Ang vs Ng vs Sa: The Complete Tagalog Case-Marking System

Every common or proper noun phrase in a Tagalog sentence carries one of three markers: ang, ng, or sa. Personal names use a different set of forms instead of combining directly with these three words: si, ni, and kay for one person, and sina, nina, and kina for a person and their group.

Sina, nina, and kina do not make a name plural on their own. Sina Ana means Ana and the people with her (her family, her friends, her group), read as a group reference rather than as "the Anas."

The three words also sound different, which helps once you start listening for them: ang is pronounced roughly "ahng," ng is pronounced "nahng" (like the English word "nung" without the u), and sa rhymes with "saw." They are short, unstressed words, so listen for them at the edges of a sentence rather than expecting them to stand out.

Linguists studying Philippine languages often call this the focus system or the trigger system rather than a case system, because ang does not correspond neatly to a single grammatical case such as nominative. The rest of this guide uses plain terms, but if you read a reference grammar such as Schachter and Otanes, that is the vocabulary you will find.

It also helps to know why there are three markers instead of two. Many languages separate a core argument (the doer or the thing acted upon) from an oblique one (a location, a recipient, a beneficiary) with just two slots. Tagalog keeps that same core-versus-oblique split with ng and sa, and adds a third layer on top of it: a single core argument, whichever one the verb selects, gets pulled out and marked as focus with ang.

The rest of this guide walks through what each column does, starting with ang.

A noun takes ang when it is the one the sentence puts in focus, the participant the verb highlights as its main point. Kumakain ang bata. (The child is eating.) Natutulog ang aso. (The dog is sleeping.) In both sentences, ang marks the noun the action is centered on.

English speakers often map ang onto "the" and ng onto "a." That mapping is useful early on, but it is a rough analogy that breaks down: Tagalog focus tracks which participant the sentence highlights, and English definiteness (the vs. a) tracks something related but different. The two line up often enough to help a beginner, though they break down often enough that the markers stay the reliable guide.

Which noun becomes the ang-marked one is not free choice. It is set by the verb's focus affix, covered in section 07 below.

An ang-phrase also tends to be specific rather than generic, which is part of why the "the" translation feels natural. Bumili ako ng tinapay. (I bought bread.) leaves the bread unspecified and keeps it out of focus. Binili ko ang tinapay. (I bought the bread.) shifts the object into focus and reads as a particular loaf, the one you already had in mind.

Question words connect to the ang-phrase the same way. Sino ang bumili ng gatas? (Who bought milk?) asks about whichever noun would otherwise sit in the ang slot, which is why the answer also takes ang: Si Ana ang bumili ng gatas. (Ana is the one who bought milk.)

Ng marks a noun that is not in focus. That single job covers three different roles, depending on the sentence: a non-focus actor, a non-focus object, and a possessor.

Kumakain ang bata ng mangga. (The child is eating a mango.) Here ng mangga is the object, out of focus, while ang bata is the actor in focus. Kinakain ng bata ang mangga. (The child is eating the mango.) Here the roles flip: ng bata is the actor, out of focus, while ang mangga is the object now in focus.

Ng also links a possessor to the noun it belongs to, following the pattern noun ~ ng ~ possessor: ang bahay ng guro (the teacher's house).

One marker, three roles. Tagalog does not case-mark actor versus object the way English uses word order to show subject versus object. Only focus versus non-focus is grammatically marked, and the verb's affix plus word order show which role a given ng-phrase is playing.

When ng marks a non-focus actor, an English speaker often reaches for a passive gloss, since the actor reads like the "by" phrase in an English passive sentence. Ginawa ng lalaki ang mesa. can be glossed either as "The man made the table" or "The table was made by the man," and both glosses point at the same Tagalog sentence. Tagalog itself does not have a separate passive voice the way English does; it has focus, and English passive is just one way translators render a non-actor-focus sentence.

Sa covers location, direction, a recipient, or a beneficiary. Pumunta ako sa palengke. (I went to the market.) Sa palengke marks the destination. Ibinigay ko ang libro sa guro. (I gave the book to the teacher.) Sa guro marks the recipient.

Sa can also mark a beneficiary, often alongside para (for): Nagluto ako ng adobo para sa mga bata. (I cooked adobo for the children.) With a personal name, para pairs with kay instead of sa, matching the personal-name set covered next: Nagluto ako ng adobo para kay Ana. (I cooked adobo for Ana.)

A sa-phrase is oblique. It adds information about where, to whom, or for whom something happens without competing for the sentence's focus.

Sa also marks a starting point when it combines with mula (from) or galing (from, coming from): Galing ako sa trabaho. (I came from work.) And sa can mark a point in future or unfinished time, which is worth noting since English uses "on" or "in" for the same idea: Aalis kami sa Lunes. (We will leave on Monday.)

Sa also marks a static location where an action simply happens, beyond only a destination reached: Nag-aral ako sa silid-aklatan. (I studied in the library.) The library here is neither a recipient nor a beneficiary, just where the studying took place, and sa still does the job.

Tagalog treats personal names as their own grammatical category, so instead of combining directly with ang, ng, and sa, a name takes si (focus), ni (non-focus), or kay (oblique).

Kumakain si Ana. (Ana is eating.) Binili ni Ana ang libro. (Ana bought the book.) Ibinigay ko ang libro kay Ana. (I gave the book to Ana.) Each sentence uses the same roles as the common-noun examples above: focus, non-focus actor, and recipient.

The group forms follow the same pattern one step up: Kumakain sina Ana. (Ana and her companions are eating.) Ang bahay nina Ana. (Ana and her family's house.) Ibinigay ko ang regalo kina Ana. (I gave the gift to Ana and the people with her.)

