Tagalog
Tagalog is an
Austronesian language, commonly spoken in the
Philippines, and is the basis for the national language called
Filipino. There are an estimated 17 million native speakers of Tagalog and about 50 million others who speak it as a second language.
Geographic distribution and Classification
While most Filipinos are capable of speaking some form of Tagalog, the native speakers are concentrated in southwestern regions of Luzon island, especially in the areas around Manila. Some 17 million people in this area speak Tagalog as their native tongue while many Filipinos in other parts of the country understand the language and is usually their secondary language.
Increased emigration of Filipinos to other parts of the world have created many communities of Tagalog-speakers especially in the United States and Canada. In fact, Tagalog ranks among the top Asian languages spoken in the U.S. and Canada.
The dialects of Tagalog often correspond to the provinces in and around the former Southern Tagalog region and parts of Central Luzon. The Ethnologue language database identifies the following dialects spoken in their respective provinces: Lubang (spoken in Mindoro), Manila, Marinduque, Bataan, Batangas, Bulacan, Tanay-Paete (spoken in Rizal and Laguna), and Tayabas (spoken in Quezon.
Sounds
Tagalog has five principal vowel sounds, corresponding to the five musical vowels sounds. The vowel a is pronounced as in father; e as in egg; i as in machine; o as in over; and u as in chute.
Other vowel constructs exist with the consonant y. ay as in pie. oy as in spoil.
The words written as ng and mga by themselves are pronounced nang and manga respectively. The ng as part of a word is pronounced as in Sing-a-song and hanger.
g is pronounced as in the hard g of gutter and good.
Tagalog also uses a glottal stop on ending vowels in some words. These are noted in writing with a circumflex accent or dot above the vowel as in â and å .
Vowels
\n\nBefore the Spanish colonization, Tagalog had only 3 vowels, a, o/u, and e/i. With the introduction of a romanized alphabet, however, the language differentiated the o from the u sound and the e from the i sound. This can explain why the adopted Spanish words such as ventana are written as bintana, because essentially the Tagalog e and i are of the same vowel, varying only in degree of vocal intensity.
Consonants
\n\nThe Official Tagalog alphabet has 15 consonants. The consonants are all pronounced will the short 'a' vowel following the consonant. They are namely; b,k,d,g,h,l,m,n,ng,p,r,s,t,w,y. The distinction between d and r in the Tagalog alphabet is as recent as the colonization as evidenced in baybayin.
Names of persons and places may have retained the Spanish spelling and consonants such as ñ as in Nuñez and the J or X like an H as in Jose and Roxas (Pronounced Nunyes, Hosay and Rohas respectively).
Consonant pairs and non-native consonants which are common in English are translated into the best equivalent as in; tsokolate (Chocolate) or dyus (juice).
Phonology
\n\nHistorical sound changes
\n
Grammar
Nouns
\nMost Tagalog nouns are simply words with a specific meaning. This is common for object nouns. Some nouns are constructs of a root word and prefixes and/or suffixes. Some of the most common are listed here.
AN nouns turn root words into the places where the root word is performed or found. AN is a suffix. These words will end in an for roots that end in a consonant or glottal stop. They will end in han for roots that end in normal vowels. Many AN places have noun roots as in the case of aklat (book) and aklatan (library).
\n\n | \n English | \n Tagalog | \n English | \n Tagalog | \n English | \n Tagalog | \n
\n\n | root | \n | \n upo | \n | \n simba | \n | \n tinda | \n
\n\n | noun | \n chair | \n upuan | \n church | \n simbahan | \n store | \n tindahan | \n
\n\n | verb | \n to sit | \n umupo | \n to go to church | \n magsimba | \n to sell | \n magtinda | \n
\n
KA-AN nouns turn root words into the concepts about the root word.
KA-AN is a prefix-suffix combination where
ka is the prefix and
an is the suffix. The
an will follow the same rules as above for
AN nouns in regards to their use with consonants, vowels and glottal stops.
\n\n | \n English | \n Tagalog | \n English | \n Tagalog | \n English | \n Tagalog | \n
\n\n | root | \n | \n utos | \n | \n ligaya | \n | \n tipon | \n
\n\n | noun | \n commandment | \n kautusan | \n happiness | \n kaligayahan | \n society/brotherhood | \n katipunan | \n
\n\n | verb | \n to command | \n magutos | \n to become happy | \n lumigaya | \n to meet | \n magtipon | \n
\n
PANG nouns turn root words into the instruments used to perform the root word's task.
