How is Tagalog, interesting, hard….?

4 Comments

1. J.J. says:

   August 1, 2010 at 2:50 pm

   It’s good you wanna know about the language…

   Yes, It is spoken by people outside the Philippines, although Filipinos are the only ones you may see speaking it. The cause of both is because of the Filipino diaspora–Filipinos are scattered on every part of the globe. Here is Southern California, my place, Filipinos are very common, together with the language.

   Tagalog or Filipino is one of the most easiest to learn. I’m Filipino but my first tongue is English… I was tutored and it didn’t take long for me to speak, understand, and write the language.

   Tagalog grammar is somewhat flexible. There is a 2 out of 7 (my terms) chance of you commiting grammatical mistakes. Vocabulary is easy to master too, a few tries of saying the word, it’ll stick to you already. But of course, it all depends on the person learning.

   Let’s translate the sentence "I’ll go there." in the two voices of the language (active and passive or karaniwan at di-karaniwan)

   "Pupunta ako roon." — Go there, I will.

   "Ako ay pupunta roon." — I will go there.

   An interesting fact about the language is that its vocab isn’t needed to be mastered. Some people say a word for the nonce and other people understand it without difficulty.

   Like when someone sneezes, it’ll sound like "ahching!" or "ahchoo!"

   So instead of "bumahin" (sneezed), people may say "umatsing"

   Tagalog borrows a lot of words, especially from Spanish and English. Like "kompyuter", since there is no exact translation for "computer" in Tagalog. Tagalog spells words as they are pronounced… It’s the Tagalog rule, "Kung ano ang bigkas, siya’ng baybay." [How you pronounce it, is how you spell it.]

   A con: You need to master to accentuation of syllables.

   Like "tree" — PUno

   and "full" — puNO

   Another con: If you had no experience ever with Tagalog, grammar mistakes’ll be frequent. For example, "I’ll go there", "Ako ay pupunta dito.", may become "Ako pupunta dito" or "Ako punta dito." So you need to pay attention to the linking verb "ay" (be-verb).

   You may need to practice you pronunciation. Spanish and Tagalog have the same pronunciatio techniques. "R" is a trill, "a" is short and not "a" as in cAt, "o" is round and in Tagalog may sometimes change into an "u" /ooh/.

   You may check out more by research on the Internet.

   Have fun learning!
2. Julius Ceazar M says:

   August 1, 2010 at 2:50 pm

   Actually it is not a difficult language to learn. I know this because I’m a Filipino.

   Tagalog is an ethnic language prominent to the Philippines. However the national language is called Filipino. There’s a difference between tagalog and Filipino although they are similar. Filipino is the modern version of Tagalog. Meaning, it accepts english words or any other language words as a part of the grammar. ^_^
3. +++y0U_tuBe+++ says:

   August 1, 2010 at 2:50 pm

   tagalog is easy to learn..

   The sentence pattern is different, in english it’s subject-verb-object but in tagalog it’s verb-subject-object

   In making verbs in future tense, just double the first syllable.
   Example:
   eat- will eat
   kain- kakain

   I will eat that
   Kakain ako nyan

   (you notice here that the verb "kakain" (will eat) is in front of the sentence)

   mag-means "to do". You can put any words to make it in it’s "to do" form, even english will do!
   Example:
   "Mag-internet" means "to surf on the internet"
   "Mag-shopping" means "to do shopping"
   "Mag-sayaw" means "to dance" (sayaw means dance)

   We will go shopping
   Mag-shoshoping kami
   (Notice that I double the first syllable of the word "shopping", it’s because it’s in future tense)

   Ana and john will dance
   Mag-sasayaw sina ana at john
4. Andrea says:

   March 24, 2011 at 5:27 pm

   Tagalog/Filipino was my first language. I don’t know how hard it is for others who don’t speak it as a first language, but I just have something to say. I think verbs would be a little hard to memorize because just repeating the first syllable isn’t always right.

   to eat – yes, the future tense would be “kakain” but you don’t just repeat the first syllable of ‘tulog’ – to sleep. You also have to add “ma” to the beginning: “Matutulog ako.” – “I am going to sleep/ I will sleep.”