Is Filipino an Easy or Hard Language to Learn? - NearlyFluent (2024)

The Philippines is an exciting country because of its generally hospitable locals, beautiful beaches, majestic waterfalls, springs and mountains, and delicious local and fusion foods. Typically, tourists would not have any problems in communicating with the locals. This is because of its relatively high number of English speakers. However, not all Filipinos speak English, therefore learning basic Filipino would be the best route if you want to easily communicate with the locals.

Now for the million dollar question, “is Filipino a hard language to learn”?

Yes, Filipino is a hard language to learn, at least for English speakers. In fact, Tagalog, also known as Filipino, is ranked as a Category IV language by FSI’s ranking. Due to its linguistic and cultural differences with the English language, Tagalog is considered relatively hard for English speakers to learn. In fact, the ranking shows it will take around 1100 hours to attain fluency. However, non-English speakers might just find the language pretty easy, especially if it shares similar features with their native language.

Now, if you notice, we mentioned Tagalog and Filipino – are these languages the same? In the following sections, we will go over the differences and similarities between Filipino and Tagalog. Other than that, we will cover some of its features to feel whether it will be easy or hard for you to learn.

The Philippines has well over 120 spoken languages. Out of all these, there are four major languages that have at least 9 million or more native speakers each – Tagalog, Ilokano, Cebuano, and Hiligaynon. There are also 10 of these languages with at least 1 to 3 million speakers. The rest have less than 1 million speakers. While the locals usually refer to them as dialects, most of these are, in fact, distinct languages. They are even more distinct than the Spanish and Italian distinction.

Because of the Philippines’ diverse linguistic environment, having a unifying language would be extremely important to nation-building. To achieve this goal, Tagalog was proposed to be that unifying language in 1935. However, the Visayans and some non-Tagalog speaking Pilipinos strongly opposed the proposal. It was not until 50 years later that idea of a lingua franca was again proposed.

This time, however, it would only use Tagalog as the foundation. Tagalog words that sounded odd or unpleasant were removed and consequently replaced with words from other languages in the Philippines such as Malay, Chinese, English, Spanish, Visayan, etc. Today, Filipino is the Philippines’ official language and likewise referred to as an upgraded version of the Tagalog language.

In linguistics, this development would make Filipino a dialect of Tagalog. However, politically, it is a separate language considering its status as the country’s national language.

Filipino and Tagalog Alphabet

One of the main differences between the Tagalog and Filipino language is their alphabet in that Tagalog has 20 letters, while Filipino has 28. Additionally, the Tagalog Alphabet is known as A Ba Ka Da. On the other hand, the Filipino alphabet uses all 26 letters of the modern-day Latin alphabet. I also included the Spanish [ñ] and the Tagalog digraph [ng].

Below is the Tagalog alphabet with its 15 consonants and five vowels.

Filipino and Tagalog Mutual Intelligibility

The Filipino language takes at least 80% or more of its vocabulary from Tagalog, including its structures. As a result, the two are mutually intelligible. However, some Tagalog words have been removed and replaced with “nativized” loan words from other languages.

Here are some examples of Tagalog words and their Filipino counterparts:

Let us take a look at the below sentences to understand how mutually intelligible these two languages are.

Tagalog: Nauunawan mo ba ang wikang sinasambit ng taong yaon?

Filipino: Naiintidihan mo ba ang lengwaheng [salitang] ginagamit ng taong yun?

English: Do you understand the language [words] that the person was using?

Some words in Tagalog have been replaced with Filipino words, such as those that are commonly used in day-to-day conversation. Filipino is less strict when it comes to structure and word choices. This because it was meant to be used by every Pilipino regardless of ethnolinguistic background. So the less complicated it is, the better.

The Filipino language has been taught in schools since 1940. It is the primary language used in broadcast and print media. As a result, the distinction between Filipino and Tagalog has become unclear. It is highly possible that pure Tagalog no longer exists. It may have been totally merged with its upgraded version – Filipino.

One of the Filipino language’s very prominent features is affixes. These are used to change words’ meaning.

The affixes –an / -han are added to a root word to change their meaning. Here are some examples of their uses.

There are still more of these rules, but this post won’t be enough to discuss everything.

1. -an/-han can be added to root words to indicate where the root word (or what is meant by it) is generally found.
2. -an can be added to a verb to indicate the place where the verb is usually performed
3. -an/-han can be added to a verb to indicate a time when the action is usually performed
4. This can also be used to indicate an object used for measuring whatever is meant by the root word
5. -an/-han can be used to indicate that more than one person performs the action indicated by the root word

Example:

The prefix mag- is added to a root word to change its meaning. Here are some examples of its uses.

