How difficult is it to learn Tagalog for a native English speaker?

Learning any language depends on the person learning it.

If you keep an open mind, are willing to learn, are not embarrassed to pronounce new words incorrectly, and practice gradually everyday (preferably with native speakers), then you can become fluent in no time. This goes for any language.

One of the key elements to learning a new language is to learn things you can and will actually use in everyday life. "Where's the bathroom?" is a phrase you will actually use if you go to the Philippines. Learning a phrase like, "The map to the city is very old" is practically useless.

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I guess it won't be too hard for ya.

I'm also a native english speaker and half-Filipino and when I was tutored to read, write and speak in Filipino (the Tagalog dialect), I found out that you can actually incorporate english words in it easily.

Filipino has a lot of words taken from Spanish, you'll see that it can be spelled a li'l differently but still close to the actual Spanish spelling like Jabon = Sabon or Viaje = Biyahe or Corriente = Kuryente

As for the combination of english and filipino, just to give you an idea, examples are "Okay lang" = "It's okay" or "Kaka-graduate lang niya" = "He/she just graduated" but this combination thing is used mostly for english words that doesn't have any Filipino equivalent, although, from what I've found out, people use the combining techinique more often nowadays.

Good luck! :)

It's not easy for a native English speaker. But with your skills in Spanish, you should have an easier time especially with pronunciation and recognizing many familiar words in Tagalog that are derived from the Spanish language.

The best way to learn is to practice by talking to people who speak Tagalog. However, finding participants with the right patience can be difficult to find. The other best alternative is to learn by speaking (writing) in Tagalog through chatrooms. If you can manage to carry on a conversation through chat, you can learn to manage a conversation verbally.

Good luck!

The TTSUU software will help you, TTSUU (Text to Speech Universal Utility) is a Text to Speech software that converts any text into natural-sounding speech. It reads any text for you. You can also convert the text material into WAV or MP3 audio files with this tool, so that the resulting MP3 can be played on many other devices such as iPods, PocketPCs and CD players etc. And TTSUU can even generate lyrics for you when converting text material into audios. When playing the audio, those devices with the lyrics capability, will display the original text, and therefore it will be possible for you to not only hear the text material but also get a look at the content through the display. The interface of TTSUU is very simple and intuitive, the two pillars in the interface serve as the area where you can add sticky notes that highlight points in the text content. You can pick off any interesting and salient parts of the text from any electronic documents such as MS Word Documents, Emails, Web Pages, PDF Files, etc and copy into these notes, and these can be colored to draw your attention easily. TTSUU allows you to slow down reading speed to learn the pronunciation. We provide multiple language voices: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Finish, Japanese, Chinese(Mandarin, HongKong, Taiwan), Korean, Portuguese, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, etc.

well i am a filippino

since you know a little spanish some words are the same with tagalog words and no its no tha hard to learn tagalog i studied chinese and i passed the test!

it's would be really easy 'cause in tagalog: you pronounce the words phonetically, there isn't a lot of grammar rules, but the verb conjugation is a bit hard(but, french is harder=D)....

Spanish and Tagalog is pretty much the same (most: same pronounciation but different in spelling) so it will be easy for you to learn it ^_^

Example:

1st:

Tagalog: tsinelas

Spanish: chinelas

2nd:

T: karne

S: carne

3rd:

T: sapatos

S: zapatos

4th:

T: garahe

S: garaje

5th:

T: bisikleta

S: bicicleta

1. ) Just add "mga" (pronunciation: "ma-nga") to pluralized tagalog nouns.

Example: Book-Books = Libro-Mga libro

Child-children = Bata- Mga Bata

2.) "Nasaan"(pronunciation: "Na-sa-an") means "where(interrogative pronoun)"

Example:Where is ana?

Nasaan si Ana?

Where is the cat

Nasaan ang pusa?

Where is the school?

Nasaan ang paaralan(paaralan means school)

(Note: Always put "si" before the noun if it is NAME OF A PERSON. If it is improper noun use "ang")

"Bakit" means "Why".

Example: Why are you like that?

Bakit ka ganyan?

Why is it red?

Bakit pula ito?

"Kailan" (pronunciation: ka-i-lan) means "When" (interrogative).

Example:

When will you go?

Kailan ka aalis?

When should I go?

Kailan ako dapat umalis?

"Sino" means "Who"(interrogative).

Example:

Who is Ana?

Sino si Ana?

Who is the teacher?

Sino ang guro?

