Cebuano has eight basic parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, particles, prepositions and conjunctions.
Cebuano, along with many other Philippine languages, are sometimes considered ergative or nominative in alignment, both being incorrect and correct as it has features of both systems.
Cebuano verbs are morphologically complex and take on a variety of affixes reflecting voice, quality, aspect, mood, and others.
Basically, verbs conjugate by using these affixes according to which argumentative role the noun in the direct case has.
The direct case hides the noun's otherwise-evident argumentative role, which the verb then makes up for by conjugating with specific affixes that indicate which argumentative role the noun in the direct case has.
Via context and common word order, it is evident that láta is not the agent despite it being marked with sa as well (in this case, it is used as the general oblique definite noun marker).
The circumstantial trigger affixes select for location, benefactee and/or goal topics.
")Here, the location/indirect object láta is marked with ang, the general direct noun marker.
")Here, the indirect object or benefactee Pedro is marked with si, the personal direct noun marker.
The suffix -an indicates that the noun in the direct case (Pedro) is also the indirect object of the action, which would not have been known otherwise.
Perla is marked by si, the personal direct noun marker, and is known to be the indirect object of the sentence due to the verb suffix -an, which indicates that the noun in the direct case would be the indirect object of the sentence.
The prefix I- indicates that the noun in the direct case (lapis) is also the instrument used to complete the action, which would not have been known otherwise.
In addition to the same four-way distinction of proximity for demonstratives (near speaker, near speaker and addressee, near addressee and remote), deictics can express three tenses: The present and future tense forms can precede or follow the words or phrases they modify by linking with nga.
They follow the words or phrases they modify and can substitute equivalent past forms.
Cebuano nouns assume three cases based on their role in a sentence: † These words are already considered archaic but survive as the affix -y, as in "silá'y niadto" or "unsa'y atò".
The use of sa vs. og in the indirect and oblique case is a matter of definiteness when the noun is the object of an actor-focus verb.
Examples are: Although it is tolerable in some cases, the use of mga before a noun applied with ka- -an is not necessary anymore.
Examples: The linker nga (pronounced /ŋa/) shows the relationship between modifiers to the head of the phrase.
Without the intervening linker, juxtaposition of modifier and head can constitute, not a phrase, but a sentence unto itself.
After words that end in a monophthong, diphthong or -n, nga is optionally reduced to the suffix -ng /-ŋ/.
It is worth noting that in spoken Cebuano, asa has slowly become the main word for where.
Verbs in Cebuano conjugate according to several factors: to divulge/agree with the argumentative role that the noun marked by the direct case has; the voice; the form; the mood; and the aspect/tense of the sentence.
Verbs in Cebuano not only conjugate according to the argumentative role of the noun that is marked by the direct case, but also according to the voice, the form, the mood, and the aspect/tense of the sentence.
They claim that Cebuano verbs feature the aspects of inception; that is whether the action has been initiated or not.
The verbal affixes that feature altogether the voice, mood, form, and aspect may overlap.
Using the normal affixes of the transitory form in the active voice for buák would sound incorrect to native speakers.
With verb stems like adto, mo- may sometimes be used as the nasugdan aspect because although it started in the past and may still be going on, the destination may not have been reached yet.
Adto also means to go, and when used in the present tense, it is understandable that it may use mo- for a nasugdan aspect.
The nagka- and magka- prefixes are different from the na- and ma- in that they have the essence of a slowly but surely, or steady, change that is occurring within the topic.
The prefix gi- may also be used/confused with the intentional and durative forms's affixes in the passive voice of direct objects.