It serves to unite various parts of a sentence, having in most cases no equivalent in our Spanish, as can be seen in the following examples: Jesucristo á anác ti Dios, Jesus Christ son of God; ití naimbág á cadaoyán, good custom; daytoy á libro, this book; naim-imbág á ubíng ngem sicá, he is a better child than you; iti casulitán á arámid, the most difficult work; nalacá unay á saó, very easy word; calicagúmac á sucnálan ti masaquit, I desire to visit the sick person; iti macaammó á agbása, he who knows how to read; agsúrat á magmagná, he writes while walking; maicari unay ti Dios á annugúten, God is most worthy of being obeyed.
It is relative when el qué is not accompanied by el, la, los, e.g.: iti táo ⊗ natáy, the man who died.
At the end of a sentence it signifies to plead, command or corroborate what is affirmed, according to the speaker’s tone; icánnac cadi, ⊗, please give it to me; aramídem daytoy, ⊗? do this, you understand? huh?; iccándacat caném, ⊗? oén, ⊗, yes, they will give you something to eat.
When the speaker leaves the sentence incomplete, the one listening asks: ⊗?, e.g.: there is a man who…; the one listening responds: what?, what did he do? what did he say?; so in Ilocano; nangted iti uppat… he gave four… the one listening says: ⊗? like one asking, four what?
When it is not the end of a sentence, the word nga is sometimes used, meaning in everything the same as ⊗.
Observation and practice will teach when one and when the other should be used.