Kumusta ka? Right now most of you would have no idea what I just said but in a few short moments you will. But before we being, I would like to inform you that the majority of Filipinos perfectly understand English greetings such as hi, hello, hey or even how are you. So now may be wondering why should I even bother learning these words. Well actually it quite simple, Filipinos are pleasantly surprised when they hear a foreigner speak Tagalog. And will respond more positively when you greet them in their native language.

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So let’s go back to kumusta ka. In English it simple means how are you? So if you want to know how someone’s day has been, or you just want to be polite all you have to say is kumusta ka.

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However if you want to greet someone who is older than you or is in a higher position of authority, you can add po add to the end as a sign of respect. For example you will say kumusta ka po.

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So let’s say you now that you are speaking to a crowd of people and want to greet them all at once. In this case you will say Kumsta Kayo which means how are you all. For clarification kayo means all.  

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Another alternative to just saying kumusta ka is kumusta ka na. Which just means how have you been.

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But sometimes you might want to greet someone by saying goodmorning or good afternoon. This when Filipinos will use magandang umaga, magadang hapon and magandang gabi. Where magandang umaga means goodmorning, magandang hapon means good afternoon and magandang gabi means good night.

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Now we will move onto less formal greetings. When you are meeting up with your friends or hanging out with close families it is perfectly acceptable to say ano meron. When translated into English is simply means what’s up.

It’s good to know basic Tagalog greetings but we also need to know a way to end the conversation. In English we will normally just say goodbye. But thankfully they have a simple translation for goodbye, which is paalam.  

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​To summarize this entire lesson