If you're trying to learn Malagasy Questions you will find some useful resources including a course about Questions and interrogative expressions... to help you with your Malagasy grammar. Try to concentrate on the lesson and notice the pattern that occurs each time the word changes its place. Also don't forget to check the rest of our other lessons listed on Learn Malagasy. Enjoy the rest of the lesson!
Learning the Malagasy Questions is very important because its structure is used in every day conversation. The more you master it the more you get closer to mastering the Malagasy language. But first we need to know what the role of Questions is in the structure of the grammar in Malagasy.
Malagasy questions may be either a linguistic expression used to make a request for information, or else the request itself made by such an expression. Usually it starts with why, how, where, when ...
In Malagasy there are 3 ways of asking a question to get a yes or no answer, and they are the following:
-Put the particle “ve” (variant “va”) before the noun or the subject.
-Verb + “ve” + pronoun: Unlike English, the auxiliaries do and does are not used. Manana fotoana malalaka VE izy? (Does he/she have free time?)
-Pronoun + verb: Only the intonation makes the sentence interrogative: Manana fotoana malalaka izy? (Does he/she have free time?)
-Finally you can also make a question by adding a tag question, “sa tsy izany?” to the end of a statement. Manana fotoana malalaka izy, sa tsy izany? (She has free time, doesn’t she)
Here are some examples:
| English Questions | Malagasy Questions |
|---|---|
| Questions | fanontaniana |
| how? | ahoana? |
| what? | inona? |
| who? | iza? |
| why? | maninona/nahoana |
| where? | aiza? |
Notice the structure of the Questions in Malagasy.
Below is a list of the Questions and interrogative expressions in Malagasy placed in a table. Memorizing this table will help you add very useful and important words to your Malagasy vocabulary.
| English Questions | Malagasy Questions |
|---|---|
| where is he? | aiza izy? |
| what is this? | inona ito? |
| why are you sad? | fa maninona ianao no malahelo? |
| how do you want to pay? | ahoana no tianao handoavana azy? |
| can I come? | afaka tonga ve aho? |
| is he sleeping? | matory va izy? |
| do you know me? | fantatrao va izaho? |
| do you have my book? | anananao va ny bokiko? |
| how big is it? | tahaka ny ahoana ny halehibeny? |
| can I help you? | afaka manampy anao ve aho? |
| can you help me? | afaka manampy ahy ve ianao? |
| do you speak English? | miteny anglisy ve ianao? |
| how far is this? | aiza izany? |
| what time is it? | amin'ny firy izao? |
| how much is this? | hoatrinona ito? |
| what is your name? | iza ny anaranao? |
| where do you live? | aiza ianao no mipetraka? |
Questions and interrogative expressions have a very important role in Malagasy. Once you're done with Malagasy Questions, you might want to check the rest of our Malagasy lessons here: Learn Malagasy. Don't forget to bookmark this page.
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