Eileen Ramos – Learning Basic Tagalog with Eileen Ramos
Derek is joined by Eileen Ramos and they will go over some basic and often used Tagalog words. While Tagalog is not an easy language to learn, it does have its own beauty to it and mastering it would make engaging with Filipinos more entertaining.
Summary
- The islands in the Philippines are separated, being an archipelago, so there are separate identities, separate dialects, separate cultures.
- The penetration of English in the Philippines and the adoption of the language is phenomenal but that creates a challenge for foreigners to learn the language more easily.
- While there are many dialects in the Philippines, the official language is Tagalog.
- Here are some of the words covered;
- “Sige” – Yes
- “Ano” – What
- “Anong”, “ano ang” – What (has to have a word after it)
- “Walang”, “wala” – None
- “Di ba” – Really?
- “Galing – you’re good, good
- “Sarap” – delicious
- “Tama” – correct, right
- “Lang” – for emphasis or minimal
- “Talaga” – really? (question)
- “Kasi” – Because
- “Pwede” – can be
- “Bakit” – Why
- “Anyare” (“Anong nangyari”) – What happened?
Key Points
- As a foreigner in the Philippines it is really quite difficult to immerse yourself in Tagalog and really adopt the language since the Filipinos’ adoption of English is amazing
- The meaning of some Tagalog words changes depending on the intonation used in each sentence.
- It is a big advantage if you take the time to learn Tagalog especially if you’re planning to outsource or reside in the Philippines.
Resources
- outsourceaccelerator.com/podcast/episode10
Transcript
Expand transcriptDerek: Hi and welcome to another episode of the outsource accelerator podcast. My name is Derek Gallimore and today, we are joined by Eileen Ramos. Today, it’s a bit of a different session, it’s a casual session. We are talking Tagalog. So, Tagalog is the main official language of the Philippines. It’s, I suppose what you might refer to as Filipino. But there is hundreds of dialects if not thousands of dialects in the Philippines and that is spread across the over 7,000 islands that are here.
I’m not a big history buff but these islands were very much separate, there were separate identities, there were separate dialects, separate languages completely, separate cultures. And then the Spanish came long and drew a big circle around this massive 7,000 islands and said you are going to be one country. And they named it after the Spanish King of the time, who was Philippe. So, that’s how it became the Philippines. That’s how there are so many, so many languages in the Philippines but Tagalog now is the official first language. But significantly as well, English, the penetration and adoption of English here is phenomenal especially within Manila and as a foreigner in the Philippines it really does become quite difficult to immerse yourself in Tagalog and really adopt the language. Now, that is also quite a cheap excuse because we can all do things better in situation. But I really do see this as a strength of the Philippines in their adoption of English is absolutely incredible right from the blue-collar workers, the laborers, the taxi drivers, of course in to the more educated business elite but today we’re talking Tagalog.
My friends actually created a list of the more prominent ten or twelve words as a bit of a Tagalog hack. Now, not only is there Tagalog but there’s an adoption of tagalog which they refer to as “Taglish” and some many people speak in a blended Tagalog-English form which if I wanna get on my safe box a little more. If you wanna then learn Tagalog it’s a bit more difficult because people like flicking back and forth between tagalog and English. It’s quite intriguing and a beautiful language certainly but today we are talking through our little hack sheet of ten or twelve words. Discussing this with Eileen and I think if you’re never gonna come here the episode should be fun there’s a little bit of an insight into the language and the beauty of the language and the nature of their language. So, enjoy!
If you want the cheat sheet, if you want any of the transcripts, if you want to see any of the spelling go to our show notes. That is at outsourceaccelerator.com/podcast/episode10
Enjoy!
Derek: So, what does that mean and when do you use it?
Eileen: “Sige”, it means yes.
Derek: What’s an example of that?
Eileen: “Gusto mo bang”, if you wanna go out instead of saying yes “sige”.
Derek: Nice! “Ano”?
Eileen: “Ano”
Derek: what does that mean?
Eileen: what
Derek: What? So how do you use that?
Eileen: It’s just like you want someone to repeat the word they wanna say, instead of saying, you wanna say “ano”.
Derek: Ano? So what?
Eileen: “Ano”
Derek: Oh yeah, next one “Anong”
Eileen: okay, that one, it has to have a word after “anong”.
Derek: “anong” dinner.
Eileen: “anong pagkain ngayong gabi”
Derek: So, what is “anong” with English following?
Eileen: “Ano”, what is the food tonight? “anong pagkain ngayong gabi”
Derek: So, “anong”
Eileen: “pagkain”, “pagkain” is food
Derek: So, anong food
Eileen: Food, is anong pagkain
Derek: So, is it a question?
