Nasa kaliwa ng bintana ang paso.

to be

Breakdown of Nasa kaliwa ng bintana ang paso.

• bintana: the window
• paso: the pot
• nasa kaliwa: on the left

Questions & Answers about Nasa kaliwa ng bintana ang paso.

What does nasa mean here?

Nasa means something like is in / is at / is on / is located at, depending on context.

In this sentence, nasa kaliwa ng bintana means is to the left of the window.

A useful thing to know is that nasa historically comes from na + sa, but in modern Filipino it is very commonly written as one word when it means location.

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Why does the sentence start with the location instead of with ang paso?

Because Filipino very often puts the predicate first.

So instead of following the English pattern:

• The flowerpot is to the left of the window

Filipino often uses:

• To the left of the window is the flowerpot

That is why:

• Nasa kaliwa ng bintana = the predicate/location
• ang paso = the topic, the thing being talked about

This word order is very normal in Filipino.

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What is the job of ang in ang paso?

Ang marks the topic of the sentence.

In many simple sentences like this one, the ang-marked noun is often the thing that feels most like the English subject, although it is better to think of it as the topic/focus noun.

So in: