Tagalog language

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Tagalog
Wikang Tagalog
Pronunciation	[ta'ga:log] i
Native to	Philippines
Region	Katagalugan; Metro Manila (as Filipino), parts of Central Luzon, most of Calabarzon, parts of Mimaropa, northwestern Bicol Region, and Ilocos Region (southeast Pangasinan)
Ethnicity	Tagalog
Speakers	L1: 33 million (2023)[1] L2: 54 million (2020)[1] Total: 87 million (2020-2023)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine Greater Central Philippine Central Philippine Kasiguranin-Tagalog Tagalog
Early forms	Proto-Austronesian Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Proto-Philippine Old Tagalog
Standard forms	Filipino
Dialects	Bataan Batangas Bulacan Lubang Manila Marinduque Puray Tanay-Paete (Eastern Rizal-Northern Laguna) Tayabas[2] Soccsksargen (Mindanao)[3]
Writing system	Filipino alphabet (Latin script) Philippine Braille Baybayin (cultural) Jawi script (historical)[4]
Official status
Official language in	Philippines (as Filipino) ASEAN (as Filipino)
Recognised minority language in	Philippines (as a regional language and an auxiliary official language in the predominantly Tagalog-speaking areas of the Philippines)
Regulated by	Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino
Language codes
ISO 639-1	tl
ISO 639-2	tgl
ISO 639-3	tgl
Glottolog	taga1280 Tagalogic taga1269 Tagalog-Filipino taga1270 Tagalog
Linguasphere	31-CKA
Predominantly Tagalog-speaking regions in the Philippines

Tagalog (/t@'ga:lag/ t@-GAH-log,^[5] native pronunciation: [ta'ga:log] ⁱ; Baybayin: ) is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by the ethnic Tagalog people, who make up a quarter of the population of the Philippines, and as a second language by the majority. Its de facto standardized and codified form, Filipino, is the national language of the Philippines, and is one of the nation's two official languages, alongside English.

Tagalog is closely related to other Philippine languages, such as the Bikol languages, the Bisaya languages, Ilocano, Kapampangan, and Pangasinan, and more distantly to other Austronesian languages, such as the Formosan languages of Taiwan, Indonesian, Malay, Hawaiian, Maori, Malagasy, and many more.

Tagalog is a Central Philippine language within the Austronesian language family. Being Malayo-Polynesian, it is related to other Austronesian languages, such as Malagasy, Javanese, Indonesian, Malay, Tetum (of Timor), and Yami (of Taiwan).^[6] It is closely related to the languages spoken in the Bicol Region and the Visayas islands, such as the Bikol group and the Visayan group, including Waray-Waray, Hiligaynon and Cebuano.^[6]

Tagalog differs from its Central Philippine counterparts with its treatment of the Proto-Philippine schwa vowel *@. In most Bikol and Visayan languages, this sound merged with /u/ and [o]. In Tagalog, it has merged with /i/. For example, Proto-Philippine *d@k@t (adhere, stick) is Tagalog dikit and Visayan and Bikol dukot.

Proto-Philippine *r, *j, and *z merged with /d/ but is /l/ between vowels. Proto-Philippine *ngajan (name) and *haj@k (kiss) became Tagalog ngalan and halik. Adjacent to an affix, however, it becomes /r/ instead: bayad (paid) - bayaran (to pay).

Proto-Philippine *R merged with /g/. *tubiR (water) and *zuRu? (blood) became Tagalog tubig and dugo.

The word Tagalog is possibly derived from the endonym taga-ilog ("river dweller"), composed of taga- ("native of" or "from") and ilog ("river"), or alternatively, taga-alog deriving from alog ("pool of water in the lowlands"; "rice or vegetable plantation"). Linguists such as David Zorc and Robert Blust speculate that the Tagalogs and other Central Philippine ethno-linguistic groups originated in Northeastern Mindanao or the Eastern Visayas.^[7][8]

Possible words of Old Tagalog origin are attested in the Laguna Copperplate Inscription from the tenth century, which is largely written in Old Malay.^[9] The first known complete book to be written in Tagalog is the Doctrina Christiana (Christian Doctrine), printed in 1593. The Doctrina was written in Spanish and two transcriptions of Tagalog; one in the ancient, then-current Baybayin script and the other in an early Spanish attempt at a Latin orthography for the language.

Throughout the 333 years of Spanish rule, various grammars and dictionaries were written by Spanish clergymen. In 1610, the Dominican priest Francisco Blancas de San Jose published the Arte y reglas de la lengua tagala (which was subsequently revised with two editions in 1752 and 1832) in Bataan. In 1613, the Franciscan priest Pedro de San Buenaventura published the first Tagalog dictionary, his Vocabulario de la lengua tagala in Pila, Laguna.

The first substantial dictionary of the Tagalog language was written by the Czech Jesuit missionary Pablo Clain in the beginning of the 18th century. Clain spoke Tagalog and used it actively in several of his books. He prepared the dictionary, which he later passed over to Francisco Jansens and Jose Hernandez.^[10] Further compilation of his substantial work was prepared by P. Juan de Noceda and P. Pedro de Sanlucar and published as Vocabulario de la lengua tagala in Manila in 1754 and then repeatedly^[11] reedited, with the last edition being in 2013 in Manila.^[12]

Among others, Arte de la lengua tagala y manual tagalog para la administracion de los Santos Sacramentos (1850) in addition to early studies^[13] of the language.

The indigenous poet Francisco Balagtas (1788-1862) is known as the foremost Tagalog writer, his most notable work being the 19th-century epic Florante at Laura.^[14]

Tagalog was declared the official language by the first revolutionary constitution in the Philippines, the Constitution of Biak-na-Bato in 1897.^[15]

In 1935, the Philippine constitution designated English and Spanish as official languages, but mandated the development and adoption of a common national language based on one of the existing native languages.^[16] After study and deliberation, the National Language Institute, a committee composed of seven members who represented various regions in the Philippines, chose Tagalog as the basis for the evolution and adoption of the national language of the Philippines.^[17][18] President Manuel L. Quezon then, on December 30, 1937, proclaimed the selection of the Tagalog language to be used as the basis for the evolution and adoption of the national language of the Philippines.^[17] In 1939, President Quezon renamed the proposed Tagalog-based national language as Wikang Pambansa (national language).^[18] Quezon himself was born and raised in Baler, Aurora, which is a native Tagalog-speaking area. Under the Japanese puppet government during World War II, Tagalog as a national language was strongly promoted; the 1943 Constitution specifying: "The government shall take steps toward the development and propagation of Tagalog as the national language."

In 1959, the language was further renamed as "Pilipino".^[18] Along with English, the national language has had official status under the 1973 constitution (as "Pilipino")^[19] and the present 1987 constitution (as Filipino).

