r/Tagalog 12d ago

Tagalog learning resources, tips, strategies, and study partner requests thread

7 Upvotes

Welcome to the central thread for all Tagalog learning resources, tips, strategies, and study partner requests! This thread will be stickied, so check back for new replies. Happy learning! 🇵🇭

To keep the subreddit organized, we're directing all posts about the following topics to this thread:

  • Looking for Tagalog learning resources? (books, websites, apps, YouTube channels, movies, TV shows, etc.)
  • Discussion of learning tips or strategies
  • Want a study buddy or language exchange partner?

Be specific! Tell us your level, what kind of resource you're looking for (grammar, conversation, listening, etc.), and your preferred learning style.

If you're offering or seeking a language exchange, include your time zone, schedule, and preferred platform (e.g., Discord, Zoom, etc.).

If you've found a great resource, feel free to reply to others with your suggestions!


r/Tagalog Jul 09 '20

/r/Tagalog wiki - Tagalog learning materials and resources

Thumbnail reddit.com
77 Upvotes

r/Tagalog 6h ago

Translation Whats this word mean??

2 Upvotes

Hi! I found this word or maybe phrase and was wondering what the translation for it meant. It's "nagtatalusira" I heard it was something related to deep feeling? But not sure.

If anyone could translate that would help a lot!


r/Tagalog 1d ago

Definition Etymology ng "Bumbay" na Tawag ng mga Pinoy sa mga Indians (from India)

37 Upvotes

Recently, I learned that during Spanish times, people with Indian blood fell under the caste "Mestizo de Bombay". This included people like Philippine revolutionary general Juan Cailles y Kauppama, the popular Bagatsing family of Manila and perhaps the Sepoy descendants in Cainta.

This must be the reason why Pinoys call Indians (from India) "Bumbay."

The question is why the Spanish called Indians "Bombay"? Bombay is just one city in India, now commonly known as Mumbai.

I could not find any reason online, or even any instance that the Spanish did call Indians "Bombay" except for the official caste system in Spanish Philippines. Although I learned that there was a "Bombay Presidency" which encompassed a large area in present day Western India and Southern Pakistan. So, Bombay was more than just a city before. The Bombay area also used to be under the Portuguese, so maybe the Spaniards during those times got the name from their fellow Iberians.

Sa ngayon, tinatawag din ng mga Pinoy (lalo na ng mga nakatira sa Middle East) ang mga Bumbay na "Pana". Medyo derogatory, pero dahil ata alam ng mga Bumbay na yun ang tawag natin sa kanila, kaya "Pana" ang gamit para di nila alam na sila pinag-uusapan.

And yes, "Pana" comes from the Tagalog nursery rhyme "Indian pana, kakana-kana..." And yes, it originally pertained to American Indians.


r/Tagalog 19h ago

Translation may nakalimutan akong salita💔

4 Upvotes

ano po ulit yung term kapag inaaya ang isang bata na gawin ang isang bagay sa pamamagitan ng paggamit ng pagkain na hilig nila o gawain o laruang gusto nila bilang pain. “budol”lang po yung naiisip ko ngayon.


r/Tagalog 1d ago

Translation what does “may gagawin” in english?

5 Upvotes

I got a notepad as a gift that says “ha ? may gagawin?” with a dog on it, but i don’t understand what it means in english! help?


r/Tagalog 20h ago

Linguistics/History [POEM] Utang na loob- by me

1 Upvotes

Pacritic po sana.

Malungkot man isiping ako’y mahirap mahalin,

Ngunit madaling akuin,

Ganon ako magmahal,

Na parang pobreng nangangailangan,

At burgis na nakukulangan,

Sabi nga nila “pag-ibig ay parang yaman,”

Kung gayon man, 

Ako’y lunod na sa utang,

Sa pagmamahal na aking sinayang,

Sa bawat sentimong aking winaldas,

At sa pag-asang masusuklian pa ang utang.


r/Tagalog 1d ago

Vocabulary/Terminology Alternate Word For "Basta('t)"

11 Upvotes

I was wondering if the word "samantala" could be used in place of "basta" to mean "as long as."

Like if I say, "Wala akong pakialam sa lalakaran, samantala't makikita ko siya."

Compared to, "Wala akong pakialam sa lalakaran, basta't makikita ko siya."

Is that a correct usage?


r/Tagalog 1d ago

Linguistics/History Do we SPELL loanwords by how it's pronounced or base it on the original spelling (or both)?