PANG is a prefix.
\n\n | \n English | \n Tagalog | \n English | \n Tagalog | \n English | \n Tagalog | \n
\n\n | root | \n | \n ahit | \n | \n bura | \n | \n akyat | \n
\n\n | noun | \n razor | \n pang-ahit | \n eraser | \n pamura | \n climbing equipment | \n pang-akyat | \n
\n\n | verb | \n to shave | \n mag-ahit | \n to erase | \n magbura | \n to climb | \n umakyat | \n
\n
Pronouns
\nMost pronouns or
panghalip, in Tagalog have direct translations in English.
Personal pronouns. There are seven personal pronouns in Tagalog. The first person pronouns are
ako,
kami, and
tayo, corresponding to the English
I, exclusive
we (as in "we excluding you"), and inclusive
we (as in "we including you"). The second person pronouns are
ikaw,
kayo, corresponding to the singular and plural
you. The third person pronouns are
siya (singular) and
sila (plural). Tagalog does not distinguish gender for the singular third person unlike English's
he,
she, and
it. Tagalog pronouns have
nominative (subjective), two objective, and
genitive (possessive) cases. The table below lists all of these cases, some of which are accompanied by contracted forms. The apostrophe is actually a formality and is almost always left out in written texts.
\n\n | \n | Singular | \n Plural |
\n\n | \n Nominative | \n Objective A | \n Objective B | \n Genitive | \n Nominative | \n Objective A | \n Objective B | \n Genitive |
\n\n | First person | \n ako | \n ko | \n sa akin
sa'kin | \n akin | \n kami | \n namin | \n sa amin
sa'min | \n amin |
\n\n | First-second person | \n — | \n tayo | \n natin | \n sa atin
sa'tin | \n atin |
\n\n | Second person | \n ikaw
ka | \n mo | \n sa iyo
sa'yo | \n iyo | \n kayo | \n ninyo | \n sa inyo | \n inyo |
\n\n | Third person | \n siya
s'ya | \n niya
n'ya | \n sa kaniya
sa kan'ya | \n kaniya
kan'ya | \n sila | \n nila | \n sa kanila | \n kanila |
The singular second person pronoun,
ikaw, has an alternate form,
ka, which can be used in place of the original form when it isn't the first word in a clause (when it follows the predicate). See the section on sentence patterns. The sentence
You are happy is translated to the following three equivalent Tagalog sentences, differing only in word order.
- Ikaw ay masaya. Masaya ikaw. Masaya ka.
The first objective case denotes that the person the pronoun is referring to is the one doing the action signified by the verb. This is much like the
by me construct used in
passive voice in English.
- Tagalog: Nahanap ko ang libro.\n:English: literally Found by me, the book. (The book was found by me.)
The second objective case is formed by preceding the genitive case with the word
sa, which is actually a preposition. The word
sa, in this case, is actually a
clitic. This objective case is often contracted in speech. Here is an example of this objective case as a direct object:
- Tagalog: Bumati ako sa kaniya.\n:English: literally Greeted I him. (I greeted him.)
And here is the objective case as an indirect object:
- Tagalog: Magbibigay ako sa kaniya ng regalo.\n:English: literally Will give I him a gift. (I will give him a gift.)
In addition, Tagalog has another personal pronoun,
kita, which combines
ko-ikaw (
by me–you) constructs. For example,
Mahal kita means
I love you (literally
You are loved by me). This form is preferred instead of the more formal and stilted
Mahal ko ikaw or even
Ikaw ay mahal ko.
Unlike in English, Tagalog does not have intensive or reflexive forms for the personal pronouns (pronouns with the suffix
-self, such as
myself). These forms are approximated by inserting the word
sarili (self) and the first objective form into the sentence. For example:
- Intensive. I did it myself. Ako, sarili ko, ang gumawa niyan.\n:Reflexive. He shaves himself. Siya ang umaahit sa sarili niya.
Interrogatives
\nTagalog interrogatives are as follows.
\n\n | Tagalog | \n sino | \n ano | \n kailan | \n saan | \n bakit | \n alin | \n paano | \n ilan | \n gaano | \n magkano | \n
\n\n | English | \n who | \n what | \n when | \n where | \n why | \n which | \n how | \n how many | \n how much (mass) | \n how much (cost) | \n
\n
Demonstratives
\nTagalog demonstratives have a concept of distance. For objects and places which are within a short distance the nearer version is used. The farther versions are generally used to express objects and places farther that of two people talking in proximity of each other. The farther version is always used to express items beyond the vision of the individual. For comparative demonstratives, this distance is one of conceptual disparity.
