ngabngab
ngábngab with stress marks
to eat greedily; masticate using teeth
Usage Note
Ngabngab is an expressive, onomatopoeic-feeling word describing the act of chomping or gnawing at food, often with enthusiasm or greed. Used informally and with a slightly humorous register, it can function as a root for derived verb forms such as ngabngabin and nangabngab.
Examples
" Huwag mong ngabngabin ang pagkain. "
Natural Translation
Don't gobble up the food.
Literal Translation
Don't you eat-greedily the food.
" Hindi magandang tingnan ang pagkain niya nang ngabngab sa harap ng bisita. "
Natural Translation
It doesn't look good when he/she eats greedily in front of the guests.
Literal Translation
Not good to-look the eating his/her adverb-, greedily in front of guest.
" Gutom na gutom ang bata kaya parang walang modong nangabngab ito sa kanyang pagkain pagkaupo sa mesa. "
Natural Translation
The child was so hungry that he chomped at his food without manners as soon as he sat down at the table.
Literal Translation
Hungry very-hungry the child so like no manners that ate-greedily it on his food upon-sitting at table.
Tagalog builds thousands of words from a few hundred roots.
How Tagalog words workActor Focus Verbs
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