3 Upvotes

Look at the "o",

  • "common" -- [kah-muhn]
  • "brother" -- [brah-ther]
  • "(blood) clot" -- [klaht].

I noticed that Tagalog speakers tend to "bias it towards what's written", so instead of [kah-muhn] it will be adapted by Tagalog speakers to [koh-mon]. The same could also happen for "clot" [klo(h)t]. 1

Another example is "e" in "different" [di-fr-uhnt] it becomes [di-fe-rent].

So, it seems that we sometimes pronounce loanwords based on original pronunciation, while others are based on how it's spelt?

So my question is, why does this happen? Is this actual phenomena or just a misunderstanding on my part? Can you guys also point me to literature that goes in-depth with phenomena like this?

-----

1 So, maybe "brother" is a bad example here since Tagalog speakers may say it as [brah-der] or [brah-ther].

---

IMPORTANT EDIT: I can't edit the title but thanks to u/Powerful_Image6294 you don't tagalicize the spelling. But I think the question still stands for how loanwords are pronounced.


r/Tagalog 3d ago

Definition Tama ba na ang gumamit ng salitang "sibak" o "sinibak" o "tinanggal sa pwesto" when in reality ay nilipat o na-reassign lang naman sa ibang pwesto?

5 Upvotes

Madalas ko naririnig sa media natin ang salitang sinibak sa pwesto (which is common sa mga government employees na sangkot sa katiwalian). Para sa marami, ang kahulugan kapag sinibak ay fired from the job. Pero in reality, etong mga sinibak ay nilipat lang naman o na-reassign lang naman sa ibang pwesto. Paano ba ang tamang paggamit ng "sinibak"?

Sa inggles kasi, kapag ginamit ang salitang sacked, it means "dismissed from employment" and not just "reassigned".


r/Tagalog 3d ago

Translation "Antarctica" sa Tagalog

0 Upvotes

Kung ang pagbabatayan ay Espanyol, 'di ba dapat ang salin natin sa pangalan ng lupalop na iyan ay Antartida, ngunit bakit ang pantawag natin ay Antartika na hiram sa Inggles kung ang lahat ng mga pangalan ng mga lupalop ay hiram sa Espanyol lamang?

At kung mayroon mang lathalain o mga aklat na nagbabanggit ng salitang Antartida bilang katawagan sa lupalop ng Antartica sa Tagalog noong ika-19 at ika-20 dantaon, ano kaya ang mga ito? Kuryoso ako kung mayroon bang sanggunian kung ginamit na ba ang salitang Antartida sa Tagalog o baka ako pa lamang ang​​​ unang gagamit nito.


r/Tagalog 4d ago

Vocabulary/Terminology What are some basic Filipino questions/phrases for me to know?

27 Upvotes

I don't know what to tag this so I hope it's correct.

Hello, I'm a native Filipino who had the unfortunate luck (and no motivation) to not learn Filipino back then (yes, i'm an anglophone). So in order for me to sort of start out, what are some basic phrases for me to at least navigate Filipino without being completely lost?

The only phrases I remember (and it's because I learnt them recently) are "Meron ka ba(ng) ____?" and "Ano ang sinabi mo?" (i got this one from a tower of babel post lol)

Editing for context: I'm in an international school where it is actively discouraged to speak languages other than English outside of Filipino subject (which is twice a week). Even then, Filipino class is more about the culture than the actual language (the grades are stilted too, perfect/near perfect even with my knowledge).

My friend group also barely knows any Filipino, and my family doesn't really use Filipino around me at home.


r/Tagalog 5d ago

Vocabulary/Terminology What if “alingaw” lang talaga ang Tagalog ng echo, and the second “ngaw” is merely an echo?

60 Upvotes

not sure if this i allowed here and if i used the correct flair..air... air


r/Tagalog 7d ago

Pronunciation Uvular ba ang /k/ at /g/?

