Earlier, I mentioned how even though Indo-European languages have big grammatical differences, their verbs still handle subjects and objects in a similar way. For instance, "I" is the subject and "me" is the object form of that pronoun, similar to je and moi in French.
The underlying pattern is close, so French pronoun usage is relatively intuitive to English speakers. If you can use "I" and "me" correctly, then it won't be too hard to wrap your mind around using je and moi , either.
For example, let's say you've just eaten a mango. Highly recommended, as they're delicious and abundant in the Philippines! The simplest way you could tell somebody in English would be something like "I ate the mango. However, an equally simple Tagalog phrase could use something like "I" or "me" depending on what you want to emphasize. Along with the pronoun, the verb "eat" gets different letters as a prefix or stuck in the middle, and the equivalent of "the" also changes a little.
If you jumble them and you will sometimes! The meaning is still in there, so you'll probably make sense, but the exact relationships are unclear. In many cases, at least two variations in Tagalog are grammatically valid, but one just feels right to a Filipino whereas the other seems a little odd.
Again, neither is actually wrong, but the best choice isn't always self-evident. The difference looks kind of like the active versus passive voice in English, but it's not exactly the same thing grammatically speaking. More importantly, even though passive construction is poor style in English, all these variations are equally acceptable in Tagalog. As tricky as this feature is, it's also quite interesting. Tagalog and its close relatives are among the most unusual languages in the world in this respect.
Here's a great article if you really want to geek out with me. Most beginners--including me--also find aspects of Tagalog very easy to learn. That's a relief, since there are plenty of challenges to stay occupied with. We looked at differences first because that's probably what you're here to read about. They're also the most interesting.
However, focusing only on differences gets discouraging! It doesn't paint an accurate picture of what it's like to learn Tagalog, either. A few things are a breath of fresh air for students of Tagalog.
In fact, in a handful of ways, it's much easier than even the closest relatives of English. That's a good thing, since you'll want all the time you can get to study verbs! The written language is super phonetic. Compared to English, with oft-observed inconsistencies like "r ough ," "thr ough ," and th ough ," it's a piece of cake! English spelling actually was phonetic back in the day, but hasn't kept up with hundreds of years of changing pronunciation. Tagalog spelling, on the other hand, was last updated in !
They are pronounced almost exactly as in Spanish, and their diphthongs combinations of two vowels, as in h ow or b ay are all intuitive to English speakers. If there's one oddity, it's that a written "i" at the end of a word sometimes takes on an "eh" sound, depending on which syllable is emphasized. This doesn't affect meaning, and you'll be understood either way, but I found it confusing to hear as a new student.
I can't begin to guess why, but tonal languages are more prevalent in Asia than in most of the world. Fortunately, unlike many languages in mainland Asia, Tagalog and its relatives are not tonal.
As mentioned earlier, syllable emphasis sometimes changes meaning, but I find that vastly easier to keep track of than the complex tones of, say, Cantonese! All of the relative difficulties and challenges are moot if you have a deeper personal interest in the places or people who speak a language.
What if you learn Dutch arguably English's closest major relative for no purpose besides an exam? It will be a grind, difficult to recall, and unlikely to be of practical value.
I call this "classroom language syndrome": learning a language because you have to, then arriving in the country only to find your classroom knowledge nearly useless! But if you learn Tagalog an objectively harder language to talk with friends or loved ones? You'll find more opportunities to practice, more motivation to push through the difficult early stages, and a more useful and rewarding experience all around.
It's worth browsing the whole list of languages by time to proficiency. Some will probably come as a surprise. Most languages close to English are estimated at hours of study. German, falls around hours, probably due to its more complex case system. The group includes Tagalog, the more distant Indo-European languages e. Of course, other languages take at least as long to master, all else being equal. They're just not on the list. Firstly, keep in mind that we're talking about averages, so any one person may take significantly more or less time to reach the same level.
What you really want to know is Taglish. In the Philippines though, English has such a huge influence that you simply can't avoid it when speaking Tagalog. An academic will find a way to invent an obscure word to replace an English equivalent, but nobody will actually use this word.
In many cases locals would scratch their head and give up after asking many of their friends when I asked if there was a Tagalog translation of an English term.
This is not just for expected word borrowings which pretty much every language in the world has done too from English in recent times , but the conversation just flows in and out of English a. For example, I found this amusing exchange from a lady fed up with her jealous friend:. Jealous na jealous sa akin iyan pero, no reason naman. I don't even look at her boyfriend dahil sa alam ko masyadong possessive siya. Sobrang pagka-possessive talaga.
Nayayamot na ako. This is an extreme example, and I think it can be misleading how much English is used when you hang out with certain people — especially those in upper classes who prefer English or went to an English speaking school. I don't think they even realise that they are doing it. Rather than being a sneaky marketing trick to make you feel it's less than it is, this is actually a translation of use of lang in Tagalog after quantities.
Since I was in the Philippines for such a short time I didn't quite figure out a way to decide which end of the scale to aim for in the long run. If you watch presenters on MTV Philippines for example, this is the balance they tend to reach. This is the approach I took and it was less pressure to say everything in Tagalog, and actually sounded pretty natural and was less of a shock coming from a white guy than when I came out with full Tagalog phrases.
Despite all the English which will actually be much less when you hear particular people. If you listen to Tagalog radio, even if you speak fluent Spanish, you will have a very hard time keeping up with the non-English and even getting the gist of it in most cases. Having said that, speaking Spanish did indeed make a huge difference. Since most Filipinos nowadays don't actually speak any Spanish although of course there are exceptions , they were surprised by how much vocabulary I knew or could guess.
Here's a pretty long list of examples of Spanish words in Tagalog. While words are spelled differently, you will recognise many of them instantly when spoken. Since Tagalog doesn't have an f sound, it's replaced with a p. So the months of the year and days of the week have been taken from Spanish, but it's better to say Pebrero for example. Numbers can also be used from Spanish, English or original Tagalog but it depends on context.
Tagalog numbers are for basic counting two apples, five people , Spanish would be used for times a las kuwatro and English in prices. Nice to meet you Kinagagalak kong makilala ka Where are you from? Tagasaan ka? I'm from Let's eat! Kainan na!! Suwertehin ka sana!
Have a good trip! Where's the restroom? Nasaan ang kasilyas? How much is this? Magkano ho? How do you say Paano mo sabihin ang Can you please help me? Maaari mo ba akong tulungan? Pwede mo ba akong dalhin sa? What are you doing? Ano ang ginagawa mo? How old are you? Ilang taon ka na? Sign up on Glossika and get 7-day free trial of Audio Training for free:. The Glossika Blog. Share this.
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