May larawan ng pamilya sa pader sa harap ng lamesa.

the family

Breakdown of May larawan ng pamilya sa pader sa harap ng lamesa.

• lamesa: the table
• sa: on
• ng: of

Questions & Answers about May larawan ng pamilya sa pader sa harap ng lamesa.

In this sentence, what does May mean, and how is it different from Mayroon or Meron/Merong?

May here means “there is / there are” and introduces the existence of something:
May larawan ng pamilya… = There is a picture of a family…

Differences:

• May

  • Short, very common.
  • Normally used directly before a noun or adjective:
    
    • May larawan. – There is a picture.
    • May pera siya. – He/She has money.

• Mayroon / Meron / Merong

  • Longer/variant forms of the same idea (“there is/are / to have”).
  • Often used:
    • Before a pronoun:
      
      • Mayroon akong larawan. (more natural than May ako…)
    • Or when the word after it doesn’t flow smoothly with may.
  • Meron/Merong is the more colloquial, spoken form.

In this sentence, May is perfectly natural because it’s followed by a noun phrase: larawan ng pamilya.

Why is there no word for is or are in this sentence?