The adoption of Tagalog in 1937 as basis for a national language is not without its own controversies. Instead of specifying Tagalog, the national language was designated as Wikang Pambansa ("National Language") in 1939.^{[17][20][better source needed]} Twenty years later, in 1959, it was renamed by then Secretary of Education, Jose E. Romero, as Pilipino to give it a national rather than ethnic label and connotation. The changing of the name did not, however, result in acceptance among non-Tagalogs, especially Cebuanos who had not accepted the selection.^[18]

The national language issue was revived once more during the 1971 Constitutional Convention. The majority of the delegates were in favor of scrapping the idea of a "national language" altogether.^[21] A compromise solution was worked out--a "universalist" approach to the national language, to be called Filipino rather than Pilipino. The 1973 constitution makes no mention of Tagalog. When a new constitution was drawn up in 1987, it named Filipino as the national language.^[18] The constitution specified that as the Filipino language evolves, it shall be further developed and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages. Filipino and Tagalog are varieties of the same language, sharing a big bulk of common lexical items, and having very similar grammatical structures.^[22]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding missing information. (March 2018)

Upon the issuance of Executive Order No. 134, Tagalog was declared as basis of the National Language. On April 12, 1940, Executive No. 263 was issued ordering the teaching of the national language in all public and private schools in the country.^[23]

Article XIV, Section 6 of the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines specifies, in part:

Subject to provisions of law and as the Congress may deem appropriate, the Government shall take steps to initiate and sustain the use of Filipino as a medium of official communication and as language of instruction in the educational system.^[24]

Under Section 7, however:

The regional languages are the auxiliary official languages in the regions and shall serve as auxiliary media of instruction therein.^[24]

In 2009, the Department of Education promulgated an order institutionalizing a system of mother-tongue based multilingual education ("MLE"), wherein instruction is conducted primarily in a student's mother tongue (one of the various regional Philippine languages) until at least grade three, with additional languages such as Filipino and English being introduced as separate subjects no earlier than grade two. In secondary school, Filipino and English become the primary languages of instruction, with the learner's first language taking on an auxiliary role.^[25] After pilot tests in selected schools, the MLE program was implemented nationwide from School Year (SY) 2012-2013.^[26][27]

Tagalog is the first language of a quarter of the population of the Philippines (particularly in Central and Southern Luzon) and the second language for the majority.^[28]

According to the 2020 census, 109 million people were living in the Philippines. The vast majority have some basic level of understanding of Filipino. The Tagalog homeland, Katagalugan, covers much of the central to southern parts of the island Luzon -- particularly in Aurora, Bataan, Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Metro Manila, Nueva Ecija, Quezon, and Rizal. Tagalog is also spoken natively by inhabitants living on the islands of Marinduque and Mindoro, as well as Palawan to a lesser extent. Significant minorities of Filipino speakers are found in the other Central Luzon provinces of Pampanga and Tarlac, Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur in Bicol Region, the Cordillera city of Baguio, southeast Pangasinan in Ilocos Region, and various parts of Mindanao especially in the island's urban areas. Filipino is also the predominant language of Cotabato City in Mindanao, making it the only place outside of Luzon with a Filipino-speaking majority. It is also the main lingua franca in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.^[29]

According to the 2000 Philippine Census, approximately 96% of the household population who were able to attend school could speak Filipino;^[30] and about 28% of the total population spoke it natively.^[31]

The following regions and provinces of the Philippines are majority Tagalog-speaking, overlapping with Filipino-speaking (from north to south):

• Cordillera Administrative Region
  • Baguio (While the regional language Ilocano and indigenous languages Ibaloi and Kankanaey are the native languages of Baguio, a provincial dialect of Filipino, is the majority language.)
• Central Luzon Region
  • Aurora
  • Bataan
  • Bulacan
  • Nueva Ecija
  • Zambales
• Metro Manila (National Capital Region)
• Southern Luzon
  • Southern Tagalog (Calabarzon and Mimaropa)
    • Batangas
    • Cavite
    • Laguna
    • Rizal
    • Quezon
    • Marinduque
    • Occidental Mindoro
    • Oriental Mindoro
    • Romblon (While Romblomanon, Onhan, and Asi are the native languages of the province, a provincial dialect of Filipino, is the lingua franca between the various language groups.)
    • Palawan (Historically a non-Tagalog-speaking province, waves of cross-migration from various other regions, especially Calabarzon, has resulted in a dialect of Filipino, becoming the main spoken language.)
  • Bicol Region (While the Bikol languages have traditionally been the majority languages in the following provinces, heavy Tagalog influence and migration has resulted in its significant presence in these provinces and in many communities, Tagalog is now the majority language.)
    • Camarines Norte
    • Camarines Sur
• Bangsamoro
  • Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur (While Maguindanao has traditionally been the majority language of these provinces, Tagalog, or especially or more accurately and specifically as, through or in the form of a dialect of Filipino, is now the main language of "mother tongue" primary education (but here as the local and regional auxiliary official Tagalog language, rather than or instead of the national and official Filipino language) in the province, the majority language in the regional center of Cotabato City (either or both Tagalog or Filipino), and the lingua franca of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao or BARMM (predominantly Filipino).)^[32]
• Davao Region
  • Metro Davao (While Cebuano is the majority language of the region, a linguistic phenomenon has developed whereby local residents have either shifted to Tagalog or Filipino, or significantly mix Tagalog terms and grammar into their Cebuano speech, or a regional metropolitan variety of Filipino, because older generations speak Tagalog/Filipino in home settings, and Cebuano is spoken in everyday settings, making Tagalog/Filipino the secondary lingua franca. Additionally, migrations from Tagalog-speaking provinces to the area are a contributing factor.)
• Soccsksargen
  • Cotabato, South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat (Despite Hiligaynon being the regional main lingua franca, migrations from Luzon and Visayas (including influx of migrants from Tagalog-speaking regions) to Cotabato, South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat has made a dialect of Filipino the secondary lingua franca between various ethnolinguistic groups on everyday basis, especially those not fluent in Hiligaynon. Signages in the region are typically written in Filipino or Tagalog. Filipino is also used in administrative functions by local government, in education and in local media.)

Tagalog serves as the common language among Overseas Filipinos, though its use overseas is usually limited to communication among Filipino ethnic groups. The largest concentration of Tagalog speakers outside the Philippines is found in the United States, where the 2020 census reported (based on data collected in 2018) that it was the fourth most-spoken non-English language at home with over 1.7 million speakers, behind Spanish, French, and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined).^[33]

A study based on data from the United States Census Bureau's 2015 American Consumer Survey shows that Tagalog is the most commonly spoken non-English language after Spanish in California, Nevada, and Washington states.^[34]

Tagalog is one of three recognized languages in San Francisco, California, along with Spanish and Chinese, making all essential city services be communicated using these languages along with English.^[35] In Hawaii, state-funded entities are required to provide oral and written translations for everything in Tagalog and Ilocano.^[36][37] Nevada provides Tagalog Election ballots.^[38]

Other countries with significant concentrations of overseas Filipinos and Tagalog speakers include Saudi Arabia with 938,490, Canada with 676,775, Japan with 313,588, United Arab Emirates with 541,593, Kuwait with 187,067, and Malaysia with 620,043.^[39]

At present, no comprehensive dialectology has been done in the Tagalog-speaking regions, though there have been descriptions in the form of dictionaries and grammars of various Tagalog dialects. Ethnologue lists Manila, Lubang, Marinduque, Bataan (Western Central Luzon), Batangas, Bulacan (Eastern Central Luzon), Tanay-Paete (Rizal-Laguna), and Tayabas (Quezon)^[2] as dialects of Tagalog; however, there appear to be four main dialects, of which the aforementioned are a part: Northern (exemplified by the Bulacan dialect), Central (including Manila), Southern (exemplified by Batangas), and Marinduque.

Some example of dialectal differences are:

• Many Tagalog dialects, particularly those in the south, preserve the glottal stop found after consonants and before vowels. This has been lost in Standard Tagalog, probably influenced by Spanish, where the glottal stop doesn't exist. For example, standard Tagalog ngayon (now, today), sinigang (broth stew), gabi (night), matamis (sweet), are pronounced and written ngay-on, sinig-ang, gab-i, and matam-is in other dialects.
• In Teresian-Morong Tagalog, [r] alternates with [d]. For example, bundok (mountain), dagat (sea), dingding (wall), isda (fish), and litid (joints) become bunrok, ragat, ringring, isra, and litir, e.g. "sandok sa dingding" ("ladle on a wall" or "ladle on the wall", depending on the sentence) becoming "sanrok sa ringring". However, exceptions are recent loanwords, and if the next consonant after a [d] is an [r] (durog) or an [l] (dila).
• In many southern dialects, the progressive aspect infix of -um- verbs is na-. For example, standard Tagalog kumakain (eating) is nakain in Aurora, Quezon, and Batangas Tagalog. This is the butt of some jokes by other Tagalog speakers, for should a Southern Tagalog ask nakain ka ba ng pating? ("Do you eat shark?"), he would be understood as saying "Has a shark eaten you?" by speakers of the Manila Dialect.
• Some dialects have interjections which are considered a regional trademark. For example, the interjection ala e! usually identifies someone from Batangas as does hane?! in Rizal and Quezon provinces and akkaw in Aurora.

