Ano ang tanong mo?

to be

Breakdown of Ano ang tanong mo?

• mo: your
• ano: what
• tanong: the question

Questions & Answers about Ano ang tanong mo?

What does each word in the sentence do?

• Ano = what (question word)
• ang = topic marker (marks the noun phrase that’s in focus)
• tanong = question (noun; also the root for the verb “to ask”)
• mo = your (2nd person singular, genitive/enclitic pronoun)

Literal structure: “What [is] the question-your?” → natural English: “What is your question?”

Why is the word order “Ano ang tanong mo?” and not “What your question is?” or something closer to English?

Filipino typically puts the predicate first. Here, Ano (“what”) is the predicate, and ang tanong mo (“your question”) is the topic phrase. Predicate-first order is the default pattern in Filipino.

What exactly does the marker “ang” do here?

Ang marks the topic (the focused noun phrase). In this sentence, it marks tanong mo (“your question”) as the thing being identified by the predicate “what.” Without a linker, “ano” and the noun phrase can’t just sit side by side; either use ang (Ano ang …) or link “ano” to a following noun (Anong …).

Can I say “Anong tanong mo?” instead? Is there a difference?

Yes. Anong tanong mo? is very common and means the same thing. It’s ano + -ng (the linker) directly modifying the noun tanong.

• Ano ang tanong mo? = predicate “what” + ang-marked topic
• = “what” as a modifier of “question”Both are natural.