Vocabulary
If you aren’t familiar with ng or sa-forms, or need a refresher, please go to Appendix A and make a first pass at learning them before attempting this lesson.
bahay
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house
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aso
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dog
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pusá
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cat
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kapatid
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sibling
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asawa
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spouse
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kaibigan
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friend
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kasintahan
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girlfriend/boyfriend
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mangga
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mango
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Grammar
Possessive Clauses using ng-form
These are of the form “noun of noun”; ng means something like of in this construction.
Ex: aso ko
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= my dog (dog of me)
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Ex: kotse ng lalaki
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= man’s car (car of man)
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Ex: pusa ni Maria
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= Maria’s cat (cat of Maria)
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Ex: mga bahay nina Jeff at Brian
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= Jeff and Brian’s houses (houses of Jeff and Brian)
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Keep in mind that the result is a noun clause and can be used anywhere a noun is used.
Alternate Possessive Clauses using sa-form
There is alternate way of forming possessive clauses when the possessor is a personal pronoun:
Ex: aking aso
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= my dog
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Ex: kanilang kotse
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= their car
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In this book we’ll only use the alternate form to avoid duplicating pronouns within sentences, which is generally what is done in colloquial speech.
Sounds bad: Asawa niya ang kaibigan niya.
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= His wife is his friend.
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The repetition of niya sounds bad to native speakers.
Sounds better: Asawa niya ang kaniyang kaibigan.
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= His wife is his friend.
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Less common: Kaniyang asawa ang kaibigan niya.
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= His wife is his friend.
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Note that it’s more common the use the ng-form possessive clause first, so we’ll do that from here on.
Double Possesive Clauses
We now know how to say “my friend” and “friend’s wife”, but how do we say “my friend’s wife”? Remembering that these are of the form “noun of noun”, we first rephrase this as “wife of my friend”.
(wife) of (my friend)
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= (asawa) ng (kaibigan ko) = asawa ng kaibigan ko
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How about “my friend’s wife’s dog”?
(dog) of (wife) of (my friend)
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= aso ng asawa ng kaibigan ko
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Note Summary for Possessive Clauses
word order for possessive clauses using ng-form is <possession, possessor>, and the second noun clause takes the ng form
word order for possessive clauses using sa-form is <pronoun, linker, possession>, and the pronoun takes the sa form without the sa
Sample Sentences
Q1
His house.
Bahay niya.
Q2
My teacher is my friend.
Guro ko ang aking kaibigan.
Q3
Mike and Mario’s dog.
Aso nina Mike at Mario.
Q4
Not their car, their brother's car.
Hindi ang kotse nila, ang kotse ng kanilang kapatid.
Q5
My sister’s cat.
Pusa ng kapatid ko.
Q6
My cat is my dog's friend.
Pusa ko ang kaibigan ng aking aso.
Q7
My wife is smart.
Matalino ang asawa ko.
Q8
Our car is our teacher's house.
Kotse namin ang bahay ng aming guro.
Q9
Your girlfriend is beautiful.
Maganda ang kasintahan mo.
Q10
Joe's mango.
Mangga ni Joe.