Why do Filipinos use eh?

Filipino is the national language of the Philippines. More or less the standard version of Tagalog (which in turn belongs to the same family of languages as the Malay language and is influenced by Sanskrit, Arabic, Spanish, and English), Filipino is spoken by about 90 million people worldwide. Due to European influence in the Philippines, Filipino is one of the few languages in East Asia to use the Latin alphabet, others countries in the region that have languages using the same alphabet include Vietnam, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, East Timor, Malaysia as well as the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau in China. Baybayin, the pre-colonial writing system is usually taught in schools but not commonly used in everyday life though the use of the script is growing in popularity and efforts are being made to revive it.

The main difference with its grammar is that it is not word-order transitive like English. For example, the sentence Jill gives the book to Tom in Tagalog can't tell who is giving to whom without the personal markers si and ni. If an actor focus verb is used, Jill becomes si Jill (the subject), and Tom becomes ni Tom (the object). If a non-actor focus verb is used, then si and ni are reversed. This works something like active and passive voice in English, but neither form would seem passive in Tagalog.

People learning Filipino should take note that translations for the to be verbs, such as am, are, is may be confusing. This can be overcome in one of several ways:

The good news regarding word order in Filipino is that you can juggle the words just about any which way and still be understood (assuming the personal markers are attached to the correct person). Also, it's easy to substitute similar words within simple sentences like those found in this phrasebook. However, the bad news is that proper word order has a steep learning curve and can be affected even by the number of syllables. Also, Filipino is notorious for its large number of complicated verb forms which require several words in English.

The vast majority of Filipinos are either bilingual (Filipino and English) or trilingual (Filipino, English, and the native language of the speaker). English is one of the official languages of the Philippines and is overwhelmingly used as the main language of government, commerce, and education. Filipinos use Philippine English, an English dialect based largely on American English, though it might be spoken with a distinct accent and it contains certain colloquialisms and slang unique to it (e.g. the most common word for "toilet" or "bathroom" in the Philippines is the Philippine English "comfort room", usually shortened to the initials "CR").

Code-switching is also common in everyday speech, with most conversations incorporating both English and Filipino to a certain extent. Some English words are even used exclusively when the Filipino equivalent is nonexistent (e.g. "mall", "computer", "internet", "highway", "hotel", and "taxi"). If you are having trouble finding the correct word or phrase in Filipino, don't hesitate to switch to English. For example: instead of saying "Saan ang labasan?" (Where is the exit?), you can say either "Saan ang exit?" or "Where is the labasan".

Pronunciation guide[edit]

Although Filipino words may seem long and tongue-twisting at first, pronunciation is easier than in many other languages. Long words are almost always based on smaller root words. The only foreign sound is an initial ng on a few words such as ngiti (smile). Unlike its neighboring languages (e.g. Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese) Filipino is not tonal. However, stressing the wrong syllable can often change the meaning of a word. Only very rarely does this occur in English (such as desert/dessert). Meanings in such cases can be closely related such as buhay (alive or life) or totally unrelated such as hapon (afternoon or Japan). You have also the use of the glottal stop, which makes a pause between two vowels. The glottal stop is used much in Filipino language. A space will be provided for the glottal stop.

Vowels[edit]

Consonants[edit]

These are pronounced as in English.

These are pronounced differently from English.

Diphthongs[edit]

Other Sounds[edit]

Phrase list[edit]

Stress:Many Filipino words are stressed on the second to last syllable

Basics[edit]

Two ways to state yes and no: In Tagalog, the question "Are you married?" is answered very differently from the question "Do you have children?" The key is the word "have" in the second question. Questions with "is/are there?" are also answered in this second way.

        Oo (Yes, I am not married.)

In a full and complete sentence, "mayroon" can be shortened to may (sounds like English "my"). Most often this means have/has/there are rather than a direct yes.

Add po at (or near) the end of a sentence or question to make it formal and polite. An exception is after an interrogative word, po immediately follows.   Sino po siya?   Who is he/she? (formal)     It is important to note that "opo" (po) and "oho" (ho) are used only to be polite to one's elders.  Ho (not used in this phrasebook) is a dialectal version of po and can virtually always be interchanged with it. Although its use is very limited in Manila and the Northern Katagalugan (The Tagalog Homeland), many people use it in Southern Luzon, especially in Batangas, Cavite and Laguna. Po (or Ho) and Opo (or Oho) is most commonly heard to show respect to elders or superiors. Po (and ho) are incompatible with ka and ikaw (use kayo) and with mo (use nila).

Note: As shown above, markers (Si / Ni / Kay) are mandatory before a person's nam--no exceptions (other than one word answers, and after ay)

"Who does this belong to?" may be answered with either "It is John's" "Kay John" or "John's bag"   Bag ni John.

Nouns[edit]

Like English, there is no gender assigned to common nouns, including those of Spanish origin. The only exception is Spanish-origin words refering to a type of person or occupation. But even here, the article (ang, ng, etc.) is gender neutral. Example:   Ang abogado/a   The lawyer or attorney (m/f).   Ironically, Tagalog-origin words can even be more gender-neutral than English.   Example:   kapatid   brother or sister.

For plurals, add mga immediately before the noun.   Example:   Mga hayop   Animals.   Adding s does not make anything plural and is sometimes done on Spanish nouns regardless of whether the topic is plural or not. Example:   mansanas   apple;   mga mansanas  apples (from Spanish manzana).

One point of confusion is the word Filipinas. It can mean either The Philippines (the country) or a group of Philippine females.

Adjectives[edit]

Separate adjectives are sometimes used to describe things and people (e.g. tall building, tall person). Adjectives without a noun are often ended with the article na, which roughly translates as "already" or "now." This is usually dropped when translating back into English. Madumi na. [It's] dirty (now/already). In Tagalog, an article such as na or pa is required when no noun follows the adjective. Na is a bit more immediate (i.e. shorter time than expected) than pa, but both have similar usage.

Many nouns can become adjectives by adding the prefix Ma, such as Dumi (dirt) becoming Madumi (dirty).

Adjective-noun pairs must be linked. Na (not the same na as above) is used if the adjective ends in a constant, and ng is used if it ends in a vowel. Magandang babae (beautiful girl). Malinis na kusina (clean kitchen).

Prepositions[edit]

Problems[edit]

Note: Tagalog always refers to what's burning and not the flames. Fire (controlled or in abstract) : Apoy (AH-poy)

Numbers and currency[edit]

Note: In some cases Spanish numbers (with Filipino spelling) are used.

For numbers above 10, Spanish is frequently used.

Ordinal Numbers[edit]

Time[edit]

Clock time[edit]

"ng" is pronounced 'nang' (rhymes with sung)

Duration[edit]

A vowel ending number must be suffixed with "-ng" while consonant-ending numbers must be followed by "na", e.g. isaNG minuto (one minute) or apat NA minuto (four minutes).

The Filipino language borrowed its terms for the days of the week and months of the year from the Spanish language.

Days[edit]

Months[edit]

Holidays[edit]

Writing times and dates[edit]

Dates can be written as follows:

• English format: September 19, 2005 would be Setyembre 19, 2005
• Spanish format: September 19, 2005 would be Ika-19 ng Setyembre, 2005

Times are written as in English (as in 6:23 AM) but spoken as in Spanish.

Colors[edit]

Transportation[edit]

Bus and train[edit]

Directions[edit]

Taxi[edit]

Jeepney/Bus[edit]

Lodging[edit]

Money[edit]

Eating[edit]

KTV (Karaoke Bars)[edit]

Bars[edit]

Shopping[edit]

Driving[edit]

Most Philippine road signs are in English.

Authority[edit]