Filipino

**Filipino** i/ˌfɪlɪˈpiːnoʊ/[4] (*Wikang Filipino* [wɪ'kɐŋ ˌfiːliˈpiːno]), in this usage, refers to the national language of the Philippines. Filipino is also designated, along with English, as an official language of the country.[5] It is the standard register of the Tagalog language,[6] a regional Austronesian language that is widely spoken in the Philippines. As of 2007, Tagalog is the first language of 28 million people,[7] or about one-third of the Philippine population, while 45 million speak Filipino as their second language.[1] Filipino is among the 185 languages of the Philippines identified in the *Ethnologue*.[8] Officially, Filipino is defined by the Commission on the Filipino Language (*Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino* in Filipino or simply KWF) as "the native language, spoken and written, in Metro Manila, the National Capital Region, and in other urban centers of the archipelago."[9]

Filipino is taken to be a pluricentric language.[10] Indeed, there have been observed "emerging varieties of Filipino which deviate from the grammatical properties of Tagalog" in Cebu,[11] Davao City and Iloilo[12]
 which together with Metro Manila form the three largest metropolitan
areas in the Philippines. In reality, however, Filipino has been
variously described as "simply Tagalog in syntax and grammar, with no
grammatical element or lexicon coming from ... other major Philippine
languages,"[13] and as "essentially a formalized version of Tagalog."[14] In most contexts, Filipino is understood to be an alternative name for Tagalog,[15][16] or the Metro Manila dialect of Tagalog.[17][18][19]

## Resources

Filipino/Tagalog resources are not very common, so for the most part you'll have to make your own resources once you leave the upper beginner level. I assume most of you are learning the language in order to speak with your girlfriend or family(if you are a heritage learner), so for the most part once you get to an upper beginner level you should have no difficulty making stable progress regardless.

### **Tagalog.com**

Tagalog.com is an all-in-one study tool for Filipino/Tagalog. The site hosts various resources which aid in learning the language, and has similar features to that of LingQ. Recommended for all learning levels. (100% free, offers Patreon which adds functionality for users to easily import stories from Wattpad)

* Beginner lessons
* Flashcards with various useful decks such as "Top 2000 spoken Tagalog words"(includes spaced repetition system and Anki export)
* Discussion forums for general discussion surrounding the language/help.
* Corpus Tool, used to find examples of how Tagalog words are used in real-world sources.
* Dictionary, with most words having audio and a lot of words having relevant sentences
* Videos with transcription
* Music with transcription
* Reader tool where you are able to add stories/articles or read existing ones that are already on the platform.
* Browser extension

### **Pimsleur**

Pimsleur  offers a Tagalog/Filipino course that is actually pretty good. It is not too formal, and offers a great start in the language. They offer two levels of the language, being Tagalog 1 and Tagalog 2. Tagalog 1 can be best summed up as a gentle introduction to Tagalog. It won't allow you to really understand much, but you should be able to communicate to some degree in regards to things you want to do and things that you like. Tagalog 2 dives deeper into the language, but obviously won't make you fluent. Pimsleur is best used in the context of it being speaking and listening practice. Do not use this as your primary source of vocabulary for example(look to Tagalog.com's Top 2000 words for that). There is one free lesson for the first lesson, if you believe that sort of learning style works for you following that lesson, the structure of the course stays the same throughout the entire course, so it'd be a worthy investment.