Eileen: Yes, “ano” is what, “anong pagkain ngayong gabi”
Derek: but is there a difference between ano and anong?
Eileen: yeah, well basically anong is like “ano ang”, it’s like you conjunct two words.
Derek: so, what is “ano ang”?
Eileen: “ano ang”, “ang” is the, what is the food tonight
Derek: ah really
Eileen: Yes
Eileen: So, “ano ang pagkain ngayong gabi”, and then you just concise it “anong pagkain ngayong gabi”, what is the food tonight.
Derek: Nice! “Walang”.
Eileen: “Wala, walang”
Derek: So, it’s conjugation between “ang” and “wala”.
Eileen: Yes
Derek: So, what is “wala”.
Eileen: “Wala” is none
Derek: none, so none
Eileen: There’s no food tonight
Derek: No, the food, so there’s no
Eileen: There’s none, there’s no food. So there’s none.
Derek: “Walang” dinner
Eileen: dinner, there’s nothing, there’s “walang” dinner
Derek: “walang”, and people use that in the end of sentences. They go “walang” or they go the beginning
Eileen: no, they just say wala
Derek: wala
Eileen: If it’s just the end like period. Wala, wala
Derek: When, how do you use it? In Taglish
Eileen: Walang dinner
Derek: there’s no dinner. You’re not getting dinner.
Eileen: Yeah
Derek: Really? Oh yeah. “di ba”?
Eileen: Di ba, di ba, really
Derek: Ah really, di ba. D-i-b-a
Eileen: It’s actually two words. Di ba
Derek: Ah, really, d-i-b-a
Eileen: d-I space b-a, di ba, because is a shortened,” di” is a shortened hindi ba but because they shortened it it’s more conversational di ba but “hindi” is no, “di ba” but “ba” is more of like a question, so hindi or like really. So, like questioning something. Really, there’s a, we’re trying to clarify something.
Derek: Next one, “galing”
Eileen: “galing”
Derek: “galing”
Eileen: yeah, you have to, do it like “galiiiiiing”
Derek: “galing”
Eileen: “magaling”
Derek: “magaling”, what is “ma” very
Eileen: yes, because “ma” is a shortened for “marami”, marami means many, galing means you’re good
Eileen: so, many good is like, magaling, maraming galing, so it’s like shortened, concise “magaling”
Derek: “galing” is like, amazing
Eileen: good, it’s like amazing, you’re good.
Derek: “magaling”, and also in Tagalog, they like double the word like “galing galing”
Eileen: no, no it’s tenses. You get the base form of the word. Let’s say for example “kain”. “Kain” is the base form which is eating, eat. Alright, if you wanna say eating. You’re eating right now “kumakain” you have to put the “k” and you say u-m “kumakain” that’s the present tense. Kumakain then you repeat.
Eileen: If you’re going to say did you eat? It’s past tense. “Kumain” do you understand?
Derek: Yeah
Eileen: “Kumakain” is present, “kumain” past tense.
Derek: Okay
Eileen: So, kumain ka na ba?
Derek: So, “magaling”
Eileen: yes, magaling is you’re very good.
Derek: very good, next one, “sarap”
Eileen: “saraaap” you have to say feelings with it, stop being british. “sarap”
Derek: so, the emphasis is on the second syllable, so the first syllable is really quick and emphasis on the second syllable.
Eileen: Yeah.
Derek: and “sarap” means amazing
Eileen: delicious
Derek: delicious, delicious
Derek: okay, and then, “oo tama”, so that’s two words, oo which is like yes
Eileen: that’s correct
Derek: and then tama
Eileen: is you’re correct, that’s correct, that’s right
Derek: so, people often go oo, which
Eileen: Yes
Derek: I know as a foreigner, people go oo. In the west when you go oo it means uh-oh something’s wrong. Here it means yes.
Eileen: oo means yes, but if you want to be polite “opo”
Derek: Opo
Eileen: yes
Derek: and “po” is like Sir or a Madame
Eileen: “Po” is used for elderly. Like if you want to be respectful “opo”. Doesn’t matter what age “opo”. Just wanna be polite
Derek: so, oo tama, so tama, means correct. So, you are correct, that’s right
Eileen: Yes, Tama, “mali” is wrong. “Mali”
Derek: Ah, “tama” “mali”. So, tama means right but mali means wrong
Eileen: Yes
Derek: So You can say “tama “Mali “and that means right wrong
Eileen: Yeah.
Derek: So, that means wrong
Eileen: You’re right that’s wrong. “Tama, mali siya”
Derek: what is the difference in mali and mali siya. Is that just a
Eileen: mali is word and siya is you, the person is a third person
Derek: so, you can say “oo tama” she
Eileen: no, siya, siya
Derek: siya, so you can say, “oo tama siya”
Eileen: Yes.