Perhaps the most divergent Tagalog dialects are those spoken in Marinduque.^[40][41] Linguist Rosa Soberano identifies two dialects, western and eastern, with the former being closer to the Tagalog dialects spoken in the provinces of Batangas and Quezon.

One example is the verb conjugation paradigms. While some of the affixes are different, Marinduque also preserves the imperative affixes, also found in Visayan and Bikol languages, that have mostly disappeared from most Tagalog early 20th century; they have since merged with the infinitive.^[42]

Manileno Tagalog	Marinduqueno Tagalog	English
Susulat sina Maria at Esperanza kay Juan.	Masulat da Maria at Esperanza kay Juan.	"Maria and Esperanza will write to Juan."
Mag-aaral siya sa Maynila.	Gaaral siya sa Maynila.	"[He/She] will study in Manila."
Magluto ka na.	Pagluto.	"Cook now."
Kainin mo iyan.	Kaina yaan.	"Eat it."
Tinatawag tayo ni Tatay.	Inatawag ngani kita ni Tatay.	"Father is calling us."
Tutulungan ba kayo ni Hilario?	Atulungan ga kamo ni Hilario?	"Is Hilario going to help you?"

The Manila Dialect is the basis for the national language.

Outside of Luzon, a variety of Tagalog called Soccsksargen Tagalog (Sox-Tagalog, also called Kabacan Tagalog) is spoken in Soccsksargen, a southwestern region in Mindanao, as well as Cotabato City. This "hybrid" Tagalog dialect is a blend of Tagalog (including its dialects) with other languages where they are widely spoken and varyingly heard such as Hiligaynon (a regional lingua franca), Ilocano, Cebuano as well as Maguindanaon and other indigenous languages native to region, as a result of migration from Panay, Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor, Ilocandia, Cagayan Valley, Cordillera Administrative Region, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mindoro and Marinduque since the turn of 20th century, therefore making the region a melting pot of cultures and languages.^{[43][44][45][46]}

Tagalog has 21 phonemes: 16 are consonants and 5 are vowels. Native Tagalog words follow CV(C) syllable structure, though more complex consonant clusters are permitted in loanwords.^{[47][48][49][50][51][52]}

Tagalog has five vowels and four diphthongs.^{[47][48][49][50][51]} Tagalog originally had three vowel phonemes, /a/, /i/, and /u/. Tagalog is now considered to have five vowel phonemes following the introduction of two marginal phonemes from Spanish, /o/ and /e/.

Table of the five general Tagalog vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

• /a/ an open central unrounded vowel roughly similar to English "father"; in the middle of a word, a near-open central vowel similar to Received Pronunciation "cup"; or an open front unrounded vowel similar to Received Pronunciation or California English "hat"
• /e/ an open-mid front unrounded vowel similar to General American English "bed"
• /i/ a close front unrounded vowel similar to English "machine"
• /o/ a mid back rounded vowel similar to General American English "soul" or Philippine English "forty"
• /u/ a close back rounded vowel similar to English "flute"

Nevertheless, simplification of pairs [o ~ u] and [e ~ i] is likely to take place, especially in some Tagalog as second language, remote location and working class registers.

The four diphthongs are /aj/, /uj/, /aw/, and /iw/. Long vowels are not written apart from pedagogical texts, where an acute accent is used: a e i o u.^[53]

Table of all possible realizations of Tagalog vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Near-close	I		U
Close-mid	e		o
Mid	e		o
Open-mid	e		o
Near-open		a
Open	a	a

The table above shows all the possible realizations for each of the five vowel sounds depending on the speaker's origin or proficiency. The five general vowels are in bold.

Below is a chart of Tagalog consonants. All the stops are unaspirated. The velar nasal occurs in all positions including at the beginning of a word. Loanword variants using these phonemes are italicized inside the angle brackets.

Tagalog consonant phonemes^[53][54]

		Bilabial	Alv./Dental	Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ng
Stop	voiceless	p	t		k	?
	voiced	b	d		g
Affricate	voiceless		(ts)	(tS)
	voiced		(dz)	(dZ)
Fricative			s	(S) sh>		h
Approximant			l	j	w
Rhotic			r

• /k/ between vowels has a tendency to become [x] as in loch, German Bach, whereas in the initial position it has a tendency to become [kx], especially in the Manila dialect.
• Intervocalic /g/ and /k/ tend to become [W], as in Spanish agua, especially in the Manila dialect.
• /r/ and /d/ were once allophones, and they still vary grammatically, with initial /d/ becoming intervocalic /r/ in many words.^[53]
• A glottal stop that occurs in pausa (before a pause) is omitted when it is in the middle of a phrase,^[53] especially in the Metro Manila area. The vowel it follows is then lengthened. However, it is preserved in many other dialects.
• The /r/ phoneme is an alveolar rhotic that has a free variation between a trill, a flap and an approximant ([r~r~r]).
• The /dZ/ phoneme may become a consonant cluster [ddZ] in between vowels such as sadya [sad'dZa?].

Glottal stop is not indicated.^[53] Glottal stops are most likely to occur when:

• the word starts with a vowel, like aso (dog)
• the word includes a dash followed by a vowel, like mag-aral (study)
• the word has two vowels next to each other, like paano (how)
• the word starts with a prefix followed by a verb that starts with a vowel, like mag-aayos ([will] fix)

Stress is a distinctive feature in Tagalog. Primary stress occurs on either the final or the penultimate syllable of a word. Vowel lengthening accompanies primary or secondary stress except when stress occurs at the end of a word.

Tagalog words are often distinguished from one another by the position of the stress or the presence of a final glottal stop. In formal or academic settings, stress placement and the glottal stop are indicated by a diacritic (tuldik) above the final vowel.^[55] The penultimate primary stress position (malumay) is the default stress type and so is left unwritten except in dictionaries.

Phonetic comparison of Tagalog homographs based on stress and final glottal stop

Common spelling	Stressed non-ultimate syllable no diacritic	Stressed ultimate syllable acute accent (')	Unstressed ultimate syllable with glottal stop grave accent (`)	Stressed ultimate syllable with glottal stop circumflex accent (^)
baba	['baba] baba ('father')	[ba'ba] baba ('piggy back')	['baba?] baba ('chin')	[ba'ba?] baba ('descend [imperative]')
baka	['baka] baka ('cow')	[ba'ka] baka ('possible')
bata	['bata] bata ('bath robe')	[ba'ta] bata ('persevere')	['bata?] bata ('child')
bayaran	[ba'jaran] bayaran ('pay [imperative]')	[baja'ran] bayaran ('for hire')
labi			['labe?]/['labi?] labi ('lips')	[la'be?]/[la'bi?] labi ('remains')
pito	['pito] pito ('whistle')	[pI'to] pito ('seven')
sala	['sala] sala ('living room')	[sa'la] sala ('interweaving [of bamboo slats]')	['sala?] sala ('sin')	[sa'la?] sala ('filtered')

The grammar of Tagalog is agglutinative, predicate-initial, and organized around the Austronesian alignment system, in which intricate verbal morphology indicates which semantic role is associated with the topic ("ang"-marked) argument.

