We have already covered how to greet someone generally, how to ask someone's name and how to respond to these basic phrases. Now, I will give you more useful Tagalog phrases that you can use in communicating with a Tagalog native speaker.
1. Good morning - Magandang umaga/araw
1. Good morning - Magandang umaga/araw
Magandang umaga literally means beautiful day and araw means sun. This phrase is only said until 11:59 AM. Beyond that time we already say Good afternoon. In Tagalog, we have two Good Afternoons:
2. Magandang Taghali
This is said between 12:00-3:00 PM. Actually there are no established rules until what time to say Magandang Tanghali but personally, I use this until 3:00 PM or when the sun is still high. We use this every Tanghaling Tapat or literally translates to straight afternoon. We call it straight because the sun rays and the ground form 90 degrees, which signifies that the sun is still high.
3. Magandang Hapon
This is said from 4:00 PM until sunset. Hapon means afternoon. The stress is on the first syllable. We say /há-pon not /ha-pón/. If you pronounced it as /ha-pón/, it will mean Japan.
4. Good evening - Magandang gabi
This is said from sunset until everyone sleeps.
How to respond
If someone greets you these, just repeat the phrase or if you want, you can add rin/din. Rin/Din means too. You use rin if the last letter is a vowel sound. For example,
Magandang umaga rin - Good morning too.
Magandang tanghali rin - Good afternoon too.
Magandang gabi rin - Good evening too.
On the other hand, use din if the last letter is consonant.
Aside from these greetings, Filipinos also like to ask someone whether he has already eaten. It's a common ice breaker. To say if someone has already eaten, say:
Kumain ka na?
Alternatively, you can say:
Kumain ka na ba?
Ba isa a Filipino question particle, i.e., a word that makes a sentence a question. However, in conversation, you can omit it.
Actually, Kumain ka na can mean 3 things depending on how you say it. It can mean, Eat now (imperative), You have already eaten (declarative) and Have you already eaten?
But with ba, the sentence is only a question.
If you have already eaten, say Oo kumain na ako. But in conversational Tagalog, it becomes Oo, kumain na'ko.
If you haven't eaten yet, say Hindi pa ako kumakain or to sound like a native speaker, say 'Di pa'ko kumakain.
If these apostrophes are difficult for you, you can remove them when writing. However, in Filipino formal writing, they are necessary and those are the correct way of writing them. But if you will just post a status in Facebook, you can omit the apostrophes.
After answering the question as I have said on our previous lesson, always ask back. Say: Ikaw? Kumain ka na?/Ikaw kumain ka na ba?
Now let's see how these phrases, rin, and din work. See this conversation.
The last phrase in the comic strip is:
Oo, kumain na rin ako.
Additional notes
I also told you about the courtesy in Tagalog language. You will just have to add po in the sentence. There are no exact rules to their position and you can learn these by memorizing.
What time is it there? Greet me now by commenting on this post. :D Thank you everyone.
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