Tonal differences occur in the far demonstratives to express the relative positions of the objects or places. The o sound is carried farther depending on the relative distance (physically or conceptually). For speakers, the length of the carried o communicates position. For do-ooon you can probably walk comfortably. For do-ooooooooooooooooooooooooooon you will need to take a bus or plane (in this previous demonstration, redundany of the o's represents time of pronounciation and not a reduplication of syllables).
For non-immediate objects, pointing with the lips is quite common while speaking the demonstrative. This can also be a nonverbal expression of physical demonstratives in which the length of time pointing carries the same weight as the length of time given to the o in the verbal expression.
\n\n | \n ang Subjective | \n English | \n ng Objective | \n English | \n sa Locative | \n English | \n
\n\n | Immediate | \n ito | \n this | \n nito | \n this | \n dito | \n here | \n
\n\n | Approximate | \n iyan | \n that | \n niyan | \n that | \n diyan | \n there | \n
\n\n | Extremity | \n iyon | \n that (far) | \n niyon | \n that (far) | \n doon | \n there (far) | \n
\n\n | \n Comparative | \n English | \n Temporal | \n English | \n | \n | \n
\n\n | Immediate | \n ganito | \n like this | \n | \n | \n | \n | \n
\n\n | Approximate | \n ganiyan(ganyan) | \n like that | \n | \n | \n | \n | \n
\n\n | Extremity | \n ganoon | \n like that (far) | \n noon | \n years before | \n | \n | \n
\n
Verbs
\nThere are numerous verb forms in Tagalog ranging from the very common to the very rare. Tagalog uses prefixes, suffixes or infixes for their verb forms even using combinations of the two or even all three affixes depending on the verb form. A common element of all verbs is the duplication of the first syllable of the root verb form for present and future tense. The more common verb forms are 'um', 'mag', 'in' 'i' and 'an'.
UM Verbs are considered 'natural' action verbs or actions which can be performed by nature or by natural things such as animals or plants. Examples include the English equivalent of: to eat, to run, to become strong. UM Verbs will appear as a suffix or infix to the verb root except for the future tense. Also the infinite and past tense forms are identical.
To construct a UM verb in the past and infinitive form, the um will be prepended to the word if the word starts with a vowel. If the word begins with a consonant, the um will be infixed proceeding the first vowel. For example we will use the the root word 'kain' (having to do with food) and 'iyak' (having to do with crying). These words in their infinitive and past forms are 'kumain' and 'umiyak' meaning 'to eat' and 'to cry' and also 'ate' and 'cried' depending on context of the sentence.
For ease of learning we will discuss future tense and work back to present tense in the following paragraph. As metioned earlier in this section, present and future tenses duplicate the first syllable. For UM verbs the future tense duplicates the first syllable and does nothing more. Giving the words 'kakain' and 'iiyak', which mean 'will eat' and 'will cry', respectively.
Present tense in the UM verb form uses both the rules for future tense and past tense in that order. First we duplicate the first syllable and then inject the um according to the aforementioned rule for past tense. This gives us 'kumakain' and 'umiiyak'.
MAG Verbs are considered 'unnatural' action verbs or actions which are performed by the force or will of man. Examples include the English equivalent of: to shave, to put, to teach. MAG Verbs will appear as a suffix to the verb root.
To construct a MAG verb in the infinitive form, the mag will be prepended to the word. For example we will use the root word 'turo' (having to do with teaching) and 'ahit' (having to do with shaving). These words in their infinitive forms are 'magturo' and 'magahit', meaning 'to teach' and 'to shave'.
For past tense nag is used instead of mag. Giving you 'nagturo' and 'nagahit', meaning 'taught' and 'shaved'.
For present tense nag is used but the first syllable is duplicated first. Giving you 'nagtuturo' and 'nagaahit', meaning 'teaching' and 'shaving'.
For future tense mag is again used and like the present tense, the first syllable is duplicated first. Giving you 'magtuturo' and 'magaahit', meaning 'will teach' and 'will shave'.
IN Verbs are object focus verbs or verbs which focus on the object above the doer. IN verb forms are very, very common in conversational Tagalog. Examples of usage are 'Binasa ko ang aklat', literally 'Was read, by me, the book' or the equivalent 'I read the book'. This is the preferrable form as opposed to 'Nagbasa ako ng aklat' which translates to the English equivelant but takes complete focus off of the book.
