The Philippines is home to dozens of different languages and dialects. Every part of the country has its own local language, which sometimes makes communication between the different regions difficult. Northern Luzon, for example, speaks Ilocano, while the people of the Central Visayas communicate in Cebuano. To help unify the country, the Philippines has two official national languages, Filipino and English. English is the product of nearly 50 years of American colonial rule, and came to replace Spanish as the foreign language of choice during that period. Today, most Filipinos, especially those in urban areas, can speak and understand English.

 

Technically, “Filipino” did not exist until 1936, when a government commission decided to designate Tagalog, one of the many native languages of the archipelago, to be the national language. Tagalog was chosen primarily because it is the language of the area surrounding Manila, the capital, which was the main economic center of the country and the birthplace of the Philippine independence movement. Even though most Filipinos outside of this area do not speak Tagalog as a first language, “Filipino” has come to serve as a lingua franca for the entire country, and today, most movies, songs and other media are produced in Tagalog. Usually, the language is combined, to an extent, with English, creating the phenomenon of “Taglish,” switching between the two languages in the same sentence without even meaning to.

 

Today, we will try to teach you some of the basics of Tagalog, including greetings and simple grammar. While Tagalog is related to Malaysian and Indonesian, there is a resemblance to Spanish due to a massive amount of loanwords. This makes learning one language easier if one has some experience with the other. However, as they belong to separate language families they are still fundamentally different.

 

Introductions

Hello/How are you?: kamusta ka? (From Spanish como estas)

I’m fine: mabuti ako

What is your name?: anong pangalan mo?

My name is_____: ako si __________ (literally: I am ______ )

 

Politeness

A huge part of Filipino culture, as with other Asian cultures, is maintaining respect for one’s elders. For Filipinos, an elder can be older cousins, a boss, a teacher, and especially one’s parents and grandparents.

 

The most basic way to show respect is by saying po. Po doesn’t have any literal meaning, but can be compared to saying ‘sir’ or ‘ma’am’ in English. As a general rule, add po to the end of your sentence when trying to show respect, even when speaking in English. There are other rules regarding politeness, which will be highlighted later on.

 

Basics

Yes: oo (pronounced oh-oh)

Polite: opo

Thank you: salamat

Who?: sino?

What?: ano?

Where?: saan?

When?: kaylan?

Why?: bakit?

 

Basic Sentence Structure

The basic form of a Tagalog sentence is (object/adjective)-(particle)-(noun).

In contrast, a normal English sentence is (noun)-(particle)-(object/adjective)

 

Compare:

English:  Rice is white.

Tagalog: Puti ang kanin.

In English, this would literally translate into “white is (cooked) rice.”

 

Is (non-person): ang

Is (person): si

 

Example: Pilipino si Jane. (Jane is Filipino)

 

The word ba

Any sentence can be quickly turned into a question by adding the word ba after the object/adjective portion of the sentence.

 

Example: Pilipino ba si Jane? (Is Jane Filipino?)

 

Check out www.tagalog-dictionary.com for words, and try making your own sentences!