Bikol/Adjectives

Adjectives are words that describe a noun. Some English examples are: "happy", "tired", "beautiful", "young" and "fresh". Most of adjectives in Bikol starts with the prefix ma-, like magayon which means beautiful, its rootword is gayon with means beauty. The order of an adjective and a noun is interchangeable, it can be an adjective first then followed by a noun or a noun first before an adjective. But remember: you must add the connector word na if the first word (maybe an adjective or noun) ends with a consonant (especially if the word ends in -n) if the suffix -ng if the first word (maybe an adjective or noun) ends with a vowel before being succeeded by the second word. For example: aking magayon o magayon na aki both mean beautiful child. Magayon means beautiful and aki means child. An adjective can be used as a predicate in a sentence. Most of the time, Bikol sentences start with the predicate before the subject, but you can also put the subject before the predicate. For Example: Maugma si Juan. (John is happy.) Pobre si Juan pero maugma. (John is poor but happy.) Kinds of Adjectives Adjectives of Quality 1. Sarong maisog na babayi si Maria Makiling. Maria Makiling is a brave woman. 2. Mainiton kaidtong Sabado. It was hot last Saturday. 3. Honesto'' si Jose. Jose is an honest man. 4. Sarong dakulang syudad an Manila. Manila is a big city. 5. Sarong magayon na burak an Sampaguita. Jasmine is a beautiful flower. 5. Mabata an kwarto. The room is smelly. mabaho - smelly kwarto - room 6. Mahamot an pahamot. The perfume smells good. mahamot - fragrant pahamot - perfume Adjectives of Quantity 1. Dakul na kakanon an natada. There are many food left. dakul - many kakanon - Food natada - left Adjectives of Number 1. Dakulon na tawo an nag-atendir sa pasale. There were many people that went to the concert/show. dakul - many tawo - people nag-atendir - visited pasale - show Demonstrative Adjectives 1. Sakuya an kabayong ini. This horse is mine. kabayo - horse ini - this/these sakuya - mine 2. Saimo an kabayong iyan. That horse is yours. iyan - that saimo - yours 3. Masiram an mga mansanas na ini'''. These apples are delicious. masiram - delicious mga mansanas - apples ini - these/this Adjective Phrase The adjective phrase is composed of two parts: an adjective affix and an adjective base. The adjective phrase may consist of a single word or a series of words. There are three kinds of adjective bases. Those which take the «ma-» affix gayon ↔ magayon siram ↔ masiram Those which take the «ha-» affix (usually words related to height, length, and depth) langkaw ↔ halangkaw rarom ↔ hararom Those which take no affix (including but not limited to colors and numbers) pula ↔ pula duwa ↔ duwa Superlatives Superlatives are formed by placing the prefix «pinaka-» in front of the adjective phrase (which includes its adjective affix). «ma-» class gayon ↔ pinakamagayon kanos ↔ pinakamakanos «ha-» class langkaw ↔ pinakahalangkaw halawig ↔ pinakahalawig «∅-» class dakula ↔ pinakadakula sadit ↔ pinakasadit Useful Adjectives Word Antonym marhay - good maraot - bad tama - right sala - wrong mayaman - rich tios - poor magayon - beautiful makanos - ugly malinig - clean maati - dirty mainit - hot malipot - cold magabat - heavy magian - light swerte - lucky malas - unlucky aki - young gurang - old dakul - many diit - few