Construction of IN verbs is similair to UM with some subtle differences. Consider the following root verbs 'basa' (having to do with reading), and 'akyat' (having to do with climbing). Their infinitive, past, present and future forms are; basahin, binasa, binabasa, babasahin, and akyatin, inakyat, inaakyat and aakyatin.
I Verbs are goal oriented verbs or verbs which focus on an achievement or its accomplishment. Since a goal is the purpose of the verb, the common construction is in infinitive or future tense. Examples of usage are 'Ibabalik ko ang aklat sa eskwela', literally 'Will return, by me, the book to the school' or the equivalent 'I will return the book to the school'. This puts the focus to the task on hand.
Construction of I verbs is similair to UM with some differences. The i will always prepend the entire construct. Consider the following root verbs 'balik' (having to do with return), and 'sama' (having to do with companionship or being with). Their infinitive, past, present and future forms are; ibalik, ibinalik, ibinabalik, ibabalik, and isama, isinama, isinasama and isasama.
AN Verbs are place or person focus verbs or verbs which focus on a destination or towards a person. Examples of usage are 'Ingatan mo sa lason', literally 'Take care(self), you, of poison' or the equivalent 'Beware of the poison'. This put focus on the person.
Construction of AN verbs put an or han (in the case of non-glottal stopped vowels) at the end of the root verb. The in affix is added for past and present tenses. Their infinitive, past, present and future forms are for 'ingat' and 'upo' (a root with an ending glottal stopped vowel) ; ingatan, iningatan, iniingatan, iingatan and upuan inupuan, inuupuan, uupuan.
Other verb roots exist for specific purposes, including; IPAG, MAGPATI and others. Some like MAGPATI, which is a verb one does violently or with force to one's self, only have a few roots with which they can be combined to have meaningful purpose.
Adjectives and Adverbs
Adjectives and adverbs are words that describe or modify nouns or verbs respectively. In Tagalog, an adjective is called pang-uri and an adverb is pang-abay. However, adjectives and adverbs in Tagalog have the same form, unlike English, which usually adds a -ly suffix to an adjective to change it into an adverb. Adjectives/adverbs (now on referred to as adjectives) in Tagalog can be classified into three types: neutral, comparative, and superlative. This correspond to the degrees of adjectives in English which give us good, better, and best.
There are two kinds of neutral adjectives in Tagalog. The first are the simple adjectives, which are words that are already adjectives in their basic form. The second are ma- adjectives, which add the prefix ma- to words to turn them into adjectives. Examples of simple adjectives are pandak (short), itim (black), and mahal (expensive). Examples of the second kind are mahaba (long; from haba meaning length), mayaman (rich; from yaman meaning richness), and mabilis (fast, from bilis meaning speed). The ma- suffix essentially functions the same way as the English suffix -ful, which turns nouns into adjectives.
Sentence patterns
Tagalog is a VSO language. Sentences in Tagalog are often in the
predicate-subject order, reverse that of English. Sometimes, the predicate, if it contains a transitive verb, is split into two with the object of the verb following the subject. Almost all sentences can be transformed into the
subject-predicate order, but is rarely done, and usually only for emphasis.
Here are examples with their literal English translations preserving word order.
- Common order: Nagbasa ako ng aklat. Read I a book.
Transformed: Ako ay nagbasa ng aklat. I read a book.
- Common order: Binasa ko ang aklat. Read by me was the book.
Transformed: Ang aklat ay binasa ko. The book was read by me.
- Common order: Makulay ang mga bulaklak dito sa Baguio City. Colorful are the flowers here in Baguio City.
Transformed: Ang mga bulaklak dito sa Baguio City ay makulay. The flowers here in Baguio City are colorful.
The difference between the first and second examples is one not of meaning but of focus, as with their English translations (
I read a book versus
The book was read by me). The verb comes first and is marked according to which following constituent is focused on. This syntactic arrangement is unusual in the world's languages but is typical of the
Philippines, and in fact linguists call it
Philippine-type marking. It's also called a
trigger system.
Vocabulary
The vocabulary of Tagalog is a wide mix of native vernaculars and foreign loan words. The Tagalog language before the Spanish era can trace its common roots to Malay and Polynesian influences. Three centuries as a colony of Spain have left an indelible mark on the vocabulary of Tagalog and a further half a century of American imperialism have also added a number of words into Tagalog.
