# ika-1



## Qcumber

_Magandáng hápon sa inyóng lahát. _

The sentence below is from a newspaper.

*Ang pamílya Manuel [...] ay nagbabâng-luksâ sa pagsápit nang ika-1 taóng anibersáryo nang kamátáyan ni A.P.M. [...]*
= The Manuel family ended their mourning as they reached the first anniversary of A.P. Manuel’s death [...]

As you can see I have no problem understanding it, but ...
how do you read *ika-1 taón*?
1) ika-isá taón
2) ika-isáng taón
3) úna taón
4) únang taón


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## Pinyot

Ika-isang taon. Ng is added to numbers that end with a vowel while na is used for numbers that end with consonants.

Ika-isa(ng) taon - ika-isang taon
Ika-apat (na) na taon - ika-apat na taon

Only 2 numbers drop their initials when used in this manner; dalawa(two) and tatlo(three).

Ika-dalawang taon - ikalawang taon
Ika-tatlong taon - ikatlong taon

This rule does not apply to twenty and thirty. They are still spelled as ika-dalawampu and ika-tatlumpu.

Ika-dalawampung taon - 20th year
Ika-tatlumpung taon - 30th year
Ika-dalawampu't isa (ika-dalawampu at isa) - 21st year
Ika-tatlumpu't siyam na taon (ika-tatlumpu at siyam) - 39th year

When used to tell time the ng is omitted (ika-apat ng hapon - 4pm, ika-isa ng madaling-araw - 1am, ika-siyam ng gabi - 9pm). Though Filipinos commonly use the "alas" format (alas-singko ng hapon - 5pm), the proper Tagalog format is the "ika" format.


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## Qcumber

Pinyot said:


> Ika-isang taon. Ng is added to numbers that end with a vowel while na is used for numbers that end with consonants.
> Ika-isa(ng) taon - ika-isang taon
> Ika-apat (na) na taon - ika-apat na taon.


OK, but why not use *únang taón*? I thought *úna* was the standard term for "first". Frankly, I even thought *ika-isá* didn't exist.
Thanks a lot, Pinyot, for your detailed answer.


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## biankita

_Ika-unang _and _ika-isang_ are both correct for that statement.

Actually, _ika- isa_, _ikalawa_, _ikatlo_, _ika-apat_ exist. They are usually used to indicate a unit of time. i.e. _Ika-walo ng Disyembre_ or _ika-isa ng hapon_. This is no longer used widely, usually just on diplomas and public documents. This is not really a hard rule. You can still use i_ka-unang araw ng Disyembre_ - it's just longer.

In modern Tagalog, we say dates the Western way. For time, we use the Spanish-ed up term like _alas-kwarto_ - as Pinyot pointed out (you would notice that time is totally Spanish-ed up for us), or the regular Western way. --- Probably because it's shorter to say and write.

The correctness of their usage will ultimately depend on the context that you use them.


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## Qcumber

biankita said:


> _Ika-unang _and _ika-isang_ are both correct for that statement. [...] You can still use i_ka-unang araw ng Disyembre_ - it's just longer.


I think this is a recent development. So far I have never come across _ika-isá_ in texts. As regards_ ika-úna,_ I am sure it would have been regarded as incorrect not that long ago.
For instance, 

Teodoro A. LLAMZON et al. (1974)
Makabagong balarila ng wikang tagalog
Ateneo de Manila

Only has _úna_ and _pang-úna_ for the first ordinal.

Thanks a lot for your explanation.


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