Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Hello and welcome to Filipino Survival Phrases brought to you by FilipinoPod101.com. This course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to the Philippines. You will be surprised at how far a little Filipino will go.
Now, before we jump in, remember to stop by FilipinoPod101.com, and there, you will find the accompanying PDF and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment.
GRAMMAR POINT
Filipino Survival Phrases Lesson 8 - Using English to your advantage in Filipino.
In today's lesson, we'll cover another extremely important survival phrase, "Can you speak English?" Using this phrase as opposed to speaking English at someone is important for many reasons. For one, if the party you're speaking to does not understand English, at least they'll be able to understand what you're asking. Furthermore, it shows a lot respect to show that you took the effort to learn even a little bit of the language. And for these reasons, and many more, we're
going to cover the phrase.
In Filipino, "Can you speak English" is Marunong ka ba mag English?
Marunong ka ba mag English?
Let's break it down by syllable: Marunong ka ba mag English?
Now, let's hear it once again: Marunong ka ba mag English?
The first word Marunong means "know" as in "understand."
Let's break down this word and hear it one more time: Marunong.
And Marunong.
This is followed by Ka, which in English is "you."
Ka.
Ka.
Followed by Ba, which makes the sentence a question.
Let's hear it one more time: Ba.
Next comes Mag, which has no English equivalent.
Let's hear it once again: Mag.
Finally, we have "English," which means "English."
So, all together, we have Marunong ka ba mag English? Literally, this means, "Do you know how to speak English?"
Now, let's try a different language. How about, "Can you speak Chinese"
Marunong ka ba mag Chinese?
Marunong ka ba mag Chinese?
Marunong ka ba mag Chinese?
The word for Chinese is also "Chinese." Here, just the word for the language changes. The rest is the same.
Nowadays, in the Philippines, English is studied at schools, so the number of speakers is increasing. However, there are still many people who don't speak English. The native Filipino word for "English" is Ingles. But not many Filipinos will use this word. English is more common. So, you will often find times where Filipinos prefer to use the English translation of the word instead of the native Filipino.

Outro

Okay, to close out this lesson, we'd like for you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for saying it aloud. You have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so good luck, that also means “good luck” in Filipino. Here we go!
"Can you speak English?" - Marunong ka ba mag Ingles?
Marunong ka ba mag Ingles?
Marunong ka ba mag Ingles?
Alright, that's going to do it for today. Remember to stop by FilipinoPod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment.

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