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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 the most common greetings in Filipino. Do you remember them?
In this lesson we’re going to learn a very useful phrase: “Do you speak English?”
This phrase can be a lifesaver! The majority of Filipino people understand English, but if you ask in Filipino, you can be sure that everyone will understand what you’re saying, even if their answer is no.
Here's the informal way to ask it.
Nagsasalita ka ba ng Ingles?
[slowly] Nagsasalita ka ba ng Ingles?
Let's break down this sentence.
In Filipino, the verb can come before the subject. “Nagsasalita” means “speaking” followed by “ka” which means “you.” Next, there is “ba”, which is the question-marking particle. After it comes “ng” which acts as an obect marking particle, marking “ingles” which, as you might have guessed, is “English”.
Another common way to ask if someone can speak English is “Marunong ka bang mag-Ingles?”
Literally, this means, “Can you do English?”
[slowly] “Marunong ka bang mag-Ingles?”
Now we’re going to make these sentences formal. Filipinos follow the Spanish custom of changing a singular pronoun to plural in order to show respect in formal situations so we change “ka” to “kayo” and then move it after “ba.” We also need to add “po” as a sign of respect.
Everything else stays the same:
Nagsasalita po ba kayo ng Ingles?
Marunong po ba kayong mag-Ingles?
[slowly] Nagsasalita po ba kayo ng Ingles?
[slowly] Marunong po ba kayong mag-Ingles?
If you want to be even more formal, you can add “mawalang galang lang po,” before the sentence. It means, "excuse me."
“Mawalang galang lang po. Nagsasalita po ba kayo ng ingles?”
“Excuse me. Do you speak English?”
(slowly) “Mawalang galang lang po. Marunong po ba kayong mag-Ingles?”
Here are some common responses you might hear.
Oo. "Yes."
[slowly] Oo.
Konti. "A little."
[slowly] Konti.
Hindi. "No."
[slowly] Hindi.
Now it’s time for Mayumi’s Tips.
For those of you who are not only English speakers, you can use this question with any language you need.
Just substitute Ingles with…
Español for Spanish.
Hapon for Japanese.
Italyano for Italian.
Aleman for German.
and so on.
Now you know how to ask if people speak English or even your native language. But I hope this doesn’t stop you from learning Filipino! We’ll be learning more ways to say excuse me and I’m sorry in our next Filipino sa 3 minuto lesson.
Hanggang sa muli!

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