Tagalog Pronouns: The Complete Case Chart (Ang, Ng, and Sa Forms)

Tagalog marks the role a noun or pronoun plays in a sentence with one of three case markers: ang for the focus (the participant the sentence highlights), ng for a non-focus actor or a possessor, and sa for a direction, location, or emphasized possessive. Pronouns follow that same three-way split, but instead of a marker plus a noun, each case has its own dedicated pronoun word.

Full nouns and names use the marker-plus-noun pattern instead of a dedicated word, and Ang vs Ng vs Sa: The Complete Tagalog Case-Marking System covers that system in full. Pronouns are worth their own guide because the words themselves change shape across the three sets rather than taking a marker in front of a fixed form.

Here is the complete chart. Each row below gets its own section, with example sentences for every form.

A pattern worth noticing early: most of the sa-set forms are built from the ng-set forms with a ka- prefix (niya becomes kaniya, nila becomes kanila). The first and second person singular forms break that pattern (akin, iyo), which is exactly why they are worth memorizing as their own items rather than deriving them from a rule.

The ang-set pronoun names the participant a Tagalog sentence puts in focus, the same role ang plays in front of a full noun. Actor-focus sentences put the doer of the action here; object-focus and other focus types put a different participant here instead.

Ang-set pronouns can stand at the start of a sentence when a construction calls for it, and they are also the forms used after the inverted-order marker ay: Siya ay natutulog. (He/She is sleeping.) One of these seven forms, ikaw, has a shorter enclitic twin, ka, and the difference between them gets its own section below.

The ng-set pronoun covers two jobs at once: the actor in a sentence that is not in focus, and a possessor attached to a noun. Both jobs use the exact same seven words.

Object-focus, beneficiary-focus, and locative-focus sentences all push the actor out of the focus slot and onto a ng-set pronoun, exactly the way a full name shifts from si to ni: Binili ni Maria ang tinapay uses the name; Binili niya ang tinapay uses the pronoun in the same slot.

Ng-set pronouns are enclitics: short function words that attach right after the first full word of the sentence, ahead of most other short particles. Placement gets its own section further down, since it is one of the parts beginners misorder most often.

As a possessor, a ng-set pronoun attaches directly after the noun it modifies, with no linker in between: bahay ko (my house), kaibigan mo (your friend). Compare that to a descriptive adjective, which needs the linker -ng or na to connect to the noun it describes, as in malaking bahay (big house). A ng-set pronoun skips that linker entirely and sits right against the noun.

The sa-set pronoun marks a direction, a location, a recipient outside the focus slot, or a possessive relationship spoken with extra emphasis. It pairs with the case marker sa the same way a full noun does, except the pronoun word itself already carries that role.

A sa-set pronoun stepping in for a possessive, as in Akin ang bag na ito, lands with more weight than the plain ng-set version, Bag ko ito. Both sentences mean the bag belongs to the speaker; the sa-set version reads closer to "this bag is mine," stated on its own, while the ng-set version reads closer to "my bag."

English "we" covers one idea. Tagalog splits first person plural into two words depending on whether the person being spoken to is part of the group. Tayo, natin, and atin include the listener. Kami, namin, and amin exclude the listener.

Sasama kami sa party. (We are joining the party.) said to someone who is not invited announces that the speaker’s group is going, and the listener is not part of that group. Switch one word, Sasama tayo sa party, and the same sentence now invites the listener along: "we," here, includes them.

A short test settles which word to reach for. Ask whether the person being spoken to belongs in the group the sentence describes. If they do, the sentence needs tayo/natin/atin. If they do not, it needs kami/namin/amin.

Ikaw and ka both mean "you" (singular) in the ang-set, and they split by position rather than by meaning. Ka is the short, everyday form that attaches close to the first word of the sentence, the same enclitic slot the ng-set pronouns use. Ikaw is the fuller form, used at the start of a sentence, after the marker ay, standing alone, or for emphasis.

A quick check: try starting the sentence with the pronoun. Ka pumunta doon is not a sentence a Tagalog speaker would produce, since ka needs something in front of it to attach to. Ikaw ay pumunta doon works, because ikaw can carry a sentence's opening position on its own.

Negation and commands both give ka a word to attach to at the very front of the sentence. Hindi ka natutulog. (You are not sleeping.) attaches ka straight onto the negator hindi. A negative command does the same with the linker -ng joining the two words together: Huwag kang umalis. (Don't leave.)