3.) "Ba" is use for interrogative sentences.

Example:

You are beautiful

Maganda ka

Are you beautiful?

Maganda ka ba?

4.)Tagalog has only 3 verb tenses. And these are Past, Future and Present Continuous.

To make verbs in future tense just double the first syllable of the word.

Example:

dance- will dance

sayaw- sasayaw

eat- will eat

kain- kakain

drink- will drink

inom- iinom

I will eat spaghetti

Kakain ako ng spaghetti

I will drink milk

Iinom ako ng gatas

To make verbs in past tense is complicated. Copy the first letter of the verb and then put "u" (If the first letter of the word is a vowel, just put "u". Put "m" from the first vowel of the first syllable.( I hope that i explain well it to you)

Example:

dance- danced

sayaw- sumayaw

eat- ate

kain- kumain

drink- drank

inom- uminom

I ate spaghetti

Kumain ako ng spaghetti

I drank milk

Uminom ako ng gatas

OR just add na- before the root word.

Example.

I already ate that

Nakain ko na iyan.

I already take/drink my vitamins.

Nainom ko na ang bitamina

I danced with Ana/ I danced Ana

Nasayaw ko si ana

To make verbs in present continuous is much complicated. Copy the first letter of the word and put "u" after it. Put "m" before the first step and add the first letter of the first syllable, after that put the root word after those two steps. (I hope that i explained it well)

Example:

dance- dancing

Sayaw- Sumasayaw

eat- eating

kain- kumakain

drink- drinking

inom- umiinom

I am eating spaghetti

Kumakain ako ng spaghetti

I am drinking milk

Umiinom ako ng gatas

5.) If you heard the word "taga-", it means that you are living

in a particular place.

Example:

Taga-Maynila (living in Manila)

I am living in Manila

Taga-Manila ako

I live in California

Taga-California ako

"Taga-" also means "the one who".

Example

clean- linis

cleaner- taga-linis

read- basa

reader- taga-basa

I am the reader

Taga-basa ako

6.) "Naka-" means wearing something.

Example:

Naka-pula (wearing red. Pula means red)

I am wearing red

Naka-pula ako

I am wearing T-shirt

Naka-Tshirt ako

7.) Politeness. Use the word "po" for polite sentences.

Example

Where are you?

Nasaan ka? (impolite)

Nasaan po kayo? (polite)

(Note: Kayo is the plural form of "ka". Whenever using the word "po", you must pluralized the pronoun. So, "Nasaan po ka?" is wrong!

8.) To make nouns in adjective form, just add ma- to the root word.

Example:

Beauty- Beautiful

Ganda- Maganda

Noise- Noisy

Ingay- Maingay

Heat- Hot

Init- Mainit

It is hot today

Mainit ngayon (mainit- hot, ngayon- today)

Ana is beautiful

Maganda si Ana

9.) English nouns ending in "-tion, -sion", to translate in tagalog, just replace -tion, -sion to "-syon/siyon" and change the letter "c" to "k", "v" to "b" if there is.

Example:

Population- Populasyon/ Populasiyon

Version- Bersyon/ Bersiyon

Nation- Nasyon/ Nasiyon

10.)"Na" means already done/already/already happened in the past.

Example.

I ate my breakfast

kumain na ako ng almusal.

I already take a bath.

Naligo na ako

"Rin/Din" means too/ also.

He also danced

Sumayaw rin siya

I also ate my breakfast

Kinain ko na rin ang almusal.

Me too.

Ako rin.

"Raw/Daw" is used when something is not yet proven or you are not sure of something. It is commonly used it interrogative sentences. "Raw/Daw" is also used in commanding.

Example:

Ana said you should eat at the canteen.

Sabi ni Ana kumain ka na raw sa kantin.

What did Ana told you?

Ano raw sabi sa ito ni Ana?

11.) "Pinaka-" is use for superlatives

Example:

Most beautiful

Pinaka-maganda

Tallest

Pinaka-mataas

The tallest mountain in the world is the Mount. Everest.

Mount. Everest ang pinaka-mataas na bundok sa mundo.

Ana is the most beautiful

Pinaka-maganda si Ana

"Mas" (means "than") is use for comparatives

Example:

Mount. Everest is taller than K2.

Mas mataas ang bundok Everest sa K2

Ana is more beautiful than Sarah

Mas maganda si Ana kay Sarah

Now, you almost know on how to speak tagalog. The second step is to memorize some tagalog words.