 3) what "earlier" really means."Earlier" in English may refer to any time before the present. There is no word in Tagalog that can give that exact meaning. In Tagalog, there is "kanina" which means "earlier today". If it's about a recent past, we specify if it's, for example, yesterday, two days ago, last week, last month, etc. If it's "before" as in "a long time ago" , then the word is "dati". If the speaker is only talking about his own experience and "earlier" is "earlier today":
Nahirapan akong turuan ang mga bata kanina = I had a hard time teaching the kids earlier today. ("Naturuan" is object-focused, subject is the object "kids". )
or
Nahirapan akong magturo sa mga bata kanina = I had a hard time teaching the kids earlier today. ("Magturo" is subject-focused, subject is "I", the actor.)If this is a factual comparison between teaching experiences in the past and the present:Mahirap turuan ang mga bata dati = It was hard teaching kids in the past ("Turuan" is object-focused, subject is the object "kids").Mahirap magturo sa mga bata dati = It was hard teaching kids in the past ("Magturo" is subject-focused, subject is the unmentioned teachers).

So going off the topic of "dati," if I were to say "I told you that a while back," would that be "Sinabi kita yun dati"?

@chrisdelica That's not correct. Either one of these would do:

Sinabi ko iyon sa iyo dati. - Lit: I said that to you a while back.
- The verb is "sabihin" (to say/tell something; object-focus), the subject is the direct object "iyon = that" - Iyon ay sinabi ko sa iyo dati (That was said by me to you before).

Sinabihan kita niyon dati - Lit: I told you that a while back.
- The verb is "sabihan" (to tell someone; object-focus), the subject is the indirect object "ikaw = you"; "kita = ko ikaw". - Ikaw ay sinabihan ko niyon dati (You were told by me of that before).

Thank you

BTW, "iyon" is the original form of "yun". Feel free to use "yun" instead of "iyon". Sometimes we write that as " 'yun " to indicate the omission of the first
letter.

You're welcome!

One more thing. "Niyon" is also often written as just "nun" and at times "n'un".

@Tagamanila
So many abbreviations! Filipinos like to shorten things, especially in less formal talk. This note about "niyon" is helpful...a couple times I've been confused trying to translate it as an abbreviation for "noon".