Basahin mo ang pahina.

It is a command or instruction. It tells someone to do something: read a specific page.

In Filipino, commands often start with the verb, so the sentence begins with Basahin.

Basa is the root word meaning read.

Basahin is a derived form used here for an object-focused command. It is used when the action is directed toward a specific thing, in this case ang pahina.

So:

• basa = the root
• basahin = read it / read this specific thing

That is why Basahin mo ang pahina means Read the page, not just Read in a general sense.

The -hin helps form a verb that focuses on the thing affected by the action.

Here, the thing being affected is the page. So basahin is the natural form when you want to say read the page.

A very useful comparison is:

• Magbasa ka. = Read / Do some reading.
• Basahin mo ang pahina. = Read the page.

The second one points to a specific object.

Here, mo means you, not your.

That can be confusing, because mo can also mean your in other sentences. In this sentence, though, it marks the doer of the action.

So in Basahin mo ang pahina, mo means you:

• Basahin = read
• mo = you
• ang pahina = the page

Both mo and ka can mean you, but they belong to different pronoun sets and are used in different sentence patterns.

With basahin, the natural pronoun is mo.

Compare:

• Magbasa ka. = Read / Do some reading.
• Basahin mo ang pahina. = Read the page.

So you cannot normally replace mo with ka in this sentence without changing the grammar.

Not exactly.

Ang is often translated as the, but its real job is grammatical: it marks the focused noun in the sentence.

In Basahin mo ang pahina, ang pahina is the noun phrase being highlighted as the specific thing to be read.

So ang is not just a simple article like English the. Sometimes it matches the in translation, but it does more than that.

That is a very normal Filipino word order.

Filipino often puts the verb first, especially in simple commands and statements. Short pronouns like mo also tend to come very early in the sentence, usually right after the first word.

So:

• Basahin = verb first
• mo = short pronoun comes next
• ang pahina = the noun phrase after that

To an English speaker, the order may feel unusual at first, but it is standard Filipino structure.

The difference is specificity.

• Magbasa ka means Read or Do some reading in a general sense.
• Basahin mo ang pahina means Read the page, so it points to a specific thing.

So if a teacher tells a student exactly what to read, Basahin mo ang pahina is more natural.

Yes, you can.

Basahin ang pahina is still understandable and natural, especially in written instructions, textbooks, signs, or directions where the person being addressed is already obvious.

Adding mo makes it more directly addressed to you:

• Basahin ang pahina. = Read the page. / general instruction
• Basahin mo ang pahina. = You, read the page. / more directly addressed

A common way is to add po.

For example:

• Basahin mo po ang pahina.

A more respectful form, especially when speaking to an older person or in a formal situation, is:

• Basahin po ninyo ang pahina.

So:

• mo = informal singular you
• ninyo = polite or plural you

Use ninyo instead of mo:

• Basahin ninyo ang pahina. = Read the page, all of you.

If you want to be polite as well, you can say:

• Basahin po ninyo ang pahina.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

ba-SA-hin mo ang pa-HI-na

A few notes:

• ng in ang sounds like the ng in sing
• the h in basahin is pronounced
• Filipino pronunciation is usually straightforward and consistent compared with English spelling

So you can say it smoothly as:

ba-SA-hin mo ang pa-HI-na