Nagtrabaho sila sa kabila ng bubog.

Nagtrabaho is the verb form built from the root trabaho (work / job) plus the verbal prefix nag-.

• trabaho = work, job
• nagtrabaho = worked / did work

So this is a very common way Filipino turns a noun-like root into a verb. The dictionary form is usually magtrabaho (to work), and nagtrabaho is one of its actual sentence forms.

It often corresponds to English past tense, but Filipino is better understood in terms of aspect rather than strict tense.

Nagtrabaho is the completed aspect of magtrabaho. That means the action is viewed as completed.

Depending on context, it can match English:

• worked
• has worked
• sometimes simply a completed action in narrative

In this sentence, English will usually translate it as worked.

Because verb-first word order is very common in Filipino.

So:

• Nagtrabaho sila = literally Worked they
• natural English = They worked

This does not sound strange in Filipino. In fact, it is one of the most normal sentence patterns.

You could also say:

• Sila ay nagtrabaho

but that sounds more formal, more written, or more emphatic than the plain Nagtrabaho sila.

Sila means they.

A few useful things to know:

• it is third person plural
• it does not show gender
• it can refer to people of any gender mix

So sila can mean:

• they
• those people
• them, in some contexts depending on structure

Here it is the subject-like pronoun: they.

Sa kabila ng is an important expression that learners often meet early.

It can have two main uses:

1. literal/spatial: on the other side of
2. idiomatic: despite / in spite of

So this is a phrase you should learn as a chunk, not just word by word.

Word by word, it looks like:

• sa = in / at / on / to
• kabila = the other side
• ng = of

But in real use, sa kabila ng often functions as one unit.

The exact meaning in this sentence depends on the translation/context you were given.

Here, ng links kabila to the noun that follows it.

Very literally:

• kabila = other side
• ng bubog = of glass / of the broken glass

So ng is marking the following noun phrase.

For a learner, the easiest approach is:

• learn sa kabila ng as a fixed expression
• then notice that ng introduces whatever follows it

This ng is not the same as the English word of in every situation, but of is often a useful rough guide here.

Bubog usually means broken glass, glass shards, or a shard/piece of broken glass.

That is different from words for ordinary intact glass, depending on context, such as:

• salamin = glass / mirror
• bote = bottle, if the glass is specifically from a bottle
• bintana = window, if you mean the whole window rather than the material

So bubog strongly suggests glass that is broken.

Because Filipino does not use articles the same way English does.

English often requires:

• the glass
• the broken glass

Filipino often leaves that unstated and lets context do the work.

So bubog by itself can mean something like:

• broken glass
• the broken glass
• glass shards

If you need to be more specific, Filipino can add other markers or context words, but very often it simply does not need a separate word matching English the.

Yes. Filipino allows some flexibility, though not every change feels equally natural.

Common versions include:

• Nagtrabaho sila sa kabila ng bubog.
• Sila ay nagtrabaho sa kabila ng bubog.

The first one is more neutral and conversational. The second one is more formal or stylistically marked.

You could also move parts around for emphasis, but the basic verb-first version is the safest one for learners.

The grammar is fine, but the phrase with bubog may sound a bit unusual depending on the intended meaning.

Why?

Because bubog means broken glass / shards, and:

• if the meaning is spatial, the other side of the broken glass is possible, but it may need context
• if the meaning is idiomatic despite the broken glass, it is understandable, though somewhat dramatic or literary depending on the situation

So the sentence is grammatical, but it may feel more natural when you know the full context.

A simple learner-friendly pronunciation guide is:

nag-tra-BA-ho SI-la sa ka-BI-la ng BU-bog

A few notes:

• ng is pronounced like the ng in sing, not like the English word n-g
• trabaho has an h sound: tra-ba-ho
• bubog has a clear g at the end

If you say it smoothly, it will sound something like:

nagtrabaho sila sa kabila ng bubog

with the words flowing together naturally.