Two names joined with at (and) also take these forms, since the group is still a set of people rather than an ordinary noun: Kumakain sina Ana at Ben. (Ana and Ben are eating.) You cannot say "si Ana at Ben" here; once there is more than one named person acting together, the group form takes over.

Tagalog expresses possession two ways, and they answer different questions. The first attaches a possessor directly to a noun with ng (or ni for a name), following the pattern ~ ng ~: ang libro ng bata (the child's book), ang libro ni Ana (Ana's book). This construction describes whose thing something is, inside a larger noun phrase.

The second uses sa with a possessive pronoun to assert ownership as the point of the sentence: Sa akin ang libro. (The book is mine.) Sa kanya ang bahay na iyon. (That house is his or hers.) Here sa answers the question of whom something belongs to, rather than labeling a possessor inside a noun phrase.

The full set of sa-possessive pronouns is short enough to learn together: akin (mine), iyo (yours), kanya (his or hers), amin (ours, excluding the listener), atin (ours, including the listener), inyo (yours, plural), and kanila (theirs). Each one follows sa: sa amin, sa kanila, and so on.

Asking whose something is uses the same sa-set. Kaninong libro ito? (Whose book is this?) Kay Ana. (Ana's.) The question and the answer both reach for the oblique set, separate from the ng-linked possessor pattern from the first construction.

A Tagalog verb carries a focus affix that names which participant becomes the ang-marked noun. An actor-focus affix such as -um- or mag- puts the doer in the ang slot. An object-focus affix such as -in puts the thing acted upon in the ang slot instead. Other focus categories exist for location, beneficiary, and instrument.

Kumain ang bata ng mangga. (The child ate a mango.) The actor-focus verb kumain puts the actor, bata, in the ang slot and the object, mangga, in the ng slot. Kinain ng bata ang mangga. (The child ate the mango.) The object-focus verb kinain reverses those roles: mangga takes ang, bata takes ng.

The same idea extends to locations and beneficiaries. Nilagyan ko ng bulaklak ang mesa. (I put flowers on the table.) uses a locative-focus verb to put the table, the location, in the ang slot instead of the flowers. Nilutuan ko ng adobo si Ana. (I cooked adobo for Ana.) uses a benefactive-focus verb to put the beneficiary, Ana, in the focus slot instead of the dish.

This guide focuses on what ang, ng, and sa do once the verb has made that choice. For the full map of Tagalog's focus categories and their affix families, see the Tagalog verb focus system.

Pronouns split into the same three sets. Siya is the ang-form, niya is the ng-form, and sa kanya (or kaniya) is the sa-form.

Kumakain siya. (He or she is eating.) Kinakain niya ang mangga. (He or she is eating the mango.) Ibinigay ko ang libro sa kanya. (I gave the book to him or her.) A full pronoun chart across person and number is its own guide; for now, this three-way split is the pattern to recognize.

In casual speech, sa kanya is far more common than the standalone kaniya, which reads slightly more formal or literary. Both are correct, and you will encounter both once you start reading beyond a beginner textbook.

The default Tagalog sentence starts with the verb, then the ang-phrase, then any ng- or sa-phrases: Bumili si Ana ng gatas sa tindahan. (Ana bought milk at the store.) The marker always stays attached to its noun, so as phrases move, the markers move with them.

Longer sentences often place the ang-phrase later, especially with a benefactive or ditransitive verb that already has several other phrases queued up before it. Tagalog word order stays flexible in these cases: what matters is that each noun keeps the marker that matches its role, wherever it falls in the sentence.

The ang-phrase can also front the sentence for emphasis, linked back to the verb with ay: Si Ana ay bumili ng gatas. (Ana, she bought milk.) This ay-inversion is common in writing and formal speech. It shifts emphasis while the meaning stays the same, and the ng- and sa-phrases keep their own markers no matter where the ang-phrase sits.

The most common beginner mistake is changing which noun carries ang and which carries ng without also changing the verb. The marker and the verb's focus affix have to agree.

Kumain ang bata ng mangga. (The child ate a mango.) Kinain ng bata ang mangga. (The child ate the mango.) Both sentences are correct Tagalog, because each verb form matches its marker pattern. Writing Kumain ng bata ang mangga mismatches the actor-focus verb kumain with an object-focus marker pattern, and a Tagalog speaker will read it as an error rather than a stylistic choice.

A second common slip is using ang, ng, or sa directly with a personal name instead of switching to si, ni, or kay. Si Ana is correct; ang Ana is not.

A third mistake is adding an ang-phrase after the existential words may or mayroon (there is, there are, to have). These words never take an ang-marked noun. May libro ako. (I have a book.) is correct; May ang libro ako. is not.

A fourth, more subtle confusion is between the marker ng and the -ng linker that attaches to a describing word ending in a vowel or n, as in maganda plus -ng making magandang bahay (beautiful house). Both are written "ng," but one marks a noun's role in the sentence and the other links a description to the noun that follows it. Context usually makes the difference clear: the case marker stands alone before a noun, while the linker is glued onto the end of the word before it.

Take one sentence and trace every marker through it: Binigyan ni Ana ng regalo si Ben sa kaarawan niya. (Ana gave Ben a gift for his birthday.) Ana is the actor, marked ni because she is not in focus here. The gift is an object, marked ng for the same reason. Ben is the beneficiary, and the verb's focus affix has pulled him into the ang slot, marked si. The birthday is oblique, marked sa.

Four nouns, four roles, and each role maps to exactly one marker once you know what the verb is doing. That is the whole system: ang for whatever the verb brings into focus, ng for a non-focus actor, object, or possessor, and sa for everything oblique, location, direction, recipient, or beneficiary. Personal names swap in si, ni, and kay for the same three roles, and pronouns follow the identical three-way split.