Kumanta ang kapuwa mang-aawit.

Kumanta is the verb. It comes from the root kanta with the infix -um-, a common actor-focus verb pattern in Filipino.

In a sentence like this, kumanta is normally understood as completed aspect, so it means sang. The same form can also be the dictionary-style form to sing, so context is what tells you which meaning is intended.

Because kumanta is an actor-focus verb, the doer of the action is marked by ang.

So in Kumanta ang kapuwa mang-aawit, the phrase ang kapuwa mang-aawit is the actor, meaning the person who sang.

A useful beginner shortcut is:

• actor-focus verb
  • ang phrase
• the ang phrase is usually the one who did the action

Not exactly. Ang is not simply the Filipino word for the.

Here, ang marks the topic or focused noun phrase of the sentence. In this actor-focus sentence, that noun phrase is also the doer of the action.

So English may translate it with the, but grammatically ang is doing something different from the English article the.

Verb-first word order is very normal in Filipino.

So Kumanta ang kapuwa mang-aawit is a natural sentence pattern. Filipino often puts the predicate first, then the ang phrase after it.

You can also say:

Ang kapuwa mang-aawit ay kumanta.

That version is also correct, but it feels more topic-first and can sound a bit more formal, explanatory, or contrastive.

Here kapuwa means fellow, co-, or another person in the same role/group.

So kapuwa mang-aawit means fellow singer or co-singer.

Depending on context, kapwa/kapuwa can have other related uses, but in this sentence it is the fellow meaning that matters.

Yes. Kapuwa and kapwa are the same word.

Kapwa is the more common modern spelling, while kapuwa is an older or less common spelling variant. A learner today will usually see kapwa more often.

So this sentence could also be written as:

Kumanta ang kapwa mang-aawit.

That is just how kapwa/kapuwa normally behaves in this meaning.

Many Filipino modifiers use a linker such as na or -ng, but kapwa/kapuwa meaning fellow commonly goes directly before the noun without one.

So kapuwa mang-aawit is the normal expression, not something like kapuwang mang-aawit.

Mang-aawit is a noun meaning singer.

It is built from the root awit and an agentive pattern with mang-, meaning a person associated with the action or role. The form also shows reduplication, which is why you see aa.

The hyphen is used because the next part begins with a vowel. So the spelling mang-aawit is normal, and the double a is not a typo.

Also, mang-aawit is a noun, not a verb. It names a person.

Filipino does not always use one single root for every related English word.

Here, kumanta comes from kanta, which is very common for the verb to sing. But mang-aawit comes from awit, which is common in words related to song or in certain derived nouns like singer.

So the mix is normal and idiomatic. It is not a mistake. Languages often do this kind of thing: related meanings do not always come from exactly the same base word.