Bikol/Greetings

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In this lesson you will learn to greet anyone with the appropriate level of formality.

The level of formality for many sentences, including greetings, is more complex than in English. But we will see here that it is quite easy to show respect or sound formal.

The first word to know is marhay, good. Then you need the word describing the time of day: aga morning, udto noon, hapon afternoon, banggi night,

If you want to be formal and respectful to elderly, you need the word tabi and the following construction then applies:

Marhay na hapon tabi  Good afternoon, sir or Good afternoon, madam showing respect for an older person.

The na simply links good with afternoon and is a compulsory link word. You can also add the word Dios before the greetings.

Dios marhay na hapon tabi Good morning, sir or Good morning, madam showing respect for an older person.

Another frequently used phrase is Kumusta which means both Hello, and How are you?. It is borrowed from the Spanish Como esta? which means exactly How are you?. You can also say, tara instead of saying kumusta.

Examples

<< Contents | Grammar | Pronunciation | Diacritics | Alphabet | Greetings | Introducing Yourself | Where Are You From? | Telling Time | Inclusive and Exclusive We | Negation | This and That | Here and There | Adjectives | Interrogative Pronouns | Past and Future When | Personal Pronouns | Possessive Pronouns | Singular and Plural Nouns | Singular and Plural Verbs | Singular and Plural Adjectives | External Links >>