How to Speak Filipino

Filipino is the Philippines' national language.

Filipino is the national language of the Philippines. It is generally based on the Tagalog language widely used in northern Philippines. Major linguistic contributions to Filipino come from other languages, including Spanish, English, Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, Sanskrit, Tamil and Malay. The Philippines was a former colony of both Spain and the U.S., which brought great influence in the evolution of the Filipino language. For centuries, Filipinos have also traded with other Asian countries like China, India and its neighboring nations, thus resulting in the fusion of words from these countries as well.

Instructions

1. Learn the alphabet. The Filipino alphabet is composed of 28 letters. It is almost identical to the English alphabet which has 26 letters. The only difference concerns the two additional consonants "ñ" for words like cariño which means "affection," and "ng" for words like "langka" which means "jackfruit." The order is also similar to the English alphabet. The "ñ" comes after "n" and before "ng." The "o" comes after "ng."

   Filipino uses exactly the same vowels as Spanish and English: A, E, I, O and U. The pronunciation is the same with that of Spanish. However, putting accent marks above certain vowels--like in Spanish and French--is not used in Filipino.

   Filipino is a phonetic language. The letters and letter combinations virtually have the same pronunciation. Its phonology has a relatively simple syllable structure. Each syllable contains at least one consonant and one vowel. The stress in Filipino is phonemic. The primary stress is either on the last or next to last syllable of the word. While there are no signs above the letters to provide change of accents or stress, words with multiple meanings are differentiated by changing the stress on specific syllables in the words. For instance, "tayo" with stress on the last syllable means "stand," while "tayo" with stress on the first syllable means "us" or "we."

2. Learn to count the numbers. The Philippines uses two sets of numbers. While the Tagalog version is widely used for most things referring to counting and measurements, the Spanish version "uno, dos, tres," and so on is widely used when referring to times, days, dates, years, age, prices, and some measurements as well. The difference between the actual Spanish numbers and the set of Spanish numbers used by Filipinos is only with the slight variations in spelling.

   One to ten in Tagalog is: "isa, dalawa, tatlo, apat, lima, anim, pito, walo, siyam, sampu." Eleven to twenty in Tagalog is "labing-isa, labing-dalawa, labing-tatlo, labing-apat, labing-lima, labing-anim, labing-pito, labing-walo, labing-siyam, dalawampu."

3. Know the basics of sentence construction in Filipino. Subject-verb agreement in Filipino is similar to English. Sentence structure uses the articles "ang" ("the," "a" or "an", when referring to a singular subject), "ang mga" ("the," "a" or "an", when referring to a plural subject). Because of the inclusion of the singularity or plurality through the article, the noun which works as the subject in a sentence, whether singular or plural, uses exactly the same word in a sentence. The verbs "is" and "are" translate as "ay" whether referring to something singular or plural. Action verbs also follow conjugation rules which generally requires some repetitions of certain syllables in a word and adding certain letters in the beginning, middle or end of the root word.

   Filipino uses the passive voice more often than the active voice when constructing sentences.

4. Learn the basic vocabulary words, nouns pronouns and verbs like: "ako" ("I" or "me"), "tayo" ("we"), "kami" ("us"), "siya" ("her" or "him"), "ikaw" ("you"), "sila" ("them"), "kanila" ("theirs"), "kanya" ("hers" or "his"), "atin" ("ours"), "atin" ("mine"), "inyo" ("yours"), "ito" ("this"), "iyan" ("that"), "iyon," "doon" or "diyan" ("there"), "dito" ("here"), "pangalan" ("name"), "saan" (where"), "kailan" ("when"), "paano" ("how"), "bakit" ("why"), "alin" ("which"), "oo" ("yes"), "hindi" ("no"), "siguro," ("maybe"), "wala" ("none"), "meron" ("has"), "maganda" (beautiful), "gwapo" (handsome), "magaling" ("good"), "pangit," ("ugly"), "masama" ("bad"), "ngayon" ("now" or "today"), "kahapon" ("yesterday"), "bukas" ("tomorrow"), "tulong" ("help"), "umaga" ("morning"), "tanghali" ("noon"), "hapon" ("afternoon"), "gabi" (evening") and "hating-gabi" ("midnight").

   "Mabuhay!" is a formal way of greeting which means "Welcome!" The genitive marker "ng" means "of." When talking to somebody older, it is expected to use the words "po" or "opo" (or "ho" or "oho") within the sentence to pay respect.

5. Learn the basic phrases and expressions such as: "Magandang araw!" ("Good day!"), "Magandang umaga!" ("Good morning!"), "Magandang hapon!" ("Good afternoon!"), "Magandang gabi!" ("Good evening!"), "Kumusta?" ("How are you?"), "Ako si..." ("My name is...), "Salamat!" ("Thank you!"), "Walang anuman." ("You're welcome."), "Magkano?" ("How much?"), "Nasaan?" ("Where?"), "Gusto kita." ("I like you."), "Mahal kita!" ("I love you!"), "Makikiraan po." or "Mawalang galang na po." ("Excuse me") and "Pasensya na." ("I'm sorry.")

References

• Socyberty
• Learn To Speak Tagalog
• Transparent Language