Understanding the Target: The “Sa” Target Marker

Now that you’ve met Tagalog markers ang and ng, it’s time to introduce another participant — the target! This chapter introduces the Tagalog sa marker, used for participants that serve as recipients, destinations, or reference points of an action. Ready to dive in? If that’s the case, you know the drill — vocabulary! If not, then let’s go back and review the ang and ng markers.

Vocabulary

• at → and
• lalaki → man
• babae → woman
• gurô → teacher
• estudyante → student
• libró → book
• regalo → gift
• papél → paper
• mukhà → face
• balikat → shoulder
• kakampí → teammate
• eleksyón → election
• Pilipinas → the Philippines
• Paskó → Christmas
• siyá → he/she
• nagbigáy → gave (root: bigáy)
• binigáy → gave (root: bigáy)
• binigyan → gave (root: bigáy)
• naglálakad → walking (root: lakad)
• magháhandà → will prepare (root: handà)
• kumakain → eating (root: kain)
• boboto → will vote (root: boto)
• binató → threw (root: bató)
• kukunin → will get (root: kuhà) irregular
• nagsulát → wrote (root: sulat)
• hinawakan → held (root: hawak)
• sinuntók → punched (root: suntók)

“Sa” Target Marker

The sa target marker is probably the most versatile marker in Tagalog. First off, the sa marker indicates the non-focus target participant of the sentence. It generally indicates the target (or recipient), direction, or location of an action. Aside from that, sa also functions as a catch-all preposition, standing in for several English prepositions depending on context.

• sa for common nouns, places, events, etc. → sa lalaki, sa babae, sa Pilipinas, sa Paskó
• sa mgá for plurals → sa mga lalaki, sa mga babae
• kay for personal names. → kay John, kay Karla, kay Blackie, kay Teddy
• kiná for personal names the imply plurality. → kina John (and company), kina Tom at Jerry

Use “sa” to indicate a place or event

Use sa on sentences with intransitive verbs (verbs without direct objects) to show where or when the action occurs. When translated to English, these are your “at the…”, “on the…”, “to the…”, etc.

• Naglálakad siyá. → He/she is walking.
• Naglálakad siyá sa mall. → He/she is walking at the mall.
• Magháhandà si Edward. → Edward will prepare.
• Magháhandà si Edward sa Paskó. → Edward will prepare [food] on Christmas.
• Kumakain si Michael. → Michael is eating.
• Kumakain si Michael sa canteen. → Michael is eating at the canteen.
• Boboto si Jane. → Jane will vote.
• Boboto si Jane sa eleksyón. → Jane will vote in the [upcoming] election.

In these cases, sa often implies something upcoming, especially when used with events.

Use “sa” to indicate the recipient

Use sa when a sentence has a recipient. This is your “to” and “from” in English.

• Nagbigáy ang lalaki ng regalo sa babae. → The man gave the woman a gift.
• Binató ni Jake ang bola sa kakampí. → Jake threw the ball to the teammate.
• Kukunin ng lalaki ang bayad kay Joshua. → The man will get the payment from Joshua.

Use “sa” to indicate the thing the action is acted upon

Sa can also be used when referring to the surface or part of something involved in the action.

• Nagsulát ang babae sa papél. → The woman wrote on a paper.
• Hinawakan ng lalaki ang babae sa balikat. → The man held the woman on the shoulder.
• Sinuntók ni Manny si Floyd sa mukhà. → Manny punched Floyd in the face.

As you can see, sa in Tagalog replaces the prepositions you would normally have differently in English. “at the mall”? Use sa — sa mall. “on Christmas”? Use sa — sa Paskó. Here are the English prepositions that just equate to sa in Tagalog.

• in → sa
• on → sa
• at → sa / kay
• to → sa / kay
• from → sa / kay

Of course, there are counterpart Tagalog words for the each of these specific locations like “inside”, “outside”, “on top”, etc… when you want to express something in detail. You will learn that on a later chapter.

The Target as the Focus

Let’s align the targets with the concept of focus. For this exercise, let’s use the sentence above:

The man gave the woman a gift.

Nagbigáy	ang lalaki	ng regalo	sa babae.
Gave	the man	a gift	the woman.

Here the focus of the sentence is ang lalaki — the actor, marked by the ang that precedes it. The ng regalo is the object, while the sa babae is the target.

If we are to change the focus of the sentence from the actor to the object, we shift around the markers and change the form of the verb to align with the new focus — the object.

Binigáy	ng lalaki	ang regalo	sa babae
Gave	the man	a gift	the woman.

Now, let’s change the focus of the sentence to the target. First, replace the sa with ang. Then change the form of the verb to align with the new focus: the target.

Binigyán	ng lalaki	ng regalo	ang babae.
Gave	the man	a gift	the woman.

Here the focus of the sentence is ang babae — the beneficiary. The ng lalaki is still the actor, and ng regalo is still the goal.

All three sentences have participants that have the same roles; the only difference is that each sentence has focus on one participant. When focus shifts, the verb needs to adjust accordingly to match the new focus, ensuring clarity in meaning.

The “Sa” Target vs “Ng” Object

Can sa and ng be interchanged? Let’s take a look at this example to illustrate further the difference between sa and ng.

Nagbigáy ang gurô ng libró sa estudyante. → The teacher gave a book to the student.

• ng libró → the thing that was given.
• sa estudyante → the one who got what was given

If we are to interchange the two markers, it would result to this:

Nagbigáy ang gurô sa libró ng estudyante. → The teacher gave a student to the book.

• sa libró → the one who will receive the student
• ng estudyante → the one being given out by the teacher

This sentence is giving cartoon vibes. While the sentence is grammatically correct, the thought expressed does not quite translate well in real life.

Remember: ng is used for actors and objects; sa is used for targets.

Participant order

What about the arrangement of each participant? A general rule of thumb that you can easily follow for now:

Verb → the focus actor → the non-focus object → the non-focus target

Verb → the non-focus actor → the focus (goal / beneficiary) ↔ the non-focus (goal / beneficiary)

• The actor always immediately follows the verb.
• If the actor is the focus, the goal comes next, then the beneficiary.
• If the actor is a non-focus, the focused participant comes next, then the remaining non-focus participant.

That means that these two object-focus sentences are of the same meaning:

• Binigáy ng lalaki ang regalo sa babae.
• Binigáy ng lalaki sa babae ang regalo.

As well as these two target-focus sentences:

• Binigyán ng lalaki ng regalo ang babae.
• Binigyán ng lalaki ang babae ng regalo.

Conclusion

You now have an understanding of the three participants of Tagalog sentences, and how the sa target marker operates — whether you’re pinpointing a location or identifying a recipient. Also, with sa taking over the English prepositions, you’ve just cut your memorization list in half.

Next up: we’ll explore the affixes that make the Tagalog words — and how they morph depending on focus and aspect. Things get juicier from here. Onward!