# iisang



## poul

I'm new to the tagalog language, but it's fun to learn

i wrote to my asawa:

isa ng lang ang kita ko (i think this says "You are my one and only")

and her reply was

ikaw lang ang ng iisang at wlang iba sa bhay ko

you only the of ???? and none other in life my

I read this as: You are also my only one, theres no other in my life.

but i'm unsure of iisang are there an i too much so it should be isang

also bhay i can't find in any dictonary so i read it as buhay (life) but is it then correct to put sa in front of it ? I think you only use sa for locations ! as in 'sa bahay' (in house)


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## Lancel0t

poul said:
			
		

> I'm new to the tagalog language, but it's fun to learn
> 
> i wrote to my asawa:
> 
> isa ng lang ang kita ko (i think this says "You are my one and only")
> 
> and her reply was
> 
> ikaw lang ang ng iisang at wlang iba sa bhay ko
> 
> you only the of ???? and none other in life my
> 
> I read this as: You are also my only one, theres no other in my life.
> 
> but i'm unsure of iisang are there an i too much so it should be isang
> 
> also bhay i can't find in any dictonary so i read it as buhay (life) but is it then correct to put sa in front of it ? I think you only use sa for locations ! as in 'sa bahay' (in house)


 
Nice try Paul,

Regarding your first statement, it should be translated as this:
Ikaw ang natatangi at nag-iisa sa  buhay ko..

and about her response:

you are the only one and there's no one else in my life.


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## ShroomS

Word for word, the statement you wrote to her should be like this:

You are my one and only.

Ikaw ang aking nag-iisa at natatangi.

Anyway, you basically had the right comprehension of her reply. I think that is what she meant in general.

Also, you really wouldn't find "bhay" anywhere in your dictionary. There is no such word in the Tagalog dictionary. With the birth of SMS technology, also came the new "short-cut" way of spelling Tagalog words. Filipinos find it more convenient and economical if they omit the vowels in just about any tagalog word there is as much as they can whenever they write an SMS. This way, they won't have to type much and they just rely on the one they sent the message to to decipher the words for them. Native tagalog speakers don't have much problem with this "new spelling system" so it is now widely used and popular here in the Philippines. I believe your wife is one of the many texters who have adopted this way of spelling that's why she spelled some of the Tagalog words that way.

You are right, "bhay" could only mean two things, it's either "buhay" (life) or "bahay" (house). But in her message's case, judging by the context clues it won't take you long to realize that it could only mean life.

You can use "sa" not only for locations. There are no restrictions on its usage. So it's correct to translate the phrase "in my life" to Tagalog as "sa aking buhay".

She used the "short-cut" way of spelling again on this one: "ng iisang". The correct and formal way of spelling it is "nag-iisang" which is only one word. It is an adjective which means "lone, sole or solo".


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## poul

Thanks again for your excellent way to explain this.


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