An Actual Lesson on Telling Dates in Tagalog

In one of the earlier entries, we talked about telling time in Tagalog. So why not talk about time a little bit more and include some dates and months?

If you’re familiar with Spanish, you’ll probably notice that Tagalog days and months are very very close to Spanish. They’re just spelled in a bit differently. Hopefully this’ll make things easier instead of just confusing you. Just like how it confused me. Why, Tagalog, why?

Also, if you’d like to say that something will be on a certain day or a certain month, simply add the word “sa” before it. This word means “on” or “at” when concerning dates.

Days in Tagalog

Sunday	Linggo*
Monday	Lunes
Tuesday	Martes
Wednesday	Miyerkules
Thursday	Huwebes
Friday	Biyernes
Saturday	Sabado

*Note that “linggo” could either mean “Sunday” or “week.” The latter meaning is used when it’s not capitalized.

Months in Tagalog

January	Enero
February	Pebrero
March	Marso
April	Abril
May	Mayo
June	Hunyo
July	Hulyo
August	Agosto
September	Setyembre
October	Oktubre
November	Nobyembre
December	Disyembre
month	buwan**

**”Buwan” could also mean “moon” in Tagalog, but you should be able to determine its meaning based on the sentence’s context.

Telling the date formally

To tell the date formally in Tagalog, just use the following structure.

“Ika-” + Tagalog day number + “ng” + month + Tagalog year number

It’s already a lot to learn, so I’ll just list some examples to help you out. You’re welcome.

Ika-dalawampu’t anim ng Abril dalawang libo at labing anim	23 of April 2016 (Literal translation)
Ika-dalawampu’t isa ng Oktubre dalawang libo at labing lima	21 of October 2015
Ika-pito ng Hunyo dalawang libo at labing dalawa	7 of June 2012
Ika-labing siyam ng Pebrero dalawang libo at apat	19 of February 2014
Ika-labing apat ng Setyembre dalawang libo at labing apat	14 of September 2014

Telling the date informally

Telling the date informally is very similar to the previous structure. All that you have to do is replace the Tagalog numbers with Tagalog-Spanish numbers.

“A-” + Tagalog-Spanish day number + “ng” + month + Tagalog-Spanish year number

And yay more examples…

A-beinte-tres ng Abril dos mil disi-sais	23 of April 2016 (Literal translation)
A-beinte-uno ng Oktubre dos mil kinse	21 of October 2015
A-syete ng Hunyo dos mil dose	7 of June 2012
A-katorse ng Setyembre dos mil katorse	14 of September 2014