Vocabulary
anó
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what
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inumin
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beverage
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tubig
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water
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pera
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money
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piso
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peso
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adobo
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a Philippine dish
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pagkain
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food
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*ano’ng
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what is
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*anong
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which
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*no need to memorize
Grammar
In this lesson, we will learn to ask questions with “what”, which is ano in Tagalog. Before doing this lesson, you will need to memorize the ang form demonstrative pronouns (dp, E.g. this, that, these and those), and read “Yun instead of Iyan and Iyon” in Appendix A. Also, you will begin to use the Linker, so please read Appendix B.
Ano + subject? (Tag.) = What is subject? (Eng.)
Note: Subject takes ang form.
*Ex: Ano ang adobo?
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= What is adobo?
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Ex: Ano ang tubig?
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= What is water?
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Ex: Ano ang piso?
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= What is a peso?
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*Extra1: Ano ang vs ano’ng vs anong
Instead of ano ang, you will sometimes hear its contraction, ano'ng, in colloquial speech. We are not going to use ano'ng in this book because it is easy to confuse with anong, which has the same pronunciation but different meaning:
Ex: Ano ang adobo?
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= What is adobo?
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Ex: Ano’ng adobo?
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= What is adobo?
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Ex: Anong adobo?
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= Which adobo?
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To answer these simple ano ang questions, you can use this construction:
Predicate + subject. (Tag.) = Subject is predicate. (Eng.)
Note: Subject takes ang form.
Ans: Pagkain ang adobo.
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= Adobo is food.
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Ans: Inumin ang tubig.
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= Water is a drink.
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Ans: Pera ang piso.
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= A peso is money.
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*But if you want to ask something like “What is the drink?” (as in “What is the drink she is drinking?”) you should not say Ano ang inumin? because it will normally be interpreted as “What is a drink?” You should instead say things like “What is that drink?” to be better understood:
Ano + subject + linker + dp? (Tag.) = What is dp subject? (Eng.)
Notes: Subject & dp take ang form.
Ex: Ano ang pagkaing ito?
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= What is this food?
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Ex: Ano ang mga inuming yun?
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= What are those drinks?
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Ex: Ano ang perang ito?
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= What is this money?
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*Extra2: Ang does not always mean “the”
It was mentioned that Ano ang inumin? sounds more like “What is a drink?” rather than “What is the drink?” to native speakers. I wanted to point out that although it is sometimes convenient to translate ang as “the”, it is actually just a noun marker, so this does not always work.
To answer these, use:
Predicate + subject + linker + dp. (Tag.) = Dp predicate is subject. (Eng.)
Notes: Subject & dp take ang form.
Ans: Adobo ang pagkaing ito.
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= This food is adobo.
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Ans: Tubig ang mga inuming yun.
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= Those drinks are water.
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Ans: Piso ang perang ito.
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= This money is a peso.
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Definite vs Indefinite
Saying things like “What is that drink?” rather than “What is a drink?” is an example of using a Definite rather than Indefinite structure. You will see this Definite vs Indefinite distinction again. I just wanted to say here that there are more ways to make a noun Definite, in addition to dps.
Word order in “A is B” type sentences
In English “A is B” type sentences, A is the subject and B is the predicate. You may have noticed that these take the form “predicate + subject” in Tagalog, which is the opposite of English.
Ex: Si Mrs. Castillo ang guro.
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= The teacher is Mrs. Castillo.
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Depending on the sentence, native speakers may invert the English definition. For example, “Mrs. Castillo is the teacher” is a perfectly valid definition for the above sentence. However, this does not always work.
Ex: Pagkain ang adobo.
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= Adobo is food.
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In this example, it would be wrong to say “Food is adobo”, because it is a false statement (food is not always adobo), so native speakers would not invert this English definition. In this book, to be consistent, we will use the subject + predicate order in the English definition, unless otherwise specified.
Dps in “A is B” type sentences
Sometimes demonstrative pronouns appear to violate the normal sentence order in “A is B” sentences. Here are some examples with the dp ito.
Ex: Tubig ito.
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= This is water.
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This is normal order; the Tagalog is predicate + subject, and English is subject + predicate. But:
Ex: Ito ang tubig.
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= This is the water.
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Actually, the Tagalog is using the normal predicate + subject order here. But the English definition is inverted, because it sounds strange to say “The water is this”. So this is an exception, because the English takes predicate + subject form.
This is not all for ano; we will go deeper into it in later lessons.
Sample sentences
Q1
What is this drink?
Ano ang inuming ito?
Q2
This drink is water.
Tubig ang inuming ito.
Q3
What are those?
Ano ang mga yun?
Q4
Those are pesos. That is the money.
Mga piso yun. Yun ang pera.
Q5
What is that food?
Ano ang pagkaing yun?
Q6
That food is adobo.
Adobo ang pagkaing yun.
Q7
What is that money?
Ano ang perang yun?
Q8
This money is a peso.
Piso ang perang ito.
Q9
What are these drinks?
Ano ang mga inuming ito?
Q10
These drinks are water.
Tubig ang mga inuming ito.
Drills - Lesson 3