Bisdak Words

The Beauty of Cebuano Spelling and Grammar

Rather than trying to write what is the correct Cebuano grammar or rules to be followed when writing something in Cebuano, I’m  instead trying to break it down to simplest acceptable form. In fact only one rule to keep in mind.

I saw lots of articles about Cebuano or Bisaya Grammar and it appears complicating it. It was even written by ethymologist, those who love to study words, origin, development, etc. Nothing’s bad about it, only that it attempt to explain similar way english is taught. I like though the way Jun Tariman’s presentation in his blog  for simplicity and the one from Wikipedia.

Unlike the english grammar that have dozens of rules and are very strict in all cases, Cebuano spelling and grammar I’m going to present is very simple. I borrowed it from my English Professor.

In spelling:
Cebuano has complete vowels same that of english, like A-E-I-O-U. When you write, make sure that I comes first before E, likewise with U to come first before O.

Examples:

Firecrakers = it should be written as pabuto, paboto is acceptable but pabotu is akward.
Tell me = it should be written as istoryahe ko, estoryahe ko is fine but estoryahi ko is awkward.

In grammar:
Subject and predicate doesn’t matter whichever comes first as long as the key words are there.

Examples:

Eng. I’m going to your home tonight

It is perfect to say either of the two

1) Muadto ko sa inyo unyang gabii.
2) Unyang gabii, muadto ko sa inyo.

Eng. This is my favorite food

1) Mao ni akong paborito nga pagkaon
2) Paborito ni nako nga pagkaon
3) Pagkaon ni nako nga paborito

See.. isn’t that Cebuano spelling and grammar simple and beautiful? Cebuano’s are expressive, maybe because speaking Bisaya is free flowing.