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Questions & Answers about Mahal ang luho.
Why does the sentence start with mahal instead of luho?
Because predicate-first word order is very common in Filipino.
In Mahal ang luho, the descriptive part mahal comes first, and the topic ang luho comes after it. So the structure is closer to:
Expensive + the luxury/extravagance
But in natural English, we say:
Luxury is expensive.
This word order is normal and very common in Filipino.
What is ang doing here?
Ang marks the topic of the sentence.
In Mahal ang luho, the speaker is talking about luho, and mahal is what is being said about it. So:
- mahal = the predicate
- ang luho = the topic
A helpful beginner way to think of it is: ang points to the noun phrase that the sentence is about.
Does ang just mean the?