Tagalog Roots and Affixes

The building blocks of Tagalog words are roots and affixes. Roots can stand on their own while affixes cannot. In words comprising of a root and one or more affixes, the root carries the core meaning of the word.

Example in English: In the word uneventful, event is the root while un- and -ful are affixes.

Examples of Tagalog roots:

anak	child (son or daughter)
araw	day, sun
gabi	night, evening

Some roots can be repeated to form a new word.

araw-araw	every day
gabi-gabi	every night

Some roots can be combined to form a new word.

araw-gabi	day and night
anak-araw	albino

Finally, various affixes can be added at the beginning, in the middle and/or at the end of a root.

maaraw	sunny
tag-araw	summer
kaarawan	birthday
kagabi	last night
gumabi	to be or become evening

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See notes on Terminology and Pronunciation Marks

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