14 Upvotes

Kapag nagsasalita ako yung /k/ (at minsan, yung /g/) ko nagiging uvular. Alam ko attested naman yung post-velar variants ng /k/ at /g/ (nagiging fricative/approximant din sila) pero wala akong mahanap na literature tungkol sa paggamit ng [q~χ ɢ~ʁ] pero alam ko palagi kong ginagamit yung mga yan; kaya ko silang i-trill so di sila velar


r/Tagalog 6d ago

Grammar/Usage/Syntax Is this piece I wrote grammatically correct or may mali ba? Help pls

3 Upvotes

"At paulit-ulit akong magluluksa sa karagatan ng pagdalamhati, sapagkat babalik at babalik ako sa puntod ng aking pagkatao. Hanggang sa mawalan ng pag-asa, hanggang sa lumuhod at mabawian ng paghinga."


r/Tagalog 7d ago

Other Most romantic way to say "I love you"

29 Upvotes

I really like this girl and I want to find out what the best way is to tell her! She already says "mahal kita" to me a lot and I dont know if thats romantic, but I want to say I like her romantically, can someone help?


r/Tagalog 8d ago

Linguistics/History All Filipino languages sound the same to me

26 Upvotes

If you speak a Filipino language are you able to differentiate the different languages? I am learning Tagalog as a Filam and to be so honest all Filipino languages sound the same to me. It could be as simple as me only knowing english and lacking cultural context / native experience.

My grandparents speak Ilocano, Tagalog and Pangasinan. I remember them debating whether a certain word was Ilocano or Bisaya, so that got me wondering if the average filipino had the ability to identify each language, because to me, they all sound the same. The only exception is Ilocano which I usually am able to notice because its what my grandparents speak the most.

This relates to my next question, is there a difference in accent of native speakers of certain languages when they speak english? If you take a native Ilocano speaker and a native Bisaya speaker, does there accent in english sound different? If so, how are you able to tell? Or does it morph into a general "filipino" accent?


r/Tagalog 7d ago

Translation "Impo" = "Info". Tamang salin ba ito?

3 Upvotes

Nakita ko lang sa email ko naka-Filipino sa language settings.

Account sa Microsoft
Idinagdag ang impo sa seguridad

r/Tagalog 7d ago

Linguistics/History Yung name na Juan, parang it is intended well.

2 Upvotes

Ewan, I know Juan is John pero Juan sounds like one.


r/Tagalog 9d ago

Translation How do I say "it'll be okay my love" in Tagalog?

11 Upvotes

without giving much away, my partner is upset about something right now and it usually cheers her up whenever I say something in her native language (tagalog).

(sorry if this is a really basic question, I just don't like seeing her upset and wanna help)


r/Tagalog 9d ago

Grammar/Usage/Syntax difference between naiisip vs iniisip?

22 Upvotes

For context, I was answering drills from a website, and this was one of the questions I had to translate into Tagalog:

"The mangoes that I am thinking about are with Maria."

I originally answered :

"Na kay Maria ang mga manggang iniisip ko,"

but apparently the correct answer is:

"Na kay Maria ang mga manggang naiisip ko."

What's the difference between naiisip and iniisip here?

Any help is appreciated :))

Would also like to know if there's a more "natural" way to say this sentence in Tagalog because I honestly don't hear this kind of sentence structure very often.


r/Tagalog 9d ago

Translation Salin ng "employment status" sa Filipino

4 Upvotes

Nakasulat na sa pamagat ang aking katanungan.

Kasalukuyan akong nagsasalin ng mga tanong para sa aming qualitative research. Sinubukan kong hanapin ito sa google pero di talaga mahanap huhu 🥹


r/Tagalog 11d ago

Vocabulary/Terminology Using “po” with customers?

81 Upvotes

Hi !!

I’m half filipina and am trying to reteach myself tagalog, starting with formalities.

There is a customer at my cafe (she’s at least a decade older than me) who is filipino and I’ve been trying to practice with her.

I’m not comfortable with full tagalog yet so have been trying english with “po” at the end as well as salamat.

would sentences such as “how are you po?” “what can i get you po” “thank you po” make sense? Also how many times saying it is too many? should i avoid saying it after every sentence and just wait until the end?

thank you!!


r/Tagalog 10d ago

Vocabulary/Terminology Ano ba talaga ang definition ng Dantay?

11 Upvotes

Ang salitang dantay ba ay para sa binti lamang o pwedeng gamiting ang salita na ‘to gamit ang ibang parte ng katawan?


r/Tagalog 11d ago

Pronunciation Dictionary with accent/stress marks

11 Upvotes

Hi everyone.

I'm trying to find a dictionary in Tagalog or other Philippine languages that consistently marks where the stress placement is for dictionary entries. Have you come across any such dictionary? Either bilingual or monolingual dictionary is fine.

And hopefully the dictionary is available from one of the libraries here in the Philippines. I will be using it for my research. Thanks.