Tagalog verbs combine a wide array of prefixes, infixes, suffixes, circumfixes, and clitic particles to express voice/"trigger", aspect, mood, and valency changes, resulting in morphologically complex predicate structures.

Tagalog noun morphology is relatively simple compared to its verbal system, though nouns are also productively derived from a range of affixes. Grammatical roles are expressed not by case endings but by a three-way article system (ang, ng, sa) placed directly before the noun clause, distinguishing topic, non-topic, and oblique arguments. Pronouns reflect distinctions in person, number, clusivity, and case.

Word order is typically verb-initial, though SVO may be used in formal contexts. Because the voice/trigger system and article markers indicate grammatical roles, arguments can be freely rearranged to shift focus or emphasize different participants without changing the core meaning.

A defining feature of the language is its productive reduplication system, which includes partial and full reduplication. These patterns perform both grammatical and derivational functions, marking imperfective aspect, intensity, plurality, distributive or repeated action, among other functions.

Another important feature is phonemic stress, wherein the placement of stress is lexically contrastive: identical sequence of sounds can represent distinct words depending on stress (e.g., aralin "to study" vs. aralin "lesson"), and the presence or absence of a glottal stop. Stress interacts with affixation and reduplication in systematic but sometimes nontransparent ways.

Tagalog, like other Philippines languages today, is written using the Latin alphabet. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish in 1521 and the beginning of their colonization in 1565, Tagalog was written in an abugida--or alphasyllabary--called Baybayin. This system of writing gradually gave way to the use and propagation of the Latin alphabet as introduced by the Spanish. As the Spanish began to record and create grammars and dictionaries for the various languages of the Philippine archipelago, they adopted systems of writing closely following the orthographic customs of the Spanish language and were refined over the years. Until the first half of the 20th century, most Philippine languages were widely written in a variety of ways based on Spanish orthography.

In the late 19th century, a number of educated Filipinos began proposing for revising the spelling system used for Tagalog at the time. In 1884, Filipino doctor and student of languages Trinidad Pardo de Tavera published his study on the ancient Tagalog script Contribucion para el Estudio de los Antiguos Alfabetos Filipinos and in 1887, published his essay El Sanscrito en la lengua Tagalog which made use of a new writing system developed by him. Meanwhile, Jose Rizal, inspired by Pardo de Tavera's 1884 work, also began developing a new system of orthography (unaware at first of Pardo de Tavera's own orthography).^[56] A major noticeable change in these proposed orthographies was the use of the letter rather than and to represent the phoneme /k/.

In 1889, the new bilingual Spanish-Tagalog La Espana Oriental newspaper, of which Isabelo de los Reyes was an editor, began publishing using the new orthography stating in a footnote that it would "use the orthography recently introduced by ... learned Orientalis". This new orthography, while having its supporters, was also not initially accepted by several writers. Soon after the first issue of La Espana, Pascual H. Poblete's Revista Catolica de Filipina began a series of articles attacking the new orthography and its proponents. A fellow writer, Pablo Tecson was also critical. Among the attacks was the use of the letters "k" and "w" as they were deemed to be of German origin and thus its proponents were deemed as "unpatriotic". The publishers of these two papers would eventually merge as La Lectura Popular in January 1890 and would eventually make use of both spelling systems in its articles.^[57][56] Pedro Laktaw, a schoolteacher, published the first Spanish-Tagalog dictionary using the new orthography in 1890.^[57]

In April 1890, Jose Rizal authored an article Sobre la Nueva Ortografia de la Lengua Tagalog in the Madrid-based periodical La Solidaridad. In it, he addressed the criticisms of the new writing system by writers like Pobrete and Tecson and the simplicity, in his opinion, of the new orthography. Rizal described the orthography promoted by Pardo de Tavera as "more perfect" than what he himself had developed.^[57] The new orthography was, however, not broadly adopted initially and was used inconsistently in the bilingual periodicals of Manila until the early 20th century.^[57] The revolutionary society Kataas-taasan, Kagalang-galang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan or Katipunan made use of the k-orthography and the letter k featured prominently on many of its flags and insignias.^[57]

In 1937, Tagalog was selected to serve as basis for the country's national language. In 1940, the Balarila ng Wikang Pambansa (English: Grammar of the National Language) of grammarian Lope K. Santos introduced the Abakada alphabet. This alphabet consists of 20 letters and became the standard alphabet of the national language.^{[58][better source needed]} The orthography as used by Tagalog would eventually influence and spread to the systems of writing used by other Philippine languages (which had been using variants of the Spanish-based system of writing). In 1987, the Abakada was dropped and replaced by the expanded Filipino alphabet.

Tagalog was written in an abugida (alphasyllabary) called Baybayin prior to the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines, in the 16th century. This particular writing system was composed of symbols representing three vowels and 14 consonants. Belonging to the Brahmic family of scripts, it shares similarities with the Old Kawi script of Java and is believed to be descended from the script used by the Bugis in Sulawesi.

Although it enjoyed a relatively high level of literacy, Baybayin gradually fell into disuse in favor of the Latin alphabet taught by the Spaniards during their rule.

There has been confusion of how to use Baybayin, which is actually an abugida, or an alphasyllabary, rather than an alphabet. Not every letter in the Latin alphabet is represented with one of those in the Baybayin alphasyllabary. Rather than letters being put together to make sounds as in Western languages, Baybayin uses symbols to represent syllables.

A "kudlit" resembling an apostrophe is used above or below a symbol to change the vowel sound after its consonant. If the kudlit is used above, the vowel is an "E" or "I" sound. If the kudlit is used below, the vowel is an "O" or "U" sound. A special kudlit was later added by Spanish missionaries in which a cross placed below the symbol to get rid of the vowel sound all together, leaving a consonant. Previously, the consonant without a following vowel was simply left out (for example, bundok being rendered as budo), forcing the reader to use context when reading such words.

Example:

vowels a i e u o

b b ba bi be bu bo

k k ka ki ke ku ko

d/r d/r da/ra di/ri de/re du/ru do/ro

g g ga gi ge gu go

h h ha hi he hu ho

l l la li le lu lo

m m ma mi me mu mo

n n na ni ne nu no

ng ng nga ngi nge ngu ngo

p p pa pi pe pu po

s s sa si se su so

t t ta ti te tu to

w w wa wi we wu wo

y y ya yi ye yu yo

Until the first half of the 20th century, Tagalog was widely written in a variety of ways based on Spanish orthography consisting of 32 letters called 'ABECEDARIO' (Spanish for "alphabet").^[59][60] The additional letters beyond the 26-letter English alphabet are: ch, ll, ng, n, ng / ng, and rr.

Majuscule	Minuscule	Majuscule	Minuscule
A	a	Ng	ng
B	b	N	n
C	c	Ng / Ng	ng / ng
Ch	ch	O	o
D	d	P	p
E	e	Q	q
F	f	R	r
G	g	Rr	rr
H	h	S	s
I	i	T	t
J	j	U	u
K	k	V	v
L	l	W	w
Ll	ll	X	x
M	m	Y	y
N	n	Z	z

When the national language was based on Tagalog, grammarian Lope K. Santos introduced a new alphabet consisting of 20 letters called Abakada in school grammar books called balarila.^{[61][62][full citation needed][63]} The only letter not in the English alphabet is ng.

Majuscule	Minuscule	Majuscule	Minuscule
A	a	N	n
B	b	Ng	ng
K	k	O	o
D	d	P	p
E	e	R	r
G	g	S	s
H	h	T	t
I	i	U	u
L	l	W	w
M	m	Y	y

In 1987, the Department of Education, Culture and Sports issued a memo stating that the Philippine alphabet had changed from the Pilipino-Tagalog Abakada version to a new 28-letter alphabet^[64][65] to make room for loans, especially family names from Spanish and English.^[66] The additional letters beyond the 26-letter English alphabet are: n, ng.

