Lesson 8: Can You Speak English?

Marunong ka ba mag Ingles?

LESSON NOTES
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 youre speaking to doesnt understand English, at least theyll be
able to understand what youre 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, were
going to cover this phrase.
In Filipino "Can you speak English is marunong ka ba mag English. The first word marunong
means "know" as in "understand". This is followed by ka, which in English is "you" (singular). It
is followed by ba which makes the sentence a question. Next comes mag which has no English
equivalent. 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 Chinese? "Can you speak Chinese" is marunong
ka ba mag 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 dont speak English.

PHRASES
Filipino
Marunong ka ba mag Ingles?
Marunong ka ba mag English?
Marunong po ba kayo mag Ingles?
Marunong po ba kayo mag English?

English
Can you speak English (Informal)
Can you speak English (Informal)
Can you speak English (formal)
Can you speak English (Formal)

VOCABULARY
Filipino
marunong
ka
ba
Ingles

English
Knowing
you (singular)
question particle
English

2007 SurvivalPhrases.com - Filipino. All Rights Reserved.

Filipino
po
kayo

English
Word that indicates politeness; no English
equivalent
you

QUICK TIP
Many visitors are surprised to hear how much English is used in modern Filipino culture. If you
have a chance, turn on the TV or listen to the radio during your stay; you will be surprised at how
much you will understand. "English" and "Chinese" are two words out of many that have entered
the modern Filipino language.

QUICK TIP 2
"Marunong ka ba mag Ingles?" is the most common way of asking "Can you speak English?"
"Marunong ka ba mag English?" is also acceptable. The formal way of asking the question "can
you speak in English?" is "marunong po ba kayo mag Ingles?" or "marunong po ba kayo mag
English?". Always try to use the formal way when speaking to elderly people.

2007 SurvivalPhrases.com - Filipino. All Rights Reserved.