Nouns

a) general

Nouns are words that name something:

         Joseph                                               

         kusina                                                    kitchen

         iro                                                         dog

         Negros       

Nouns are usually preceded by an article, ang, when they are topics*  of the sentence:

Ang sinina ni Isabel mahal kaayo.                     Isabel's dress is very expensive.

Asa ang akong lapis?                                      Where is my pencil?

Named persons, when topics, use si instead of ang:

Si Jane diha.                                                    Jane is over there.

Si Mr Alvarez nitawag nimo.                            Mr Alvarez called you.

(*The topic of a sentence is the person or thing that is talked about. The rest of the sentence is called a comment, in other words anything that is said about the topic. In the very first sentence above, 'ang sinina ni Isabel' is the topic and 'mahal kaayo' is the comment.

Thus, note that nouns that are not topics are also not preceded by ang:

Ang akong mama maestra.                                     My mother is a teacher.

- 'maestra' isn't preceded by an article here because in this sentence it is the comment, not the topic.)

b) the plural

Plural is expressed by putting the word mga (pronounced approximately like 'manga') in front of the noun. The

 noun itself remains unchanged:

Asa ang mga libro?                                          Where are the books?

Ang mga balay nindot kaayo.                           The houses are very beautiful.

(The adjective gwapa 'beautiful' can only be used when talking about animate things such as people,

 flowers or fruits.)

When there are several attributes preceding the noun, mga is always next to the noun:

ang akong mga lapis                                         my pencils

ang imong mga amiga                                       your friends

Note 1: mga doesn't need to be used in the following cases:

i) with numerals

tulo ka balay                                                     three houses

ii) when there is another word denoting pluralism in the noun phrase already:

daghang bisita                                                    many guests

iii) in a sentence, the comment doesn't need to be preceded by mga but it can be there:

(mga) estudyante sila                                        they are students  

Note 2: with ka- + -an it is possible to form the plural in the following way (sometimes the meaning changes to

 denote a group or a collective term) :

lungsod (town) -> kalungsoran (towns)             (note that a letter may change in some cases)

balay (house) -> kabalayan (a group of houses)

tawo (person) -> katawhan (humankind)

humay (rice) -> kahumayan (ricefield)

kahoy (tree)  -> kakahoyan (forest)

saging (banana) -> kasagingan (banana plantation)

c) the genitive

The genitive expresses ownership. It is formed with the help of two prepositions, sa or ni. The genitive phrase always comes after what is owned, in a similar way to the of -genitive in English. The use of ni / sa is illustrated in the

 following examples: 

ang amiga ni Pepe                                          Pepe's friend

ang mga libro ni Jun-Jun                                 Jun-Jun's books  

ang amiga ni Paula bag-o ug kamera               Paula's friend's new camera

ang auto ni papa                                             dad's car

ang auto sa akong papa                                  my father's car

ang mga mata sa iring                                     the eyes of the cat

ang mga pages (= panid) sa libro                    the pages of the book

ang atop sa balay                                           the roof of the house

ang mga simbahan sa Cebu City                     the churches of Cebu City

The rule is that you should use ni when the 'owner' is a named person (Jun-Jun, Diana, papa...). 

When the 'owner' is a person with any kind of attribute before the actual name (akong papa), or when the 'owner' is any other animate being or an inanimate thing, use sa.

Note that in the case of two genitives following each other, like in 'ang amiga ni Paula bag-o ug kamera' above, only one genitive form is used. It would be slightly awkward here to say for example 'ang bag-o kamera sa amiga ni

Paula'.