Malaki ang yaman niya.

Because Filipino often puts the predicate first.

In Malaki ang yaman niya, the structure is basically:

• Malaki = the predicate (big / great)
• ang yaman niya = the topic or subject-like part (his/her wealth)

So the sentence is literally something like:

• Big is his/her wealth

This is a very normal Filipino sentence pattern. English usually prefers subject + be + adjective, but Filipino commonly uses predicate + ang-phrase.

A less common but still correct version is:

• Ang yaman niya ay malaki.

That sounds more formal or more explicitly balanced.

There is no separate verb for is here.

In Filipino, sentences like this often do not need a copula (a word like is / are / am). The meaning is understood from the structure.

So:

• Malaki ang yaman niya. = His/Her wealth is great.

This is a very common feature of Filipino grammar.

In this sentence, ang marks the noun phrase yaman niya as the main topic or focused noun phrase of the sentence.

So:

• ang yaman niya = his/her wealth

A native English speaker may want to translate ang as the, but that is not always accurate. Sometimes it overlaps with the, but its real job is grammatical marking, not simply definiteness.

Here, ang helps show that yaman niya is the noun phrase being described by malaki.

Because malaki is being used as the predicate, not directly as a modifier before a noun.

Compare:

• Malaki ang yaman niya. = His/Her wealth is great.
• malaking yaman = great wealth / a large fortune

When an adjective directly modifies a noun, Filipino usually uses a linker such as -ng or na:

• malaking yaman

But in your sentence, malaki stands alone as the predicate, so no linker is needed.

Yaman usually means wealth, riches, or fortune.

Depending on context, it can also mean treasure or even natural resources in other sentences. But in Malaki ang yaman niya, the most natural meaning is:

• wealth
• fortune
• riches

So the sentence is talking about how great or large someone’s wealth is.

Here, niya means his or her.

So:

• yaman niya = his wealth / her wealth

A very important point: niya is gender-neutral in Filipino. It can refer to:

• his
• her

You usually know which one is meant from context.

Also, niya is a short pronoun form that often appears after the noun it belongs to.

That is the normal Filipino order for this kind of possessive pronoun.

Filipino commonly places short possessive pronouns after the noun:

• bahay ko = my house
• kotse mo = your car
• yaman niya = his/her wealth

So yaman niya literally follows the pattern:

• wealth his/her

This may feel backwards to an English speaker, but it is standard Filipino word order.

They are very close, but not exactly the same in focus.

• Mayaman siya. = He/She is rich.
• Malaki ang yaman niya. = His/Her wealth is great.

The second sentence focuses more specifically on the size or extent of the person’s wealth. It sounds a little more descriptive or emphatic about the wealth itself.

In many situations, both could be used to express that someone is rich.

Yes. Malaki literally means big or large, but it is also commonly used for abstract things.

So with something like yaman, malaki means:

• great
• large
• considerable

It does not mean physically big in this sentence. It means the person has a lot of wealth.

Yes, in other sentence patterns niya can have other functions, such as marking an actor in certain verb constructions. But in Malaki ang yaman niya, it is clearly possessive.

Here it simply means:

• his
• her

So for this sentence, you should understand yaman niya as his/her wealth.

Yes, that is grammatical.

Compare:

• Malaki ang yaman niya.
• Ang yaman niya ay malaki.

Both mean essentially the same thing. The first is more natural in everyday Filipino because predicate-first order is very common. The second can sound more formal, deliberate, or explanatory.

Yes.

You can say:

• Malaki ang kaniyang yaman.
• Malaki ang kanyang yaman.

These also mean His/Her wealth is great.

Compared with niya, kaniyang/kanyang is more explicit and often feels more formal or more written. In everyday speech, niya is very common and natural.

It is natural and understandable Filipino.

However, depending on context, a native speaker might also simply say:

• Mayaman siya. = He/She is rich.

So:

• Malaki ang yaman niya is natural when you want to talk specifically about the person’s wealth.
• Mayaman siya is the more direct way to describe the person as rich.

Both are useful, but they highlight slightly different things.