Derek: you are right
Eileen: no, but if you say “ikaw” it’s you. Oo tama ikaw. Tama kaw
Derek: so, “siya” is them
Eileen: yeah, third person
Derek: Oo
Eileen: Oo, good job
Derek: So, next one is “lang”, which is only, and it’s used a lot
Eileen: it’s like Singapore, no la, yes la. You’ve never been, have you been to Singapore?
Derek: no
Eileen: Yes la, no la, it la.
Derek: so, it means only and it kind of means unique.
Eileen: To emphasize
Derek: But it’s used in everything like an emphasis
Eileen: it’s well not really, sometimes it depends on the sentence. It doesn’t mean necessarily emphasizing, it’s more of a, it’s like saying something nonchalantly
Derek: and they’re saying okay lang
Eileen: okay lang
Derek: okay lang, is like only okay
Eileen: yeah, it’s okay. It’s like, it’s more of like nonchalantly saying something. It’s like yeah, it’s okay.
Derek: So it almost like minimizes the sentence.
Eileen: Yes! It doesn’t emphasize it
Derek: So, could you say, “sarap lang”
Eileen: Yes, that means it’s okay, it’s not that
Derek: it’s amazing but, just amazing
Eileen: it’s minimal. It brings it down
Derek: And you can say galing
Eileen: “galing lang”
Derek: okay and then there’s talaga and talaga?
Eileen: So, Talaga? Its’ a question, really? and Talaga, it means yes, really
Derek: really, so the emphasis on
Eileen: it’s just the sentence
Derek: So there’s three syllables there
Eileen: it’s just like saying, what, if it’s going up, then it’s a question mark, if it’s going down
Derek: and the emphasis is on the third syllable, talaga
Eileen: on the last syllable. Bakit? bakit
Derek: bakit, and bakit means why
Eileen: pangit, so it’s at the last syllable, whatever the last syllable is, it’s not necessarily the third, if it’s a two-syllable word, it’s the last syllable. If it goes up, then it’s a question. If it goes down then it’s a sentence. Same concept as in English
Derek: Yeah, okay so talaga? is really, “talaga” is really (lower voice)
Eileen: Yes
Derek: “Kasi” is because
Eileen: Yes
Derek: “Kasi” Let’s say example “kasi”
Eileen: Because of you, “Kasi ikaw eh”
Derek: “Kasi ikaw”
Eileen: “eh” is more of like “eh”
Derek: “Kasi galing”, “kasi di ba”, “kasi di ba”
Eileen: No, “di ba” is like, really? This’ll make sense “kasi”
Derek: Is it “kase” or “kasi”
Eileen: “kasi”, it’s short I, so it’s the same concept as long I short I, “kasi”, “eh kasi” but the spelling is I. So, it’s the same with “galing”, it should be I but people because texting, the way they speak, how you pronounce it, they don’t, it’s supposed to be I.
Derek: So, I’ve got an example here, Eat your fish “kasi” might get cold.
Eileen: Okay
Derek: Okay, Does that right? Okay
Eileen: Yeah, Okay. Do you want me to translate that?
Derek: What?
Eileen: Eat your fish “kasi” it might get cold.
Derek: It’ll do.
Eileen: Eat your fish “kasi” it might cold. So, it’s just an example.
Derek: Okay, so next one is “pwede”.and my friend told me this so you can say “pwede” with a question. And, and apparently, “Is this girl hot”?
Eileen: Not necessarily just a girl. it’s like “pwede”, like “pwede ba”, “pwede”, like, can it be possible”, can it? pwede is like can, can it be possible
Derek: So, you say “pwede ba”
Eileen: It’s can, “pwede ba”, it’s possible, “pwede ba” can?
Derek: “Pwede” is not “pwede di ba”, it’s “pwede ba?”
Eileen: Yeah, “pwede ba”
Derek: What is “ba”?
Eileen: “Ba” is technically just to, it’s a question
Derek: So, “pwede ba?” Is it possible?
Eileen: It can be like, sometimes they do remove the “ba” but it’s like “pwede?”
Derek: Yeah, you only have pwede.
Eileen: Yah like you, the second syllable should go up, then ends with a question mark
Derek: So, normally is the whole word, “pwede ba” but they shortened it to “pwede”
Eileen: Yeah, “pwede, “pwede ba” Yeah
Derek: Okay, and then you go “pwede?” Which is
Eileen: which is, it’s a
Derek: Can be
Eileen: sentence
Derek: So, next one is “bakit”
Eileen: Why
Derek: And it’s
Eileen: “Bakit”
Derek: “Bakit”
Eileen: “Bakit”
Derek: So, the emphasis is on the first or second syllable
Eileen: The “a” is not short, “bakit”, “ba-kit”
Derek: So, where is it, where’s the, So it’s the first syllable, “bakit”, “bakit”
Eileen: Yeah, “bakit”
Derek: And that’s
Eileen: Don’t shorten the “A”, “bakit”
Derek: Okay, and that’s why? “bakit”
Eileen: Yeah, “bakit”
Derek: Okay. Next one, man, this is like slang.
