ANG means THE
Luckily, we only have one form of the in Filipino. The spelling doesn't have to change to match gender of the noun. The word ang means the. It's pronounced as hang without the h- sound. It also doesn't have to change to match whether the nouns is plural or singular!
YUNG, the other ANG
There's also another way to say ang that is mostly used in informal conversation. The word yung came from the word iyon which has the literal translation of that.
- Ang lalake = The boy
- Ang babae = The girl
YUNG, the other ANG
There's also another way to say ang that is mostly used in informal conversation. The word yung came from the word iyon which has the literal translation of that.
- Oy, kaibigan! Yung lalake, hinahablol ako! = Hey, friend! The (that) guy, is chasing me!
- Hindi maganda yung bahay. = The (that) house is not pretty.
ANG as a MARKER
ANG is a marker to indicate the focus of the sentence, the object. Not only it's translated as the word the but also shifts the focus from the doer of the action to the object. Let's see an example.
- Kumain ako ng pagkain = I ate food (the focus in here is the pronoun ako)
- Kinain ko ang pagkain = I ate the food (the focus in here is the pagkain)
PLURAL NOUNS
To make things plural in Filipino, we simply add the word mga.
- Mga papel = Papers
- Ang mga papel = The papers
ISANG means A/AN
Similar to Spanish, the word a is specifically derived from the number. In Spanish, a means un/una while one means uno. This is the same thing in Filipino. Remember, articles in Filipino are not specifically genderized.
- Isang papel = A paper
- Isang bata = A child
- Isang lalake = A boy
- Isang babae = A girl
- Isang papel = One that is a paper OR A paper
- Isa na papel = A paper OR one that is a paper