Majuscule	Minuscule	Majuscule	Minuscule
A	a	N	n
B	b	Ng	ng
C	c	O	o
D	d	P	p
E	e	Q	q
F	f	R	r
G	g	S	s
H	h	T	t
I	i	U	u
J	j	V	v
K	k	W	w
L	l	X	x
M	m	Y	y
N	n	Z	z

The genitive marker ng and the plural marker mga (e.g. Iyan ang mga damit ko. (Those are my clothes)) are abbreviations that are pronounced nang [nang] and manga [ma'nga]. Ng, in most cases, roughly translates to "of" (ex. Siya ay kapatid ng nanay ko. She is the sibling of my mother) while nang usually means "when" or can describe how something is done or to what extent (equivalent to the suffix -ly in English adverbs), among other uses.

• Nang si Hudas ay nadulas.--When Judas slipped.
• Gumising siya nang maaga.--He woke up early.
• Gumaling nang todo si Juan dahil nag-ensayo siya.--Juan greatly improved because he practiced.

In the first example, nang is used in lieu of the word noong (when; Noong si Hudas ay madulas). In the second, nang describes that the person woke up (gumising) early (maaga); gumising nang maaga. In the third, nang described up to what extent that Juan improved (gumaling), which is "greatly" (nang todo). In the latter two examples, the ligature na and its variants -ng and -g may also be used (Gumising na maaga/Maagang gumising; Gumaling na todo/Todong gumaling).

The longer nang may also have other uses, such as a ligature that joins a repeated word:

• Naghintay sila nang naghintay.--They kept on waiting" (a closer calque: "They were waiting and waiting.")

The words po/ho originated from the word "Panginoon." and "Poon." ("Lord."). When combined with the basic affirmative Oo "yes" (from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *heqe), the resulting forms are opo and oho.

"Po" and "opo" are specifically used to denote a high level of respect when addressing older persons of close affinity like parents, relatives, teachers and family friends. "Ho" and "oho" are generally used to politely address older neighbours, strangers, public officials, bosses and nannies, and may suggest a distance in societal relationship and respect determined by the addressee's social rank and not their age. However, "po" and "opo" can be used in any case in order to express an elevation of respect.

• Example: "Pakitapon naman po/ho yung basura." ("Please throw away the trash.")

Used in the affirmative:

• Ex: "Gutom ka na ba?" "Opo/Oho". ("Are you hungry yet?" "Yes.")

Po/Ho may also be used in negation.

• Ex: "Hindi ko po/ho alam 'yan." ("I don't know that.")

Tagalog vocabulary is mostly of native Austronesian or Tagalog origin, such as most of the words that end with the diphthong -iw, (e.g. giliw) and words that exhibit reduplication (e.g. halo-halo, patpat, etc.). Besides inherited cognates, this also accounts for innovations in Tagalog vocabulary, especially traditional ones within its dialects. Tagalog has also incorporated many Spanish and English loanwords; the necessity of which increases in more technical parlance.

In precolonial times, Trade Malay was widely known and spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, contributing a significant number of Malay vocabulary into the Tagalog language. Malay loanwords, identifiable or not, may often already be considered native as these have existed in the language before colonisation.

Tagalog also includes loanwords from Indian languages (Sanskrit and Tamil, mostly through Malay), Chinese languages (mostly Hokkien, followed by Cantonese, Mandarin, etc.), Japanese, Arabic and Persian.

English has borrowed some words from Tagalog, such as abaca, barong, balisong, boondocks, jeepney, Manila hemp, pancit, ylang-ylang, and yaya. Some of these loanwords are more often used in Philippine English.^[67]

Other examples of Tagalog words used in English

Example	Definition
boondocks	meaning "rural" or "back country", borrowed through American soldiers stationed in the Philippines in the Philippine-American War as a corruption of the Tagalog word bundok, which means "mountain"
cogon	a type of grass, used for thatching, came from the Tagalog word kugon (a species of tall grass)
ylang-ylang	a tree whose fragrant flowers are used in perfumes
abaca	a type of hemp fiber made from a plant in the banana family, came from the Tagalog word abaka
Manila hemp	a light brown cardboard material used for folders and paper, usually made from abaca hemp, from Manila, the capital of the Philippines
capiz	a type of marine mollusc also known as a "windowpane oyster" used to make windows

Tagalog has contributed several words to Philippine Spanish, like barangay (from balangay, meaning barrio), the abaca, cogon, palay, dalaga etc.

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Taglish and Englog are names given to a mix of English and Tagalog. The amount of English vs. Tagalog varies from the occasional use of English loan words to changing language in mid-sentence. Such code-switching is prevalent throughout the Philippines and in various languages of the Philippines other than Tagalog.^[68]

Code-mixing also entails the use of foreign words that are "Filipinized" by reforming them using Filipino rules, such as verb conjugations. Users typically use Filipino or English words, whichever comes to mind first or whichever is easier to use.

Urbanites are the most likely to speak like this.

The practice is common in television, radio, and print media as well.^[68] Advertisements from companies like Wells Fargo, Wal-Mart, Albertsons, McDonald's and Western Union have contained Taglish.

Tagalog word	Meaning	Language of cognate	Spelling
bakit	why (from bakin + at)	Kapampangan	obakit
akyat	climb/step up	Kapampangan	ukyat/mukyat
bundok	mountain	Kapampangan	bunduk
at	and	Kapampangan Pangasinan	at tan
aso	dog	Kapampangan and Maguindanaon Pangasinan, Ilocano, and Maranao	asu aso
huwag	don't	Pangasinan	ag
tayo	we (inc.)	Pangasinan Ilocano Kapampangan Tausug Maguindanao Maranao Ivatan Ibanag Yogad Gaddang Tboli	sikatayo datayo ikatamu kitaniyu tanu tano yaten sittam sikitam ikkanetam tekuy
ito, nito	this, its	Ilocano Bicolano	to iyo/ini
ng	of	Cebuano Hiligaynon Waray Kapampangan Pangasinan Bicolano Ilocano	sa/og sang/sing han/hin/san/sin ning na kan/nin a
araw	sun; day	Visayan languages Kapampangan Pangasinan Bicolano (Central/East Miraya) and Ilocano Rinconada Bikol Ivatan Ibanag Yogad Gaddang Tboli	adlaw aldo agew aldaw ald@w araw aggaw agaw aw kdaw
ang	definite article	Visayan languages (except Waray) Bicolano and Waray	ang an

Below is a chart of Tagalog and a number of other Austronesian languages comparing thirteen words.

