Bikol/Introducing Yourself

In this lesson you will learn to introduce yourself using the standard level of formality or respect. You will also be able to ask someone his name.

First you need to know that the verb to be is never expressed in Bikol. Where there is no verb, it is automatically assumed that the sentence is about something being something. Therefore to ask What is your name, you only need to know the words "What your name?". Here they are:

ano	what
ngaran	name
mo	your

However you also need the article the. This is because Bikol literally say What is the name your?

Ano an ngaran mo? or Anong ngaran mo?.

The phrase ano an, meaning what the is obviously a very frequent combination. It has evolved into an aggregated word, which is anong. It means exactly ano an, but is much easier to pronounce and therefore more common.

Note that mo is placed after the name it modifies. This is always the case: possessive pronouns are always placed after the possessed thing.

If your name is Karl, the answer is Ako si Karl

Ako simply means I or me. When this word is not at the beginning of a sentence, it can be abbreviated into ko.

si is an article reserved in the case that the word that follows is a name. It is compulsory unless you are calling someone.

Then you might want to say Nice to meet you. In Bikol, the expression used is Happy me knowing you. We will therefore need 3 more words:

maugma	happy
mamidbidan	to know
ika or ka	you

Again we see here that the pronoun you, ika, can be abbreviated into ka. Abbreviation of pronouns is frequent in Bikol, we will see more of that in later lessons.

So the phrase Happy me to know you is Maugma akong mamidbidan ka.

So the final sentence becomes Maugma akong mamidbidan ka.

We have just one more words to learn, which is essential in every situation: iyo is yes