🇵🇭 Tagalog (Filipino) #23 Most Spoken Language (87M speakers)

Tagalog (and the national standard Filipino) is an Austronesian language with a voice system that lets you spotlight different roles: the doer (Actor Focus), the thing affected (Patient Focus), the location, the beneficiary, and more. Grammar prefers predicate-initial sentences, and aspect (completed, incompleted, contemplated) matters more than tense. Everyday speech is rich with Spanish and English loans—plus a delightful layer of discourse particles like na, pa, po, ba, rin/din.

• ng is one letter (the sound in “sing”), not n+g; nang is a separate word (e.g., manner/when).
• Stress & glottal stop are usually unmarked in everyday writing; dictionaries sometimes use á/à/â.
• mga marks plural and is pronounced /mɐˈŋa/.
• Spanish influence: months, time, numbers (often in code-switching), many nouns.

• Focus markers: ang/si (topic), ng/ni (non-topic/genitive), sa/kay (locative/dative).
• Personal names: si/sina, ni/nina, kay/kina (sg/pl); common nouns use ang/ng/sa.
• Aspect: completed, incompleted (progressive/habitual), contemplated (future/intent).
• Voice: Actor Focus (-um-, mag-/nag-), Patient Focus (-in-, i-, -an), others like Locative/Benefactive.

Politeness often lives in particles: po/ho (polite), ba (question), na (already/now), pa (still/yet), rin/din (also; rin after vowel sounds). In Manila Filipino, code-switching with English (“Taglish”) is perfectly normal and even stylish in media and tech.

Kumakain na ako ng mangga.
ka-kain na ako ng mangga
AF • incompleted: “I’m eating mango already.” na marks “already/now”.

Bibilhin ko ang libro bukas.
PF • contemplated (future): “I will buy the book tomorrow.”

Kamusta! • Salamat • Ingat! (Take care)

• Keywords: Tagalog vs Filipino, Tagalog verb focus, ang/ng/sa markers, Tagalog affixes, Tagalog particles, Tagalog pronunciation.
• Search intent fit: quick guide to markers, beginner-friendly conjugation, Tagalog sentence order, polite particles.
• Entities: Baybayin script, Metro Manila Filipino, Spanish/English loanwords, aspect: completed/incompleted/contemplated.

Is Filipino different from Tagalog?

Filipino is the national standard based on Tagalog and open to vocabulary from other Philippine languages and English/Spanish.

Do verbs have tenses?

Not like English. Tagalog tracks aspect (completed, incompleted, contemplated) and voice (which role is in focus).

Do I need mga for every plural?

Use mga to mark plural on nouns (ang mga bata “the children”). Quantifiers can make mga optional.