Spanish influence
Tagalog was heavily influenced by the Spanish language. Possibly a third of the words in Tagalog are of Spanish origin. A classic example is the Tagalog phrase
“Kumusta?” (How are [you]?). This phrase directly came from the Spanish
“¿Cómo está (usted)?”.
The adoption of Spanish words into Tagalog was so prevalent that Tagalog speakers can now vaguely understand rudimentary Spanish, although do not realize it.\nThis idea has been used effectively in Spanish classes for Filipinos by letting students read a complete essay in Spanish where most of the words are also found in Tagalog.
Majority of the Spanish words adopted into Tagalog were those that referred to foreign concepts such as the names of the days of the week and months, such as
Huwebes and
Mayo, which came from the Spanish
jueves (Thursday) and
mayo (May).
Certain words have changed in meaning such as
siyempre which means
of course in Tagalog but in Spanish (
siempre ) means
always. Also \n
siguro (Spanish
seguro) means
maybe in Tagalog but
sure, safe, or secure in Spanish.
The adoption of Spanish also gave rise to the curious phenomenon of two or more words referring to the same concept. For example, the Tagalog word for
chair is either the native
upuan or
salampuwit, but the Spanish-based
silya (from
silla) is prevalent in popular speech. Another example is the Tagalog words for
city:
lunsod and
siyudad (from the Spanish
ciudad). Spanish numbers as opposed to the native Tagalog numbers, are also used frequently, especially in telling the time and in counting money.
The
Spanish Empire did not treat the Philippines as a population colony and sent only a few speakers of Spanish.\nThis could be attributed to the enormous distance needed to travel.\nIn contrast with
Spanish America, there were only a few Spanish speakers in the Philippine islands who were Spanish priests, officers, their descendents and a few other civillians. A greater number of the Spaniards arrived after the openning of the Suez canal. However, certain families have maintained the language and still speak it. Speakers are typically, but not always the 'elite'. Many older people speak it well in Zamboanga where the general population still speak a Spanish-based creole.
\nSince Tagalog speakers were the ethnic Filipino group closest to Spanish seat of government(Malacañang Palace), culture and education; they formed the native elite and after the independence, Tagalog formed the basis of the national language despite the fact that another vernacular,
Cebuano, had more speakers at that time.
American English influence
The American occupation has also introduced many English words. Some examples are
titser (teacher),
bus (bus, pronounced
boos),
dyip (jeep), and
restawran (restaurant).
Modern colloquial Tagalog or Filipino typically adopts English nouns and verbs into the speech, even if there are equivalent terms in the native language. This pseudo-dialect is called
Taglish. The name is a
portmanteau combining the words
Tagalog and
English.
Other influences
Tagalog long before the Spanish colonized the islands has also adopted words from Chinese, Hindu, and Arabic, mainly due to precolonial trade with mainland Asian cultures.
Examples of adopted words
Following is a short list of Tagalog words of foreign origin.\n* kumusta (How is ~ ?; from Spanish ¿Cómo está ~ ?)\n* guro (teacher; from Sanskrit guru)\n* kuya (elder brother; from Chinese ko + a)\n* alak (wine; from Arabic)\n* palengke (market; Old Spanish palenque)\n* pera (money; Old Spanish perra -coins)\n* probinsiya (province; from Spanish provincia)\n* rehiyon (region; from Spanish región)\n* libro (book; from Spanish libro)\n* mesa (table; from Spanish mesa)\n* kalye (street; from Spanish calle)\n* kabayo (horse; from Spanish caballo)\n* Hulyo (July; from Spanish julio)\n* Miyerkoles (Wednesday; from Spanish miércoles)\n* dyip (jeep; from English)\n* titser (teacher; from English)\n* kompiyuter (computer; from English)
Cognates
\nTagalog is an Austronesian language.\nThe following cognates can be found in Indonesian, Malaysian, and Polynesian languages.