1. To indicate the relationship of two things or persons indicated by the root word.
2. The first syllable of the root word can be repeated and used with mag- to indicate one or more persons/things have the relationship indicated by the root word.
3. Mag- can be used to create a word that refers to the person associated with the action indicated by the root word.

These grammatical features are just a few examples. There are still a lot more of these rules. These can sometimes become overwhelming for foreigners. But once you get to familiarize yourself with the basics, you’ll find them easy to apply even in words you aren’t very familiar with. This is because Filipino grammar rules do not have a lot of exemption.

The pronunciation of all Filipino consonants, except Ñ and NG, is similar to English. In contrast, the vowels A, E, I, O, U are more comparable to Spanish instead.

Stress and Syllables

Generally, the pronunciation of Filipino words is syllable by syllable. Therefore the usual linking in the English language may not apply. As for the stress, it mostly varies depending on the number of syllables a word has.

Some points you need to remember in terms of stress and pronunciation.

1. Enunciate each syllable in the word. In other words, you have to say it syllable by syllable.
2. The stress for two-syllable words falls on the first syllable.
3. For a three-syllable word, the stress falls on the second.
4. Words with more than three syllables will have the stress on the third syllable.
5. There are words that change meaning based on stress. Therefore it is important to be familiar with proper pronunciation.

Pronunciation is essential in the Filipino language. Most of the time, you can get by with wrong grammar. However, you’ll be in a lot of trouble communicating if don’t know proper pronunciation.

The Philippines was a colony of Spain for more than 300 years, and the US for 48 years. As a result, Filipino language shares quite a number of vocabulary with Spanish and English. These countries have influenced the Philippines’ languages, culture, tradition, and many other aspects of Filipino society.

Filipino and Spanish

According to some experts, 20% to 30% of Tagalog words are of Spanish origin. This could even be higher in the Visayan languages such as Cebuano, Hiligaynon, and Waray.

Here are some examples of Filipino words that are of Spanish origin.

Days of the week are either in Spanish or English.

• Lunes – Monday
• Martes – Tuesday
• Myekules – Wednesday
• Hwebes – Thursday
• Byernes – Friday
• Sabado – Saturday
• Domingo – Sunday

Numerals are usually in Spanish.

This is particularly true in Visayan speaking regions. Additionally, these are also prevalent in broadcast media such as tv shows and news programs.

Filipino and English

English also significantly influences the Filipino language. This is apparent in code-switching known as Taglish. It has become a prevalent practice because it’s easier to use the English word than to remember the local equivalent. Therefore, it is very much expected in places where people speak more than one language.

Example:

Taglish: Faster na guys, male-late na tayo.

Filipino: Bilisian n’yo na. Mahuhuli na tayo.

English: Faster guys! We are almost late.

Notice the use of faster instead of the local equivalent “bilis” or “bilisan“. The word late is also used with the Filipino prefix “ma+le.” The closest word to “guys” in this context is the word “n’yo“, which means the plural “you.” Apparently, this is a lot easier than to speak in straight Filipino. This has further promoted the spread of Taglish.

Filipino is an interesting language. In fact, it is the 11th in terms of the number of second-language speakers worldwide. Also, it is the 36th most widely spoken language in the world, and the 6th most spoken language in the United States. The language is also one of the ASEAN’s official languages, a powerful regional economic bloc in Asia.

But politics and the number of speakers aside, learning Filipino will make it easier to enjoy your vacation in the Philippines. Since people in the country speak different languages, speaking a unifying language would come in very handy.

If you are looking to learn Filipino, here are some helpful resources for you:

• Filipinopod101
• Tagalog Lessons
• Eriza’s Language School
• Language Connect
• Ethno Link

What are the worlds’ most difficult languages to learn?

The world’s most difficult languages to learn are Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Korean, Japanese, and Arabic, which are all classified as Category IV or “super-hard languages.” This is followed by Albanian, Amharic, Hungarian, Hindi, Icelandic, Latvian, Lao, Tagalog, Russian, Urdu, Nepali, Polish, and many others under Category III or “hard languages.” Next is Category II, which includes German, Haitian Creole, Indonesian, Malay, and Swahili considered to be easy. The easiest languages to learn are Danish, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Norwegian, French, Portuguese, Swedish, and Romanian, all classified under Category I.