Austronesian language family
Pronouns
Pronouns
Filipino Pronouns
Filipino (Tagalog) noun cases are indicated by preceding markers and there are three cases: ANG, NG, and SA forms. ANG form indicates the nomical case of a noun (absolutive), NG form the posessive (ergative), and SA form indicates a location (oblique).
VSO Word Order
Even if those markers specify the cases of nouns, the word order is not free and words are placed in VSO order. The order can be re-arranged with the use of "ay" marker, but without, the verb should come first then the subject or the agent that does the act, and the object will be placed at the end of the sentence.
- Sa darating na Linggo ang eleksiyon. (The election will be held on next Sunday.)
The "na" word works as the NG marker in the above sentence (see Filipino -- Linker). When the noun indicates plural objects, "mga" will precede the nounand placed right after the markers (as in "ang mga Senator").
If the following noun is a person's name, the marker should be replaced with si (ANG form), ni (NG form), and kay (SA form) respectively.
- Presidente ng India si Pratibha Patil. (Pratibha Patil is the President of India.)
- Magandan bahay ni Pedro. (The house of Pedro is beautiful.)
- Mabait kay Nina si Alberto. (Alberto is kind to Nina.)
Personal Pronouns
In case of pronouns, each pronoun has all three cases as in ako-ko-akin (I-my-me). Note that there are inclusive and exclusive "we" or first person plural. "kami" indicates that the speaker intends to exclude the listener. If the listener is included, "tayo".
- Gutom na ako. (I am hungry.)
Demonstratives
The English demonstratives only has "this" and "that" whereas Filipino and Japanese demonstratives make a clear distinction of "iyan" (that, Japanese: sore) and "iyon" (that, Japanese: are). All of these demonstratives take the ANG/NG/SA forms such as ito-nito-dito, iyan-niyan-diyan, and iyon-noon-doon.
The SA forms has an alternative form rito, riyan, and roon for in such cases when the demonstratives follow vowel-ending words.
- Kanino ito? (Whose is this?)
- Sa akin iyan. (That is mine.)
- May lindol dito kagabi. (We had an earthquake here last night.)
The Applet
The following applet will show all three forms of the personal pronouns, demonstratives, and noun ANG/NG/SA markers, of single and of plural forms.