Mabilis ang sagot mo sa tanong ko.

to be

Breakdown of Mabilis ang sagot mo sa tanong ko.

• sa: to
• ko: my (after a noun)
• mo: your

Questions & Answers about Mabilis ang sagot mo sa tanong ko.

Why does the sentence start with Mabilis instead of Ang sagot mo?

Because Filipino very often puts the predicate first.

In this sentence, mabilis is the predicate, and ang sagot mo sa tanong ko is the topic marked by ang.

So the structure is roughly:

• Mabilis = quick
• ang sagot mo sa tanong ko = your answer to my question

This predicate-first order is very natural in Filipino.

A more English-like order is also possible:

• Ang sagot mo sa tanong ko ay mabilis.

That is grammatical, but the version starting with Mabilis sounds more natural in everyday speech.

What does ang mean here?

Ang is not exactly the English word the. It is a topic marker.

In ang sagot mo sa tanong ko, ang marks sagot mo sa tanong ko as the topic or highlighted noun phrase of the sentence.

So:

• ang sagot mo = your answer
• not simply the answer in a direct one-to-one English sense

Filipino uses markers like ang, ng, and sa to show a noun phrase’s role in the sentence.

Where is the verb in this sentence?