Tagalog	isa	dalawa	tatlo	apat	tao	bahay	aso	niyog	araw	bago	tayo	ano	apoy
Tombulu (Minahasa)	esa	zua/rua	telu	epat	tou	wale	asu	po'po'	endo	weru	kai/kita	apa	api
Central Bikol	saro	duwa	tulo	apat	tawo	harong	ayam	niyog	aldaw	bago	kita	ano	kalayo
East Miraya Bikol	@sad			@pat	taw	balay	ayam/ido	nuyog				unu/uno	kalayo
Rinconada Bikol		darwa	tolo		tawo	bal@y	ayam	noyog	ald@w	bago	kita	ono
Waray	usa	duha	tulo	upat	tawo	balay	ayam/ido	lubi	adlaw	bag-o	kita	anu/nano	kalayo
Kinaray-a	sara						darwa					ayam		niyog
Akeanon	isaea/sambilog	daywa	ap-at	baeay			kaeayo
Tausug	isa/hambuuk	duwa	tu	upat			tau	bay				iru'		niyug	ba-gu	kitaniyu	unu	kayu
Maguindanao	isa	dua	telu	pat		walay		asu				gay	bagu		tanu	ngin	apuy
Maranao		dowa	t'lo	phat	taw		aso	neyog		gawi'e	bago	tano	tonaa	apoy
Kapampangan	isa/metung	adwa	atlu	apat	tau	bale	asu	ngungut	aldo	bayu	ikatamu	nanu	api
Pangasinan	sakey	dua/duara	talo/talora	apat/apatira	too	abong	aso	niyog	ageo/agew	balo	sikatayo	anto	pool
Ilocano	maysa	dua	tallo	uppat	tao	balay		niog	aldaw	baro	datayo	ania	apoy
Ivatan	asa	dadowa	tatdo	apat		vahay	chito	niyoy	araw	va-yo	yaten	ango
Ibanag	tadday	dua	tallu	appa'	tolay	balay	kitu	niuk	aggaw	bagu	sittam	anni	afi
Yogad	tata	addu		appat		binalay	atu	iyyog	agaw		sikitam	gani	afuy
Gaddang	antet	addwa	tallo			balay		ayog	aw	bawu	ikkanetam	sanenay
Tboli	sotu	lewu	tlu	fat	tau	gunu	ohu	lefo	kdaw	lomi	tekuy	tedu	ofih
Kadazan	iso	duvo	tohu	apat	tuhun	hamin	tasu	piasau	tadau	vagu	tokou	onu	tapui
Indonesian/Malay	satu	dua	tiga	empat	orang	rumah/balai	anjing	kelapa/nyiur	hari	baru/baharu	kita	apa	api
Javanese	siji	loro	telu	papat	uwong	omah/bale	asu	klapa/kambil	hari/dina/dinten	anyar/enggal		apa/anu	geni
Acehnese	sa	duwa	lhee	peuet	ureueng	rumoh/balee	asee	u	uroe	baro	(geu)tanyoe	peue	apuy
Lampung	sai	khua	telu	pak	jelema	lamban	asu	nyiwi	khani	baru	kham	api	apui
Buginese	se'di	dua	tellu	eppa'	tau	bola		kaluku	esso		idi'	aga	api
Batak	sada		tolu	opat	halak	jabu	biang	harambiri	ari		hita	aha
Minangkabau	ciek	duo	tigo	ampek	urang	rumah	anjiang	karambia			kito	apo
Tetum	ida	rua	tolu	haat	ema	uma	asu	nuu	loron	foun	ita	saida	ahi
Maori	tahi		toru	wha	tangata	whare	kuri	kokonati	ra	hou	taua	aha
Tuvaluan	tasi	lua	tolu	fa	toko	fale		moku	aso	fou	taua	a	afi
Hawaiian	kahi		kolu	ha	kanaka	hale	'ilio	niu	ao	hou	kakou	aha	ahi
Banjarese	asa	dua	talu	ampat	urang	rumah	hadupan	kalapa	hari	hanyar	kita	apa	api
Malagasy	isa	roa	telo	efatra	olona	trano	alika	voanio	andro	vaovao	isika	inona	afo
Dusun	iso	duo	tolu	apat	tulun	walai	tasu	piasau	tadau	wagu	tokou	onu/nu	tapui
Iban	sa/san	duan	dangku	dangkan	orang	rumah	ukui/uduk	nyiur	hari	baru	kitai	nama	api
Melanau	satu	dua	telou	empat	apah	lebok	asou	nyior	lau	baew	teleu		apui

Religious literature remains one of the most dynamic components to Tagalog literature. The first Bible in Tagalog, then called Ang Biblia^[69] ("the Bible") and now called Ang Dating Biblia^[70] ("the Old Bible"), was published in 1905. In 1970, the Philippine Bible Society translated the Bible into modern Tagalog. Even before the Second Vatican Council, devotional materials in Tagalog had been in circulation. There are at least four circulating Tagalog translations of the Bible

• the Magandang Balita Biblia (a parallel translation of the Good News Bible), which is the ecumenical version
• the Bibliya ng Sambayanang Pilipino
• the 1905 Ang Biblia, used more by Protestants
• the Bagong Sanlibutang Salin ng Banal na Kasulatan (New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures), exclusive to the Jehovah's Witnesses

When the Second Vatican Council, (specifically the Sacrosanctum Concilium) permitted the universal prayers to be translated into vernacular languages, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines was one of the first to translate the Roman Missal into Tagalog. The Roman Missal in Tagalog was published as early as 1982. In 2012, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines revised the 41-year-old liturgy with an English version of the Roman Missal, and later translated it in the vernacular to several native languages in the Philippines.^[71][72] For instance, in 2024, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Malolos uses the Tagalog translation of the Roman Missal entitled "Ang Aklat ng Mabuting Balita."^[73]

Jehovah's Witnesses were printing Tagalog literature at least as early as 1941^[74] and The Watchtower (the primary magazine of Jehovah's Witnesses) has been published in Tagalog since at least the 1950s. New releases are now regularly released simultaneously in a number of languages, including Tagalog. The official website of Jehovah's Witnesses also has some publications available online in Tagalog.^[75] The revised bible edition, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, was released in Tagalog on 2019^[76] and it is distributed without charge both printed and online versions.

Tagalog is quite a stable language, and very few revisions have been made to Catholic Bible translations. Also, as Protestantism in the Philippines is relatively young, liturgical prayers tend to be more ecumenical.

In Tagalog, the Lord's Prayer is known by its incipit, Ama Namin (literally, "Our Father").

Ama namin, sumasalangit Ka,
Sambahin ang ngalan Mo.
Mapasaamin ang kaharian Mo.
Sundin ang loob Mo,
Dito sa lupa, gaya nang sa langit.
Bigyan Mo kami ngayon ng aming kakanin sa araw-araw,
At patawarin Mo kami sa aming mga sala,
Para nang pagpapatawad namin,
Sa nagkakasala sa amin;
At huwag Mo kaming ipahintulot sa tukso,
At iadya Mo kami sa lahat ng masama.
[Sapagkat sa Inyo ang kaharian, at ang kapangyarihan,
At ang kaluwalhatian, ngayon, at magpakailanman.]
Amen.

The same text, in Baybayin script, is as follows.

;


[
]

This is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Pangkalahatang Pagpapahayag ng Karapatang Pantao)

Tagalog (Latin)

Bawat tao'y isinilang na may laya at magkakapantay ang taglay na dangal at karapatan. Sila'y pinagkalooban ng pangangatwiran at budhi, at dapat magpalagayan ang isa't-isa sa diwa ng pagkakapatiran.

Tagalog (Baybayin)

English

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.^[77]

Numbers (mga bilang/mga numero) in Tagalog follow two systems. The first consists of native Tagalog words and the other are Spanish-derived. (This may be compared to other East Asian languages, except with the second set of numbers borrowed from Spanish instead of Chinese.) For example, when a person refers to the number "seven", it can be translated into Tagalog as "pito" or "siyete" (Spanish: siete).

