Ngadto

Ngadto is a directional element found in Cebuano and some Visayan languages. It marks movement toward a destination and is often translated as “to that place” or “toward there.” In everyday use, ngadto functions with verbs of motion to specify where someone is going, rather than standing alone as a separate lexical item.

In many Cebuano dialects, ngadto appears in inflected verb forms that convey tense or aspect. For example, nangadto conveys a past action of going to a place, while mangadto indicates future intent to go there. The root idea comes from adto, meaning “to go,” with affixes that encode direction and time. This makes ngadto a bound morpheme rather than a free-standing word in many sentences.

Usage notes and sample sentences:

- Nangadto siya sa merkado. (He went to the market.)

- Mangadto ta sa eskwelahan karon. (We will go to the school now.)

- Adto na ta. (Let’s go there.)

Ngadto shows dialectal variation in spelling and frequency. Some varieties may render related forms as ngaadto or use slightly different affixation patterns, but the core function remains to indicate direction toward a place. In contrast to other directional terms, ngadto is specifically tied to movement toward a location and is most commonly found within the verb complex rather than as an independent noun or adverb.

See also: Cebuano language, Visayan languages, Cebuano grammar, Nangadto and Mangadto constructions.