Tagalog language

Tagalog is the national language of the Philippines and the language spoken by a majority of Filipinos. It is classified as a Central Philippine language, which is in turn categorized as a sub-family of Philippine languages, which are even more broadly categorized as Malayo-Polynesian languages (specifically of the Malayan branch), a sub-division of the Austronesian languages. A considerable section of the Philippine diaspora in countries like the United States speaks Tagalog as well. As the Philippines was colonized by the United States for almost fifty years, and due to influences from American culture, it is common for English words to be interpolated into Tagalog. This practice is known as Taglish and has become excessively prevalent among today's Filipinos.

Tagalog is closely related to Bahasa Indonesia and Malay (Bahasa Melayu), which are technically two forms of the same language (though cultural and social progression has helped distinguish the two). Additionally, 300 years of prior Spanish imperialist colonization has led to Tagalog receiving many influences from Spanish vocabulary. Nonetheless, most of its vocabulary is composed of indigenous words. While the language is native to Southern Luzon (encompassing Metro Manila), cities all over the Philippines are inhabited by Tagalog speakers.

Its sentence order is Verb Subject Object (VSO), like many other Philippine languages. In Tagalog, there is no direct translation of the word "to be", thus the copular form is implied through the absence of a verb. For example, were one to describe a house as being dirty, one would say "marumi ang bahay" (literally, "dirty the house").