“Please” in every Philippine language
Please across 9 languages, and what the differences tell you.
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Side by side
| Language | Please |
|---|---|
| English | Please |
| Tagalog | Pakiusap |
| Ilocano | Pangngaasim |
| Cebuano | Palihug |
| Hiligaynon | Palihog |
| Waray | Alayon |
| Bikol | Tabi |
| Kapampangan | Pakisuyu |
| Pangasinan | Ipangasim |
What the pattern shows
None of these behave like English 'please'. They are requests in their own right — Cebuano 'palihug' is closer to 'do me the favour' — and are usually attached to the verb rather than added at the end.
No two languages here use the same word. That is unusual even on this list, and it is the clearest possible answer to whether these are dialects of one another.
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Where this comes from
This row is one of 84 concept pages drawn from a parallel set of everyday vocabulary held across nine languages. You can browse all of them, download the whole set under CC BY-SA 4.0, or paste text to find out which language it is.
Compiled from published general reference and pending review by native speakers. If something here is wrong in a language you speak, please tell us.