Eileen: “Anyare”
Derek: “Anyare”
Eileen: “Anong nangyari?” I don’t like, “Anyare” That’s, there is a conversation so “anyare?” so, it’s like
Derek: What’s happening?
Eileen: It’s so Bronx but “anyare”, “anyare diyan sa kan”, “anyare” It’s more of funny, it’s “anyare”, “anyare” is like what happened?
Derek: It’s super like social
Eileen: “Anyare”, yeah
Derek: like casual
Eileen: Yeah, it’s actually a conjunction of two words, “anong nangyari”, “anyare”, so people like kind of got lazy
Derek: So,” anong” which we covered earlier
Eileen: Yeah “ano” is what “ng” is “ang” and then they shortened it because the, what the hell happened? like what happened? and then conjunction “anong nangyari” and then they shortened it “anyare”
Derek: “Anyare”. Wow, okay. Let’s recap, so we’ve got “sige”
Eileen: “sige”
Derek: “sige”, emphasis on the last one. What does that mean?
Eileen: Yes, it’s like okay.
Derek: “Ano”
Eileen: What
Derek: “Anong”, same
Eileen: it means like what the
Derek: Conjugation
Eileen: Yeah, it’s a conjugation
Derek: “Walang”, which is “wala” conjugation of “ang”
Eileen: Yes
Derek: “Walang”
Eileen: Very good
Derek: Which means, basically no
Eileen: None
Derek: None, no dinner. Okay, “di ba” because which is conjugation of two words, “di” “ba”
Eileen: “Hindi ba”, “hindi” is no “ba” is the question
Derek: Okay, “galing”
Eileen: “Galing”
Derek: “Galing”
Eileen: So, you’re like “galing”, so you’re like, because it’s exclamation
Derek: “Galing”
Eileen: “Galing”, you have to say it smiling
Derek: “Galing”, which means amazing
Eileen: Yeah, awesome
Derek” “Sarap”, delicious
Eileen: Delicious
Derek: “Oo tama”, means yeah that’s right.”Lang”, only or minimizes the sentence
Eileen: Like for example with “lang”, “hindi lang”, “oo lang”
Derek: What’s “hindi”
Eileen: “Hindi” is no
Derek: So, no, a little bit
Eileen: “Hindi lang”
Derek: “Hindi lang”. Okay, “talaga?” means really emphasis on the last one. “Talaga” means really. “Kasi” means because
Eileen: “Kasi” shorten the “I”
Derek: “Kasi”
Eileen: “Kasi”, shorten the “I”
Derek: “Kasi”
Eileen: “Kasi”, say it fast “kasi”
Derek: It’s weird when you say like shorten the I because it actually means like make it sound like an “e”
Eileen: Yeah, it’s the same
Derek: Do you have an e in your
Eileen: Yes, Yeah
Derek: Yeah, it’s like “pwede”, “kasi”
Eileen: But it’s just that, yeah but it’s just that for example in your English and later we’ll discuss it
Derek: “Pwede” means, can it be “pwede”, “pwede” can it be, and “pwede”, can be. “Bakit”, “bakit”
Eileen: “Bakit”
Derek: “Bakit”
Eileen: “Bakit” longer the “A”, “bakit” think of a
Derek: And it’s a short “I”
Eileen: Yeah, “bakit”
Derek: “Anyare”
Eileen: “Anyare”
Derek: What is that?
Eileen: “Anong nangyari”, what happened
Derek: What’s up?
Eileen: It’s concised of “anong” what the happened
Derek: Wow
Eileen: “Anong nangyari” so it’s concised “anyare”
Derek: Perfect
Eileen: Where do you get these words!? “Anyare”
Derek: They’re my party words
Okay, I hope you enjoyed that episode with Eileen. Okay, so this is really not gonna knock your lingo off their pedestal it’s no replacement for the Rosetta Stone but I hope you enjoyed that. If you wanna see any of the show notes, if you wanna see the spelling, if you want our little hack sheet on these words go to our show notes that is at outsourceaccelerator.com/podcast/episode10
See you next time!
Listen to more podcast episodes here:
- Derek Gallimore – Centennial Episode’s Big Announcements
- Vince Filamor – Time, Process and People Management empowering Outsourcing
- Romulo Reyes – Business Opportunities in the Gaming Industry
Independent
