Tagalog vs Filipino
They are not two languages. They are one language wearing two names, and the difference between them is a matter of law and vocabulary rather than grammar.
The short version: Filipino is the national language of the Philippines, and it is built on Tagalog. Tagalog is the older, regional thing, spoken natively around Manila and the provinces south and east of it. Filipino is what the 1987 constitution named as the national language, and what schools teach.
If you learn one you have learned the other. The grammar is the same grammar. The markers on this site are the same markers. Nothing you study changes based on which word you use for it.
What actually differs
- Borrowing. Filipino is officially open to words from English, Spanish and the other languages of the Philippines. Purist Tagalog has invented native replacements for some of them. Almost nobody uses the replacements in conversation.
- The alphabet. Filipino uses 28 letters, including c, f, j, ñ, q, v, x and z, which exist to spell borrowed words. The older Tagalog abakada had 20.
- Register. Filipino is the language of textbooks, newscasts and government forms. What people speak on the street is Tagalog mixed heavily with English, which Filipinos themselves call Taglish.
The thing nobody tells learners
Neither name covers the country. The Philippines has well over a hundred languages, and Cebuano, Ilocano and Hiligaynon are not accents of Tagalog. They are separate languages, roughly as far from it as Italian is from Spanish. Someone from Cebu may speak Tagalog as a second language, or not much at all.
So learning Tagalog gets you Manila, most of Luzon, most media, and a polite second language nearly everywhere else. It does not get you the whole archipelago, and a course that implies otherwise is selling you something.
Which one this site teaches
Tagalog as spoken around Manila, which is why the site is called what it is called. The reason is not linguistic. It is that learners search for Tagalog: type filipino app into Google and it suggests appetizers and apparel, because the word belongs to food and culture as much as to language. The word people reach for when they want to learn is the older one.
| 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 |
| 3 | Salamat poPlay | Thank you (respectful)po is not a word with a meaning, it is a respect marker. It goes in almost anything said to someone older or senior, and leaving it out is the single most common way a learner sounds rude without knowing it. | polite |
| 6 | OpoPlay | Yes (respectful)Not optional with elders. Oo to your grandmother is the kind of thing that gets remarked on. | polite |
| 1 | SigePlay | Okay / go ahead / sureDoes far more work than 'okay' does in English. It ends calls, agrees to plans, waves off an apology and closes a conversation. If you learn one word, learn this one. | neutral |
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.
- 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.
- Tagalog and SpanishThousands of shared words, and not one shared grammar rule.
- 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.