Malinaw ang petsa ng pagkapaso.

Because Filipino very often uses a predicate-first word order.

In this sentence:

• Malinaw = the predicate adjective
• ang petsa ng pagkapaso = the topic/subject phrase

So the structure is literally closer to Clear the expiration date, but the natural English meaning is The expiration date is clear.

This is a very normal Filipino sentence pattern.

Yes, from an English point of view, it may feel like is is missing.

Filipino often has no separate present-tense copula in sentences like this. In other words, Filipino can say:

• Malinaw ang petsa ng pagkapaso.

where English needs:

• The expiration date is clear.

So there is no missing word in Filipino; the sentence is already complete.

Ang marks the topic or subject-like noun phrase of the sentence.

Here, ang petsa ng pagkapaso is the thing being talked about.

A useful beginner shortcut is to think of ang as often overlapping with the, but it is not exactly the same as the English article the. Its real job is grammatical marking, not just definiteness.

So in this sentence, ang tells you that petsa ng pagkapaso is the main noun phrase connected to malinaw.

Here, ng means something like of.

So:

• petsa = date
• pagkapaso = expiration / expiry
• petsa ng pagkapaso = date of expiration or expiration date

This ng is linking two nouns together. It is not functioning as an object marker here.

In this context, pagkapaso means expiration or expiry.

So petsa ng pagkapaso means expiration date.

A useful thing to know is that paso can mean different things in different contexts. In everyday Filipino, one paso can also refer to a burn or scald. But in a phrase like petsa ng pagkapaso, the meaning is clearly expiration, not burning.

Context is what makes the meaning clear.

It can mean both, depending on context.

Malinaw can describe something that is:

• visually clear
• easy to read
• distinct
• obvious
• easy to understand

In this sentence, because it is talking about an expiration date, the most likely meaning is:

• clearly visible
• legible
• easy to read

So if this were on packaging, it would most naturally mean that the expiration date can be seen or read clearly.

Yes, absolutely.

Both are grammatical:

• Malinaw ang petsa ng pagkapaso.
• Ang petsa ng pagkapaso ay malinaw.

The version with ay is often felt as more formal, more explicit, or sometimes more written in style.

The predicate-first version, Malinaw ang petsa ng pagkapaso, is very natural and common in Filipino.

Yes, it is understandable and natural, especially in more formal or careful Filipino.

That said, in real life many speakers also use English-based expressions such as:

• expiration date
• expiry date
• petsa ng expiration

So petsa ng pagkapaso is good Filipino, but in everyday speech and on products, English or mixed Filipino-English wording is also very common.

No. Filipino adjectives do not change the way English adjectives sometimes seem to interact with nouns, and they do not agree for gender the way adjectives do in some other languages.

So malinaw stays malinaw.

For example:

• Malinaw ang petsa.
• Malinaw ang mga petsa.

The adjective does not change form. The noun phrase shows the difference, not the adjective itself.

Petsa is a very common Filipino word meaning date, and it comes from Spanish.

Even though it is borrowed, it is completely normal in modern Filipino. Many everyday Filipino words come from Spanish, and petsa is one of the most common ones.