A N O ? by JTF Solivar

     The counterpart of the Filipino word “ano” in English is “what”. When asking about a thing we utter either of them depending on which side of the globe you are coming from. But the word “ano” actually has another use. We use this as a substitute for a word or name of an object that we could not remember. Consider the following uses of "ano":

Sir patingin po ng ano ko... (ay doon sa CR go!)

- a student wants to see her schedule

 

Sir patingin po ng ano niya... (ay doon kayo sa CR go!)

- a student wants to see her friend's schedule

Sir magpapa-ano po ako... (tuli?)

 - a student wants to enroll

Sir nakalimutan ko po yung ano ko... (detachable ito?)

- a student forgot to bring his clearance

Sir nagpa-ano na po ako kay Ma'am Precie kanina... (tuli uli?)

- a student was assisted by Ma'am Precie

Sir nawawala yung ano ko... (lumakad mag-isa?)                                                           - a student's clearance is missing

Sir naiwan ko ba dito yung ano ko... (nalaglag? gumulong?)

- a student misplaced her registration from

Sir ngayon lang kami kasi nag ano po kami... (galeng galeng!)

- students were late for enrollment 

 Sir yung ano ko... (hay punyeta!)

- a student inquiring about his schedule

      Certainly, "ano" is the most convenient word to say in case the word that we want to spit out escapes our memory bank for a while. But hopefully, we can erase this "habit", and be more straightforward when we converse with one another as this is slowly becoming a  not-so-nice sub-culture of ours. Nag-ano ka na? =)