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Lesson Transcript

Kamusta kayo, ako si Mayumi. Hi everybody! I’m Mayumi.
Welcome to FilipinoPod101.com’s “Filipino sa 3 minuto”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Filipino.
In the last lesson, we learned how to use the “to be” verb ay, in order to tell people more about yourself.
In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to use this verb to talk about age.
In the Philippines, it’s normal for young people to ask each other’s age. But of course, it might be a bit risky to ask people over 25. Then again, you won’t know until you ask!
This is how you do it informally:
Ilang taon ka na?
[slowly] Ilang taon ka na?
Literally, this means “How many years are you already?” But we use it to mean, “How old are you?”
In formal Filipino, we say:
Ilang taon na po kayo?
[slowly] Ilang taon na po kayo?
So how do you answer this question? You could always choose to tell the truth - or otherwise. But let me tell you how to say it in Filipino.
For example, “I am 18 years old.” would be
Ako ay labing walong taong gulang na.
Let’s break it down.
Ako means “I”.
Ay, as we’ve learned before, is the “to be” verb in Filipino.
Remember what labing walo is? It’s “18”. Check out lessons 6 and 7 to refresh your memory.
Taong gulang means “years old”. Notice that we added the “ng” connector because labing walo refers to how many years old or taong gulang.
Finally we say na which means something like “already” or “now.” Note that this is a different word from the “na” connector.
[slowly] Ako ay labing walong taong gulang na.
How do we turn this into the formal form? We just add po!
Ako po ay labingwalong taong gulang na.
Now it’s time for Mayumi’s Insights.
Asking older people about their age is probably a little taboo in most cultures but in the Philippines, because most people are generally cheerful, asking would lead them to ask you Ano sa tingin mo? meaning “What do you think? But just to keep safe, removing some years from your estimate would probably keep you in good terms with them!
In this lesson, we learned how to talk about your age using the verb ay. Next time we’ll use it again to talk about your location. I’ll be waiting for in the next Filipino sa 3 minuto lesson. Hanggang sa muli!

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