Is Tagalog similar to Spanish?
In vocabulary, enormously. In grammar, not at all. Three hundred years of Spanish rule left the words and took none of the structure with it.
The words carried over
Spanish ruled the Philippines for over three centuries and left behind a very large share of everyday vocabulary. Days, months, numbers, kitchen and household nouns, and most religious language are Spanish underneath the spelling.
- mesa table, kutsara spoon, bintana window, sapatos shoes, kotse car
- Lunes through Sabado for the days, Enero through Disyembre for the months
- kumusta itself, from ¿cómo está?
- pasensya, patience, which is how Tagalog says sorry
| Rank | Tagalog | What it does | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | Kumusta?Play | How are you? / heyFrom the Spanish 'como esta'. Works as a greeting on its own, the way 'how's it going' does. | neutral |
| 18 | Pasensya naPlay | Sorry / my apologiesCloser to 'bear with me' than to an admission of fault. Sorry po is also used and is not considered lazy. | neutral |
| 16 | Magkano?Play | How much is it? | neutral |
The grammar that did not
Tagalog is Austronesian, related to Malay, Indonesian and the languages of Polynesia, and its structure shows it. Sentences usually put the verb first. Nouns are labelled by a marker in front of them rather than by where they sit. Verbs change shape to spotlight a noun rather than to agree with a subject.
None of that has a Spanish parallel, which is why a Spanish speaker picks up Tagalog vocabulary quickly and Tagalog sentences slowly.
| In front of… | angwhat it is about | ngwhose it is | sato / at / in |
|---|---|---|---|
| an ordinary thingbahay (house) | angPlay | ngPlay | saPlay |
| somebody's nameMaria | siPlay | niPlay | kayPlay |
| more than onebata (child) | ang mgaPlay | ng mgaPlay | sa mgaPlay |
Two sets of numbers
Tagalog kept its own numbers and borrowed Spanish ones on top, and both are in daily use. Native numbers count objects. Spanish-derived numbers tell the time, quote a price and give an age. Full tables are on the numbers page.
False friends
Borrowed words drift. Siguro came from seguro, certain, and now means maybe. Palengke, from palenque, is a wet market. If a word looks Spanish, trust the sound and check the meaning.
Start with the free sectionThe six words that run the language — Tagalog puts a little word in front of every noun to show what it is doing. There are only six of them. No account, nothing to install.The frequency ordering on this site is an informed estimate, not a corpus count. There is no published frequency count for conversational Tagalog, so it prints a rank and never a percentage. When a real count exists, the order changes and this line changes with it.
It teaches Tagalog as spoken around Manila, which is not the same thing as Filipino and is not the whole country. Cebuano and Ilocano are different languages, not accents.
Nothing is drilled until a native speaker has checked it. What has been checked, by whom, and what is still owed is written down on the sources page.
- Phrase lookupSearch a word, see what lives next to it.
- Why Duolingo has no TagalogThe real reason, and what to do instead.
- Basic Tagalog phrasesThe ones you will actually hear, in frequency order, with audio.
- All the phrasesThe whole list this app drills, on one page.
- ang, ng, saNine cells that decide the shape of every Tagalog sentence.
- The pronoun gridTwenty-one cells, three cases, and the two words for we.
- Pronunciation and stressWhy buhay and buhay are different words, and how to hear it.
- Where this comes fromEvery source, every licence, and who checked the Tagalog.
- Tagalog vs FilipinoDifferent names, mostly the same language. What actually differs.
- Is Tagalog hard?Honest answer: the grammar is strange, the spelling is free.
- Tagalog greetingsHello, good morning, and what you say back.
- Hello in TagalogKumusta, and the formal version, with audio.
- Thank you in TagalogSalamat, salamat po, and the reply.
- Po and opoThe respect particle, and the mistake foreigners make with it.
- Mahal kitaI love you, and the word that also means expensive.
- Is Tagalog tonal?No. But stress changes meaning, which trips people the same way.
- Tagalog for travelThe jeepney word, the haggling word, and where the bathroom is.
- Learn Tagalog freeWhat is actually free, what is a trial, and where to start.
- Tagalog numbersTwo whole systems, and when each one is used.