Ilagay mo ang mga saging sa lamesa bago tayo kumain.

Lagay is the root word, roughly place / put.

Ilagay is the form used here for a command meaning put it / place it. In this pattern, the thing being put is the grammatical focus of the sentence, which is why ang mga saging appears later.

So:

Ilagay mo ang mga saging sa lamesa
= Put the bananas on the table

A different verb form would change the structure and emphasis. For example:

Maglagay ka ng mga saging sa lamesa
= Put some bananas on the table / Place bananas on the table

That version focuses more on the doer, while ilagay fits the sentence as written.

Filipino pronouns change form depending on their role in the sentence.

• ikaw = subject form of you
• mo = genitive/non-subject form of you

In Ilagay mo ang mga saging..., the verb form ilagay is not using ikaw as the main marked noun. Instead, ang mga saging is the focused part, so the doer appears as mo.

That is why Ilagay mo... is correct, not Ilagay ikaw...

Short pronouns like mo, ko, ka, siya, nila, etc. usually go in second position in the clause. In practice, that often means they come right after the first word, especially if the first word is the verb.

So:

Ilagay mo ang mga saging...
sounds natural.

This second-position behavior is very common in Filipino and is something learners see again and again.

Ang marks the noun phrase that is in focus or is the main marked noun of the sentence.

In this sentence, ang mga saging is the thing being put. Because the verb is ilagay, the bananas are the focused item, so they are marked with ang.

It is tempting to think ang always means the, but that is not quite right. Sometimes it lines up with English the, but its real job is grammatical marking, not simply definiteness.

Here, ang mga saging is naturally understood as the bananas or the bananas we’re talking about.

Mga is the plural marker. It tells you that the following noun is plural.

So:

• saging = banana
• mga saging = bananas

It is commonly pronounced about like muh-NGA. The ng sound is the same sound you hear at the end of English sing, followed immediately by ga.

Sa is a very common marker for location, direction, or destination. Depending on context, it can mean things like in, on, at, or to.

So:

• sa lamesa = on the table / at the table / to the table

With the verb ilagay, the natural meaning is on the table.

Lamesa means table. It is a common Filipino word, borrowed historically from Spanish.

Yes. Verb-first order is very common in Filipino.

So a sentence like:

Ilagay mo ang mga saging sa lamesa

is perfectly normal. A rough structural breakdown is:

• Ilagay = put
• mo = you
• ang mga saging = the bananas
• sa lamesa = on the table

English usually starts with the subject, but Filipino very often starts with the verb or predicate.

Literally, it is:

• bago = before
• tayo = we/us, including the listener
• kumain = eat / to eat

So the whole phrase means:

before we eat

This clause gives the time frame for the command: put the bananas on the table first, then eat afterward.

This is a very important Filipino distinction.

• tayo = we, including the person being spoken to
• kami = we, excluding the person being spoken to

Since the sentence says before we eat, and the speaker clearly includes the listener in that eating, tayo is the correct choice.

If you said bago kami kumain, it would mean before we eat but not including you.

This is a common learner question because Filipino verbs do not match English tense in a one-to-one way.

Kumain is the basic -um- form of the root kain. Depending on context, it can be understood in different ways in English. In some contexts it means ate, but in others it is used where English would say eat or to eat.

After bago, bago tayo kumain naturally means before we eat.

So it is best not to treat kumain as automatically past tense. Filipino is organized more around aspect and construction than around English-style tense labels.

Usually, yes: it suggests bananas that are identifiable in the conversation or situation, which is why English often translates it as the bananas.

If you wanted a less specific idea like some bananas, Filipino would often use a different structure, for example with ng instead of ang, depending on the verb form:

Maglagay ka ng mga saging sa lamesa
= Put some bananas on the table

So the sentence you were given sounds like there are particular bananas already in mind.

It sounds like a normal, direct instruction. It is not rude by itself, but it is definitely a command.

If you want to make it softer or more polite, you could say something like:

Pakilagay mo ang mga saging sa lamesa bago tayo kumain.
= Please put the bananas on the table before we eat.

You might also hear muna added to soften the tone a little:

Ilagay mo muna ang mga saging sa lamesa bago tayo kumain.
= Put the bananas on the table first before we eat.

Yes. That is also correct and natural.

Putting bago tayo kumain first shifts the emphasis slightly to the time frame:

Bago tayo kumain, ilagay mo ang mga saging sa lamesa.
= Before we eat, put the bananas on the table.

Both orders are fine. The original version simply starts with the main action first.

Not very neatly.

A very rough word-by-word gloss would be:

Ilagay = put/place
mo = you
ang mga saging = the bananas
sa lamesa = on the table
bago = before
tayo = we including you
kumain = eat

But natural English does not follow the same grammar patterns, especially with ang, mo, and the verb forms. So it is better to understand the structure rather than force a literal English word order.