Binigyan ni Lola ng gatas ang bata bago matulog.

Binigyan is used because this sentence puts the spotlight on the recipient, ang bata.

A very useful contrast is:

• Binigyan ni Lola ng gatas ang bata.
• Nagbigay si Lola ng gatas sa bata.

Both can mean basically the same thing, but they are built differently.

In binigyan, the verb is a recipient/benefactive-focused form, so the person receiving something becomes the ang-phrase: ang bata.

In nagbigay, the verb is actor-focused, so the doer becomes the ang/si-phrase: si Lola, and the recipient is marked with sa: sa bata.

So the sentence is not just saying what happened; it is also showing which participant the grammar is centered on.

These are case markers, and they show the role of each noun phrase in the sentence.

In this sentence:

• ni Lola = the doer/actor, but not the ang-focused phrase
• ng gatas = the thing given, also not the ang-focused phrase
• ang bata = the focused noun phrase, here the recipient

So:

• ni is used for a proper name when it is in the non-focus actor role
• ng marks a non-focus noun phrase; here it marks gatas
• ang marks the noun phrase that the verb is grammatically focused on

A native English speaker often wants to map these directly to subject/object, but Filipino does not line up neatly that way. It is better to think in terms of focus and marking.

Because Lola is not the ang-focused phrase in this sentence.

For proper names:

• si is used when the name is the ang-type/focused phrase
• ni is used when the name is a non-focus actor

Compare:

• Nagbigay si Lola ng gatas sa bata.
  Here Lola is the focused actor, so it uses si.

• Binigyan ni Lola ng gatas ang bata.
  Here Lola is still the giver, but not the focused phrase, so it uses ni.

Because ang does not simply mean the subject in the English sense.

In this sentence, the verb binigyan is built so that the recipient is the focused phrase. That is why the child is marked with ang:

• ang bata

So even though the child is not the doer, the grammar is centered on the child as the one who received something.

This is one of the biggest differences between English and Filipino: the ang phrase is not always the actor.

Because gatas is the thing being given, but it is not the focused noun phrase in this sentence.

The focus here is on the recipient, ang bata, not on the milk. So the milk is marked with ng:

• ng gatas

If you wanted the milk itself to be the focused phrase, you would normally use a different verb form, for example something like ibinigay in an appropriate sentence.

So the marker on gatas depends on what the verb is focusing on.

Because this sentence uses bigyan-type grammar, where the recipient is marked as the ang-phrase, not with sa.

Compare:

• Binigyan ni Lola ng gatas ang bata.
• Nagbigay si Lola ng gatas sa bata.

In the first sentence, the child is the focused recipient, so it becomes ang bata.

In the second sentence, the verb is actor-focused, so the recipient is expressed with sa bata.

So sa bata is not wrong in general; it just belongs to a different sentence pattern.

It is the completed aspect form of bigyan.

A simple way to think of it is:

• bigyan = to give to someone / give someone something
• binigyan = gave / has given
• binibigyan = is giving / was giving
• bibigyan = will give / going to give

Many textbooks call this aspect rather than tense, because Filipino focuses more on whether an action is completed, ongoing, or not yet started.

So binigyan tells you the giving has already happened.

It is the completed form of bigyan.

A learner-friendly way to see it is:

• base form: bigyan
• completed form: binigyan

This is related to the root bigay, meaning give.

The important practical point is not just the form itself, but what it does: bigyan/binigyan is used when the sentence is built around the recipient/beneficiary.

No, Filipino word order is fairly flexible, although some orders sound more natural than others.

Your sentence is grammatical:

• Binigyan ni Lola ng gatas ang bata bago matulog.

You may also hear:

• Binigyan ni Lola ang bata ng gatas bago matulog.
• Ang bata ay binigyan ni Lola ng gatas bago matulog.

These all express basically the same event, but they differ in rhythm, emphasis, and naturalness in context.

For learners, the safest pattern is often:

• Verb + actor + focused phrase + other phrase(s)

But real Filipino allows movement of noun phrases much more than English does.

Bago means before, and matulog means to sleep / to go to sleep.

Together, bago matulog means:

• before sleeping
• before going to sleep

This is a shortened clause. Filipino often leaves out the subject when it is understood from context.

So the sentence does not explicitly say who was about to sleep.

The sentence does not explicitly say.

That means bago matulog can be understood from context as:

• before the child went to sleep
• before Lola went to sleep
• before someone relevant went to sleep

In many real-life contexts, listeners may assume it is the child, because giving milk before bedtime fits that situation naturally. But grammatically, the subject of matulog is omitted.

If you want to make it explicit, you can say:

• bago matulog ang bata
• bago matulog si Lola

Yes. That is a very natural alternative.

It means essentially the same event, but the grammar shifts the focus:

• Nagbigay si Lola ng gatas sa bata bago matulog.
  Actor-focused: the sentence is centered on Lola as giver.

• Binigyan ni Lola ng gatas ang bata bago matulog.
  Recipient-focused: the sentence is centered on the child as receiver.

So both are correct, but they are not identical in structure. Choosing one or the other depends on what part of the event you want the sentence to highlight.