sabi
sábi with stress marks
to tell or say; hearsay
Usage Note
Sabi is one of the most common verbs in Tagalog for reported speech, ubiquitous in storytelling. It can also function as a noun meaning hearsay or what was said, and the particle daw or raw typically follows to signal that the information is second-hand.
Examples
" Ano ang sabi mo? "
Natural Translation
What did you say?
Literal Translation
What the say you?
" Ano ang sabi niya sa iyo? "
Natural Translation
What did he/she tell you?
Literal Translation
What the tell he/she to you?
" Ayon sa sabi ng aking lola, mas masarap daw ang pagkain kapag niluluto nang may pagmamahal. "
Natural Translation
According to my grandmother, food tastes better when it's cooked with love.
Literal Translation
According to saying of my grandmother, more delicious hearsay the food when being-cooked adverb with love.
Tagalog builds thousands of words from a few hundred roots.
How Tagalog words workActor Focus Verbs
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