- ako (I; Indonesian: aku)\n* tulong (help; Indonesian: tolong)\n* basá (wet; Indonesian: basah)\n* lalaki (man, male; Indonesian: lelaki)\n* mura (cheap; Indonesian: murah)\n* mahal (expensive; Indonesian: mahal) \n* Sayang! (What a waste! [expression]; Indonesian: Sayang!)\n* lima (five; Indonesian: lima)\n* dating (to come; Indonesian: datang)\n* inom (drink; Indonesian: minum, Japanese: nomu)\n* anak (son/daughter; Indonesian: anak)\n* payong (umbrella; Indonesian: payung)\n* sakit (pain; Indonesian: sakit)\n*si (person subject designate; Indonesian: si)\n*kanan (right side; Indonesian: kanan)\n*kalabaw (water buffalo; Indonesian: kerbau)\n* Salamat. (Thank you; Indonesian: Selamat [Congratulations!, Welcome!, Good!])\n* ama (father; Polynesian(Samoan): tama)\n* ina (mother; Polynesian(Samoan): tina)\n* lima (five; Polynesian(Hawaiian,Samoan): lima)\n* kain (eat; Polynesian(Tongan): kai)\n* inom (drink; Polynesian(Tongan): inu)
Tagalog as a source of words
Tagalog itself has contributed a few words into English. The word boondocks, which means 'rural' or 'back country', was imported by American soldiers stationed in the Philippines from the Tagalog bundok, which means 'mountain.' Another word is cogon, which is a type of grass, used for thatching. This word came from the Tagalog word kugon.
Writing system
Modern Tagalog is written using a modified Latin alphabet. Tagalog used to have
diacritics in written text to indicate pronunciation, but has gradually been dropped in modern texts. The only diacritic remaining is the tilde (~), which is used for the letter
ñ.
Peculiarities of note are the words
ng ( pronounced nang) and
mga \n( pronounced ma-nga).
There was also a precolonial writing system ultimately derived from the Indian Brahmic scripts called
baybayin (also called
alibata). This script is part of
Unicode and is called
Tagalog. Usage of this writing system has died out in favor of the
Latin alphabet.
Examples
There is a Tagalog Wikipedia at tl.wikipedia.org
Numbers
\nSpanish and English based numbers are \nfrequently used aside from the following.\nSpanish based numbers are used in revealing one's age, telling time,\ngames, and sometimes when dealing with currencies aside from other \npurposes.
Tagalog Sp. based Spanish
1 isa uno uno\n 2 dalawa dos dos\n 3 tatlo tres tres\n 4 apat kuwatro cuatro\n 5 lima singko cinco\n 6 anim sais seis\n 7 pito siyete siete\n 8 walo otso ocho\n 9 siyam nuwebe nueve\n 10 sampu diyes diez\n 11 labing-isa onse once\n 12 labindalawa dose doce\n 13 labintatlo trese trece\n 14 labing-apat katorse catorce\n 15 labing-anim kinse quince\n 20 dalawampu bente veinte\n 21 dalawampu't isa bentiuno veintiuno \n 30 tatlumpu trenta trenta\n 40 apatnapu kuwarenta cuarenta\n 50 limampu singkuwenta cincuenta\n 60 animnapu sesenta sesenta \n 70 pitumpu setenta setenta\n 80 walumpu otsenta ochenta \n 90 siyamnapu nobenta noventa\n 100 daan siyento ciento \n 1,000 libo mil mil\n 10,000 laksa diyes mil diez mil\n 100,000 yuta siyento mil cien mil\n 1,000,000 angaw milyon millón
Days of the week
\n week linggo\n Monday Lunes\n Tuesday Martes\n Wednesday Miyerkoles\n Thursday Huwebes\n Friday Biyernes\n Saturday Sabado\n Sunday Linggo
Months of the year
\n month buwan\n January Enero\n February Pebrero\n March Marso\n April Abril\n May Mayo\n June Hunyo\n July Hulyo\n August Agosto\n September Setyembre\n October Oktubre\n November Nobyembre\n December Disyembre
Common expressions
How are [you]? Kumusta?\n Good morning Magandang umaga\n Good afternoon Magandang hapon\n Good evening Magandang gabi\n I love you Mahal kita\n You speak Tagalog? Nagsasalita ka ba ng Tagalog? (Slang: Tagalog ka?)\n Where are you from? Saan ka galing?\n What is your name? Ano ang pangalan mo? or better Ano'ng pangalan mo?\n Forgive me Patawarin mo ako\n Goodbye Paalam
See also
\n*Languages of the Philippines\n*
Filipino\n*
Cebuano\n*
Kapampangan\n*
Chabacano
External links
\n*Ethnologue report for Tagalog\n*
Northern Illinois University Tagalog page\n*
Tagalog Learner's Home - Tagalog language training for non-speakers. Features sound recordings, the 100 most frequently used verbs and the 500 most frequently used words, exercises and self-tests.\n*
Tagalog - English Dictionary
Category:Malayo-Polynesian languages\nCategory:Languages of the Philippines
\n\n