Number	Cardinal	Spanish-derived (Original Spanish)	Ordinal
0	sero / wala (lit. 'null')	sero (cero)	-
1	isa	uno (uno)	una
2	dalawa [dalaua]	dos (dos)	pangalawa / ikalawa
3	tatlo	tres (tres)	pangatlo / ikatlo
4	apat	kuwatro (cuatro)	pang-apat / ikaapat (In standard Filipino orthography, "ika" and the number-word are never hyphenated.)
5	lima	singko (cinco)	panlima / ikalima
6	anim	seis (seis)	pang-anim / ikaanim
7	pito	siyete (siete)	pampito / ikapito
8	walo	otso (ocho)	pangwalo / ikawalo
9	siyam	nuwebe (nueve)	pansiyam / ikasiyam
10	sampu / pu (archaic) [sang puwo]	diyes (diez)	pansampu / ikasampu (or ikapu in some literary compositions)
11	labing-isa	onse (once)	panlabing-isa / pang-onse / ikalabing-isa
12	labindalawa	dose (doce)	panlabindalawa / pandose / ikalabindalawa
13	labintatlo	trese (trece)	panlabintatlo / pantrese / ikalabintatlo
14	labing-apat	katorse (catorce)	panlabing-apat / pangkatorse / ikalabing-apat
15	labinlima	kinse (quince)	panlabinlima / pangkinse / ikalabinlima
16	labing-anim	disisais (dieciseis)	panlabing-anim / pandyes-sais / ikalabing-anim
17	labimpito	disisiyete (diecisiete)	panlabimpito / pandyes-syete / ikalabimpito
18	labingwalo	disiotso (dieciocho)	panlabingwalo / pandyes-otso / ikalabingwalo
19	labinsiyam / labins'yam / labingsiyam	disinuwebe (diecinueve)	panlabinsiyam / pandyes-nwebe / ikalabinsiyam
20	dalawampu	beynte (veinte)	pandalawampu / ikadalawampu (rare literary variant: ikalawampu)
21	dalawampu't isa	beynte y uno / beynte'y uno (veintiuno)	pang-dalawampu't isa / ikalawamapu't isa
30	tatlumpu	treynta (treinta)	pantatlumpu / ikatatlumpu (rare literary variant: ikatlumpu)
40	apatnapu	kuwarenta (cuarenta)	pang-apatnapu / ikaapatnapu
50	limampu	singkuwenta (cincuenta)	panlimampu / ikalimampu
60	animnapu	sesenta (sesenta)	pang-animnapu / ikaanimnapu
70	pitumpu	setenta (setenta)	pampitumpu / ikapitumpu
80	walumpu	otsenta (ochenta)	pangwalumpu / ikawalumpu
90	siyamnapu	nobenta (noventa)	pansiyamnapu / ikasiyamnapu
100	sandaan / daan	siyen (cien)	pan(g)-(i)sandaan / ikasandaan (rare literary variant: ikaisandaan)
200	dalawandaan	dosyentos (doscientos)	pandalawandaan / ikadalawandaan (rare literary variant: ikalawandaan)
300	tatlondaan	tresyentos (trescientos)	pantatlondaan / ikatatlondaan (rare literary variant: ikatlondaan)
400	apat na raan	kuwatrosyentos (cuatrocientos)	pang-apat na raan / ikaapat na raan
500	limandaan	kinyentos (quinientos)	panlimandaan / ikalimandaan
600	anim na raan	seissiyentos (seiscientos)	pang-anim na raan / ikaanim na raan
700	pitondaan	setesyentos (setecientos)	pampitondaan / ikapitondaan (or ikapitong raan)
800	walondaan	otsosyentos (ochocientos)	pangwalondaan / ikawalondaan (or ikawalong raan)
900	siyam na raan	nobesyentos (novecientos)	pansiyam na raan / ikasiyam na raan
1,000	sanlibo / libo	mil / uno mil (mil)	pan(g)-(i)sanlibo / ikasanlibo
2,000	dalawanlibo	dos mil (dos mil)	pangalawang libo / ikalawanlibo
10,000	sanlaksa / sampung libo	diyes mil (diez mil)	pansampung libo / ikasampung libo
20,000	dalawanlaksa / dalawampung libo	beynte mil (veinte mil)	pangalawampung libo / ikalawampung libo
100,000	sangyuta / sandaang libo	siyento mil (cien mil)
200,000	dalawangyuta / dalawandaang libo	dosyentos mil (doscientos mil)
1,000,000	sang-angaw / sangmilyon	milyon (un millon)
2,000,000	dalawang-angaw / dalawang milyon	dos milyones (dos millones)
10,000,000	sangkati / sampung milyon	diyes milyones (diez millones)
100,000,000	sambahala / sampungkati / sandaang milyon	siyen milyones (cien millones)
1,000,000,000	sanggatos / sang-atos / sambilyon	bilyon / mil milyon (un billon (US),[78] mil millones, millardo[79])
1,000,000,000,000	sang-ipaw[citation needed] / santrilyon	trilyon / bilyon (un trillon (US),[80] un billon[78])

Number	English	Spanish	Ordinal / Fraction / Cardinal
1st	first	primer, primero, primera	una / ikaisa
2nd	second	segundo/a	ikalawa
3rd	third	tercero/a	ikatlo
4th	fourth	cuarto/a	ikaapat
5th	fifth	quinto/a	ikalima
6th	sixth	sexto/a	ikaanim
7th	seventh	septimo/a	ikapito
8th	eighth	octavo/a	ikawalo
9th	ninth	noveno/a	ikasiyam
10th	tenth	decimo/a	ikasampu
1/2	half	medio/a, mitad	kalahati
1/4	one quarter	cuarto	kapat
3/5	three fifths	tres quintas partes	tatlong-kalima
2/3	two thirds	dos tercios	dalawang-katlo
1+1/2	one and a half	uno y medio	isa't kalahati
2+2/3	two and two thirds	dos y dos tercios	dalawa't dalawang-katlo
0.5	zero point five	cero punto cinco, cero coma cinco,[81] cero con cinco	salapi / lima hinati sa sampu
0.05	zero point zero five	cero punto cero cinco, cero coma cero cinco, cero con cero cinco	bagol / lima hinati sa sandaan
0.005	zero point zero zero five	cero punto cero cero cinco, cero coma cero cero cinco, cero con cero cero cinco	lima hinati sa sanlibo
1.25	one point two five	uno punto veinticinco, uno coma veinticinco, uno con veinticinco	isa't dalawampu't lima hinati sa sampu
2.025	two point zero two five	dos punto cero veinticinco, dos coma cero veinticinco, dos con cero veinticinco	dalawa't dalawampu't lima hinati sa sanlibo
25%	twenty-five percent	veinticinco por ciento	dalawampu't-limang bahagdan
50%	fifty percent	cincuenta por ciento	limampung bahagdan
75%	seventy-five percent	setenta y cinco por ciento	pitumpu't-limang bahagdan

Months and days in Tagalog are also localised forms of Spanish months and days. "Month" in Tagalog is buwan (also the word for moon) and "day" is araw (the word also means sun). Unlike Spanish, however, months and days in Tagalog are always capitalised.

Month	Original Spanish	Tagalog (abbreviation)
January	enero	Enero (Ene.)
February	febrero	Pebrero (Peb.)
March	marzo	Marso (Mar.)
April	abril	Abril (Abr.)
May	mayo	Mayo (Mayo)
June	junio	Hunyo (Hun.)
July	julio	Hulyo (Hul.)
August	agosto	Agosto (Ago.)
September	septiembre	Setyembre (Set.)
October	octubre	Oktubre (Okt.)
November	noviembre	Nobyembre (Nob.)
December	diciembre	Disyembre (Dis.)

Day	Original Spanish	Tagalog
Sunday	domingo	Linggo
Monday	lunes	Lunes
Tuesday	martes	Martes
Wednesday	miercoles	Miyerkules / Myerkules
Thursday	jueves	Huwebes / Hwebes
Friday	viernes	Biyernes / Byernes
Saturday	sabado	Sabado

Time expressions in Tagalog are also Tagalized forms of the corresponding Spanish. "Time" in Tagalog is panahon or oras.

