In the last lesson, we learned how to describe nouns with verbs and phrases. Now, let’s move from describing to showing ownership. In this chapter, we’ll explore how to express possession in Tagalog and how to say things like ‘the president’s car’ or ‘my notebook’ using ng, ni and possessive pronouns.
Vocabulary:
Nouns:
- babae → woman
- binatà → teenage boy
- tao → person
- kaibigan → friend
- estudyante → student
- kapitbahay → neighbor
- bisità → guest
- presidente → president
- pangalan → name
- aso → dog
- pusà → cat
- susì → key
- libró → book
- kwaderno → notebook
- pinggán → plate
- padér → wall
- bahay → house
- kotse → car
- kuryente → electricity
- buhay → life
Verbs:
- ayos → fix
- maneho → drive
- sayad → graze
- tawag → call/shout
- bigáy → give
- bató → throw
- taás → go up, rise
- walâ → none, missing
Adjectives:
- matalik → close, great
- matabâ → fat
💡BEFORE WE START: The term Tagalog used extensively in this guide refers to the variety spoken in Metro Manila. This variety is part of the broader Filipino/Tagalog umbrella that also includes Batangas and Quezon Tagalog, both of which retain more of the older, original Tagalog from history. This guide only covers the informal Filipino/Tagalog (or Taglish) used in everyday Metro Manila speech.
Nouns as Owners
To express possession, use the ng particle. Treat this ng particle as a separate entity in order to not be confused with the ng marker used for marking non-focus participants. The sequence should be item → ng → owner. This is in contrast to English’s owner → ’s → item construction.
Kotse ng presidente → president’s car
- kotse → the item; the one being owned
- presidente → the owner
Examples:
- laptop ng estudyante → a student’s laptop
- pinggán ng kapitbahay → a neighbor’s plate
- bahay ng mayor → a mayor’s house
- buhay ng mga tao → people’s lives
Unlike the na/-ng particle, the ng possession article will always be a separate particle. It does not attach to preceding words ending in a vowel or /n/.
For names, use the ni particle.
Examples:
- laptop ni Angel → Angel’s laptop
- pinggán ni Julia → Julia’s plate
- bahay ni Kuya → Big Brother’s house
Here’s an example of a possession of a possession.
- ang susì ng bahay ni Jake → the key of Jake’s house
- ang collar ng aso ng babae → the woman’s dog’s collar
Pronouns as Owners
To say something like ‘my laptop’, or ‘your plate’ in Tagalog, we’ll borrow the ng pronouns table from the pronouns chapter of this guide. Yes, ng pronouns work double time as possessive pronouns.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| First-person | Ko / Akin (My) | Namin / Natin (Our) |
| Second-person | Mo (Your) | Niyó (Your, plural) |
| Third-person | Niyá (His / Her) | Nilá (Their) |
Ng pronouns directly replace the ng marker and the noun it marks.
- kotse ng presidente → the president’s car
- kotse niyá → his/her car
- laptop ni Angel → Angel’s laptop
- laptop niyá → her laptop
Examples:
- Inaayos ko ang laptop ni Angel. → I am fixing Angel’s laptop
- Inaayos ko ang laptop niyá. → I am fixing her laptop
- Minaneho ni Nino ang kotse nina Adrian. → Nino drove Adrian’s car.
- Minaneho ni Nino ang kotse nila. → Nino drove our car.
- Matabâ ang pusà ng binatà. → The teenager’s cat is fat.
- Matabâ ang pusà ko. → My cat is fat.
- Tinawag ko ang pangalan ng bata. → I shouted the child’s name.
- Tinawag ko ang pangalan mo. → I shouted your name.
- Sasayad ang kotse ng mga bisità sa padér. → The guests’ car will graze the wall.
- Sasayad ang kotse niyó sa padér. → Your car will graze the wall.
- Ibíbigay namin ang mga libró namin sa kanila. → We will give our books to them.
- Pinasok nila ang bahay natin. → They entered our house.
Special Case: Akin
There’s also another word for ‘my’, but this word is commonly used in formal settings. You’re already familiar with this — the sa pronoun akin. Unlike the ng pronouns that are placed after the noun it modifies, this word is placed before the noun.
- ang notebook ko → my notebook
- ang aking kwaderno → my notebook
Examples:
- Ibinató ko ang aking kwaderno sa kanya. → I threw my notebook at him.
- Si Theo ay ang aking matalik na kaibigan. → Theo is my best friend.
Using Ng for Attributive Nouns
In English, you say something like ‘electric bill’ to describe a ‘bill’ that is related to ‘electricity’. The ‘electricity’ functions as a noun modifying another noun. This construction is not possession but noun modification.
In Tagalog, we don’t have this construction as we can’t say kuryente bill. We need to use the ng possession for this. As mentioned, this is not possession but noun modification. The sequence for this is noun ng modifying noun.
- electric bill → bill ng kuryente
- car keys → susì ng kotse
Examples:
- Tumaas ang bill ng kuryente nina Arianne. → Arianne’s electric bill went up.
- Nawawala ang susì ng kotse ni Larr. → Larr’s car keys are missing.
Conclusion
In this lesson, you learned how to use ng and ni to express possession in Tagalog. You also saw how ng is used for attributive nouns. Just as adjectives add qualities to nouns, possession adds relationships between people and things.
In the next lesson, we’ll go one step further and look at existential sentences — how to say that something exists, is present, or is missing. This will let you express ideas like “There is a book on the table.” or “I don’t have money.”