After my initial attempts at studying the Filipino language by myself, I really wanted some speaking practice and someone to guide me a bit.

I found Desiree, a great teacher located in Taguig, close to my house. Interested Tagalog students in Manila, please check her website.

Thanks to her, I’m slowly understanding more words and grammatical rules for Filipino. So she doesn’t scold me next lesson, I’ll recap here what I’ve learnt in our first 2 lessons, which will help me to remember it, too.

Pronunciation

Kinda basic, but needed to know:

A E I O U

Of note here, the I and U sounds are long.

Then most of the common syllables follow those rules, plus the tricky one for my tongue, NGA, NGE, NGI, etc.. Kind of have to gag to make that sound, so I’ll just think of balut each time I have to say the word with that sound!

Pronouns

ako – I
ikaw – you (singular)
kayo – you (plural)
ito – this
iyan – that
iyon – that over there (these 3 similar to Japanese, これ kore, それ sore, あれ are)
siya – him/her
sila – they/them
tayo – we (if listener is included in the group)
kami – we (if listener is not included in the group)
saan – where
ano – where
kailan – when
gaano(?) – how (not sure if I wrote this down right…)
sino – who?
alin – which

Possessive Pronouns

akin – mine
iyo – yours
kanya – his/hers
kanila – theirs
atin/samin – ours
inyo – yours (plural)

These are still going to take me a while to remember, doesn’t help that I don’t really have anyone else to practice on without feeling a bit silly as everyone around me speaks fluent English. Maybe I can get a foot massage somewhere and verbally assault the masseuse with my bad Tagalog, that seemed to help me learn Mandarin in China, hehe!

Some sample sentences using the pronouns / possessive pronouns (then I can throw away my paper notes):

Ito ay gatas – this is milk
Hindii ito gatas – this is not milk (also including hindii to denote negativity)
Itong mga ballpen ay akin – these ballpens are mine (mga pronounced like “mang.ga” denotes pluralism)
Akin itong mga ballpen - these ballpens are mine
Ang mga ballpen ay akin – the ballpens are mine
Iyon ay mga puno – those are trees over there

Random Nouns

hayop – animal
puno – tree
pagong – turtle
bagoong – shrimp paste (yes, I mistakenly said I like to eat turtle!)
ganda – beauty
isda – fish

Random Adjective

maganda – beautiful (noun with ma in front in this case makes it an adjective)
mura (lang) – affordable (emphasis)

Verbs

eat

kain

kumakain

kumain

kakain

drink

inom

umiinom

uminom

iinom

go

punta

pumupunta

pumunta

pupunta

study

aral

nagaaral

nagaral

magaaral

The rules for conjugating verbs is still tricky, but thanks to my friend’s recent comment on my first Tagalog study posts and now thanks to my teacher, Des, I have a fraction of understanding!

Again, some sample sentences using the above verbs:

Umiinom ako ng gatas – I am drinking milk
Uminom ka na ba ng tubig – Did you drink water?
Kumain ka na – Did you eat? (must raise the end sound to make sure the listener knows you are asking a question)
Ikaw ba ay pupunta sa Market Market – Will you go to Market Market?
Q. Pupunta ka na ba sa Market Market – Are you now going to Market Market?
A. Oo, pupunta na ako (sa Market Market) – Yes, I am going (to Market Market).

Random Phrases

Anong oras na – What time is it?
Sino po kayo – Who are you?
Pasensya na (talaga) – I’m sorry (sincerely)
Makikiraan po – Excuse me
Magandang umaga – Good morning
Magandang gabi – Good evening (must raise the last syllable)
Salamat po – Thank you
Maraming salamat – Thank you very much
Paki luto po – Please cook
Paki abot – Please reach/get
Ako ay si Leon – I am Leon
Siya ay si Tom, Dick, Harry – They are Tom, Dick & Harry
Q. Kamusta ka na – How are you?
A. Mabuti (naman) – Good
Paalam na – Goodbye

Phew, I think that’s everything I took notes of. Some of it may stick in my mind, but going to take a while. My teacher recommended I watch some Batibot (like a Pinoy version of Sesame Street it seems… will watch it in private!)