Ng-set pronouns, along with ka, attach right after the first full word of the sentence, usually the verb. Other short particles, such as na (already/now), pa (still/yet), and ba (the yes/no question marker), share that same slot, and a fixed order governs which comes first when more than one shows up.

Kinain ko na ang tinapay. (I already ate the bread.) The pronoun ko comes immediately after the verb kinain, and the particle na follows the pronoun. Reversing that order, Kinain na ko ang tinapay, sounds off to a native ear; the pronoun claims the position closest to the verb.

Pupunta ka na ba? (Are you going now?) stacks three enclitics in sequence: the pronoun ka, then na, then the question marker ba last. That order, pronoun, then na/pa, then ba, holds across the large majority of everyday sentences.

The respectful particle po joins the same lineup and lands after the pronoun and any na/pa, but before a trailing ba: Kumain na po ba kayo? (Have you eaten already, said respectfully?) A negator at the front of a sentence pulls the pronoun onto itself the same way a verb does: Hindi ko alam. (I don't know.) attaches ko straight onto hindi rather than waiting for a verb.

Two ng-set pronouns rarely stack directly against each other in a single clause; when both an actor and a possessor need a pronoun, one of them usually lands on the noun instead of the enclitic slot, as in Binili niya ang bahay ko (He/She bought my house), where niya takes the enclitic slot and ko attaches directly to the possessed noun.

Kita is a single word that stands in for "I" acting on "you" (singular) in one sentence, replacing what would otherwise need both a ng-set actor and an ang-set or ng-set object pronoun. The clearest example is the phrase every beginner learns early: Mahal kita. (I love you.)

Iiwan kita rito. (I will leave you here.) shows the same pattern outside a love confession: one word, kita, covers the entire I-to-you relationship that the sentence describes, without a separate word for "I" or a separate word for "you."

Kita only covers this one specific pairing, first person singular actor onto second person singular other. Every other actor/object combination, such as "you love me" or "he loves her," uses the regular ng-set and ang-set pronouns spelled out separately: Mahal mo ako. (You love me.) Mahal niya siya. (He/She loves him/her.)

Older and more formal Tagalog grammars also list a related but distinct form, sometimes spelled kata, functioning as a first-person dual pronoun: strictly "the two of us," you and I and no one else, as opposed to the open-ended tayo. That dual has mostly dropped out of everyday speech, with tayo covering both meanings today, so it is worth recognizing in older texts rather than reaching for in ordinary conversation.

• Mixing up tayo and kami. Telling a friend Kumain na kami when the group includes that friend excludes them from a meal they were part of; the sentence needed Kumain na tayo instead.
• Starting a sentence with ka. The enclitic form needs a word in front of it to attach to; ikaw is the form that can open a sentence or stand alone.
• Forgetting to switch a pronoun's set when the focus changes, the same slip that trips up full nouns. Once the dish becomes the focus, the actor's pronoun switches from siya to niya: Niluto niya ang hapunan. Leaving siya in place after the switch produces a sentence with two competing foci.
• Reordering enclitics around na, pa, and ba. The pronoun sits closest to the verb, with question and aspect particles trailing behind it.
• Spelling out "I" and "you" as two separate words in an actor-to-second-person sentence. Mahal kita already contains both; adding a second pronoun on top produces a sentence a native speaker would immediately flag as redundant.
• Dropping the linker -ng when a negative command attaches ka. Huwag ka umalis skips a step; the linker joins the two words into Huwag kang umalis.
• Adding a linker between a noun and a possessive ng-set pronoun. Bahay ko attaches directly, with no -ng or na in between, unlike a descriptive adjective such as malaking bahay.

A short exchange between two friends planning a trip shows every set working side by side.

Pupunta ka ba sa palengke? (Are you going to the market?) The ang-set enclitic ka asks the question, with ba trailing behind it in the fixed particle order.

Oo, sasama rin ako sa kanila. (Yes, I'm joining them too.) Ako takes the ang-set focus slot, while kanila, the sa-set third-person plural, marks the group being joined.

Bibilhan kita ng regalo doon. (I'll buy you a gift there.) Kita folds the first-person actor and second-person recipient into a single word.

Salamat! Ito ay para sa ating dalawa. (Thanks! This is for the two of us.) The sa-set inclusive atin widens the gift to include the listener, in contrast to the sa-set first-person singular akin, which would keep it just for the speaker.

Nothing here uses a form outside the chart from earlier in this guide. What changes from line to line is which set a given role calls for, and once that choice becomes automatic, the sentences build themselves.