Pwede ba nating dalhin ang kanin at ulam sa sala?

Can we bring the rice and viand to the living room?

Breakdown of Pwede ba nating dalhin ang kanin at ulam sa sala?

• at: and
• ba: question particle
• sa: to
• pwede: to be able to

Questions & Answers about Pwede ba nating dalhin ang kanin at ulam sa sala?

What does the particle ba do here, and why is it after pwede?

• ba turns the sentence into a yes–no question.
• It normally appears right after the first word or first prosodic unit of the predicate. Here the predicate starts with pwede, so the correct placement is Pwede ba ….
• Putting ba later (e.g., Pwede nating ba dalhin …) is ungrammatical.
• Compare: Pwede ba tayong umupo dito?; Nandito ba si Ana?

Why is it nating and not natin (and what about namin)?

• natin means “we/our (inclusive of the listener),” while namin means “we/our (exclusive of the listener).”
• In this construction with a modal-like word (pwede, gusto, kailangan, etc.), the agent is a genitive pronoun that links to the following verb using the linker -ng, hence:
  • natin + -ng → nating (we-inclusive)
  • namin + -ng → naming (we-exclusive)
• So:
  • Pwede ba nating dalhin … = “Can we (including you) bring …?”
  • Pwede ba naming dalhin … = “Can we (not including you) bring …?”
• The same linker shows up with other genitive pronouns:
  • ko → kong, mo → mong, niya → niyang, natin → nating, namin → naming, nila → nilang