Time	English	Original Spanish	Tagalog
1 hour	one hour	una hora	Isang oras
2 min	two minutes	dos minutos	Dalawang sandali/minuto
3 sec	three seconds	tres segundos	Tatlong saglit/segundo
	morning	manana	Umaga
	afternoon	tarde	Hapon
	evening/night	noche	Gabi
	noon	mediodia	Tanghali
	midnight	medianoche	Hatinggabi
1:00 am	one in the morning	una de la manana	Ika-isa ng umaga
7:00 pm	seven at night	siete de la noche	Ikapito ng gabi
1:15	quarter past one one-fifteen	una y cuarto	Kapat makalipas ika-isa Labinlima makalipas ika-isa Apatnapu't-lima bago mag-ikalawa Tatlong-kapat bago mag-ikalawa
2:30	half past two two-thirty half-way to/of three	dos y media	Kalahati makalipas ikalawa Tatlumpu makalipas ikalawa Tatlumpu bago mag-ikatlo Kalahati bago mag-ikatlo
3:45	three-forty-five quarter to/of four	tres y cuarenta y cinco cuatro menos cuarto	Tatlong-kapat makalipas ikatlo Apatnapu't-lima makalipas ikatlo Labinlima bago mag-ikaapat Kapat bago mag-ikaapat
4:25	four-twenty-five twenty-five past four	cuatro y veinticinco	Dalawampu't-lima makalipas ikaapat Tatlumpu't-lima bago mag-ikaapat
5:35	five-thirty-five twenty-five to/of six	cinco y treinta y cinco seis menos veinticinco	Tatlumpu't-lima makalipas ikalima Dalawampu't-lima bago mag-ikaanim

English	Tagalog (with Pronunciation)
Filipino	Pilipino [pIlI'pino]
English	Ingles [?Ing'gles]
Tagalog	Tagalog [ta'galog]
Spanish	Espanyol/Espanol/Kastila [?espan'jol]
What is your name?	Ano ang pangalan ninyo/nila*? (plural or polite) [?a'no: ?ang pa'ngalan nIn'jo], Ano ang pangalan mo? (singular) [?a'no: ?ang pa'ngalan mo]
How are you?	Kumusta [kUmUs'ta] (modern), Ano po ang lagay ninyo/nila? (old use) [?a'no po: ?ang la'gaI nIn'jo]
Knock knock	Tao po ['ta?o po?]
Good day!	Magandang araw! [magan'dang '?araU]
Good morning!	Magandang umaga! [magan'dang ?U'maga]
Good noontime! (from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.)	Magandang tanghali! [magan'dang tang'hale?]
Good afternoon! (from 1 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.)	Magandang hapon! [magan'dang 'hapon]
Good evening!	Magandang gabi! [magan'dang ga'be]
Good-bye	Paalam [pa'?alam]
Please	Depending on the nature of the verb, either paki- [pa'ki] or maki- [ma'ki] is attached as a prefix to a verb. Nga [nga?] is optionally added after the verb to increase politeness. (e.g. Pakipasa nga ang tinapay. ("Can you pass the bread, please?"))
Thank you	Salamat [sa'lamat]
This one	Ito [?I'to], sometimes pronounced [?e'to] (literally--"it", "this")
That one (close to addressee)	Iyan [?I'jan]
That one (far from speaker and addressee)	Iyon [?I'jon]
Here	Dito ['dito], heto ['heto], simplified to eto ['?eto] ("Here it is")
Right there	Diyan [dZan], (h)ayan [(h)a'jan], diyaan [dZa?'an] ("There it is")
Over there	Doon [do'?on], ayon [a'jon] ("There it is")
How much?	Magkano? [mag'kano]
How many?	Ilan? [?I'lan]
Yes	Oo ['?o?o] Opo ['?opo?] or oho ['?oho?] (formal/polite form)
No	Hindi [hIn'de?] (at the end of a pause or sentence), often shortened to di [de?] Hindi po [hIn'di: po?] (formal/polite form)
I don't know	Hindi ko alam [hIn'di: ko ?a'lam] Very informal: Ewan ['?ewan], archaic aywan [?aI'wan] (closest English equivalent: colloquial dismissive 'Whatever' or 'Dunno')
Sorry	Pasensiya po [pa'senSa po?] (literally from the word "patience") or paumanhin po [pa?Uman'hin po?], patawad po [pa'tawad po?] (literally--"asking your forgiveness")
Because	Kasi [ka'se] or dahil ['dahel]
Hurry!	Dali! [da'li?], Bilis! [bI'lis]
Again	Muli [mU''li?], ulit [?U'let]
I don't understand	Hindi ko naiintindihan [hIn'di: ko na,?i?IntIndI'han] or Hindi ko nauunawaan [hIn'di: ko na,?u?Una'wa?an]
What?	Ano? [?a'no]
Where?	Saan? [sa'?an], Nasaan? [,nasa'?an] (literally - "Where at?")
Why?	Bakit? ['baket]
When?	Kailan? [kaI'lan], [ka?I'lan], or ['kelan] (literally--"In what order?/"At what count?")
How?	Paano? [pa'?ano] (literally--"By what?")
Where's the bathroom?	Nasaan ang banyo? [,nasa'?an ?ang 'banjo]
Generic toast	Mabuhay! [ma'buhaI] (literally--"long live")
Do you speak English?	Marunong ka bang magsalita ng Ingles? [ma'runong ka bang magsalI'ta: nang ?Ing'gles] Marunong po ba kayong magsalita ng Ingles? [ma'runong po: ba ka'jong magsalI'ta: nang ?Ing'gles] (polite version for elders and strangers) Marunong ka bang mag-Ingles? [ma'runong ka bang mag?Ing'gles] (short form) Marunong po ba kayong mag-Ingles? [ma'runong po: ba ka'jong mag?Ing'gles] (short form, polite version for elders and strangers)
It is fun to live.	Masaya ang mabuhay! [masa'ja ?ang ma'buhaI] or Masaya'ng mabuhay (contracted version)

*Pronouns such as niyo (2nd person plural) and nila (3rd person plural) are used on a single 2nd person in polite or formal language. See Tagalog grammar.

Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makararating sa paroroonan.

(-- Jose Rizal)

One who knows not how to look back to whence he came will never get to where he is going.

Unang kagat, tinapay pa rin.
First bite, still bread.
All fluff, no substance.

Tao ka nang humarap, bilang tao kitang haharapin.
You reach me as a human, I will treat you as a human and never act as a traitor.
(A proverb in Southern Tagalog that has made people aware of the significance of sincerity in Tagalog communities.)

Huli man daw (raw) at magaling, nakahahabol pa rin.
If one is behind but capable, one will still be able to catch up.

Magbiro ka na sa lasing, huwag lang sa bagong gising.
Make fun of someone drunk, if you must, but never one who has just awakened.

Aanhin pa ang damo kung patay na ang kabayo?
What use is the grass if the horse is already dead?

Ang sakit ng kalingkingan, damdam ng buong katawan.
The pain in the pinkie is felt by the whole body.
In a group, if one goes down, the rest follow.

Nasa huli ang pagsisisi.
Regret is always in the end.

Pagkahaba-haba man ng prusisyon, sa simbahan pa rin ang tuloy.
The procession may stretch on and on, but it still ends up at the church.
(In romance: refers to how certain people are destined to be married. In general: refers to how some things are inevitable, no matter how long you try to postpone it.)

Kung 'di madaan sa santong dasalan, daanin sa santong paspasan.
If it cannot be got through holy prayer, get it through blessed force.
(In romance and courting: santong paspasan literally means 'holy speeding' and is a euphemism for sexual intercourse. It refers to the two styles of courting by Filipino boys: one is the traditional, protracted, restrained manner favored by older generations, which often featured serenades and manual labor for the girl's family; the other is upfront seduction, which may lead to a slap on the face or a pregnancy out of wedlock. The second conclusion is known as pikot or what Western cultures would call a 'shotgun marriage'. This proverb is also applied in terms of diplomacy and negotiation.)

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• Tupas, Ruanni (2015). "The Politics of "P" and "F": A Linguistic History of Nation-Building in the Philippines". Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. 36 (6): 587-597. doi:10.1080/01434632.2014.979831. S2CID 143332545.

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