“When” in every Philippine language
When across 9 languages, and what the differences tell you.
Last updated
Side by side
| Language | When |
|---|---|
| English | When |
| Tagalog | Kailan |
| Ilocano | Kaano |
| Cebuano | Kanus-a |
| Hiligaynon | San-o |
| Waray | Kakan-o |
| Bikol | Nuarin |
| Kapampangan | Kapilan |
| Pangasinan | Kapigan |
What the pattern shows
Six of the eight begin with ka-, and three of those carry a glottal stop written as a hyphen — kanus-a, san-o, kakan-o. Bikol nuarin is the outlier, sharing its shape with none of them.
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.
In a phrase
From the Ilocano to Tagalog phrasebook, where every row was checked against published references:
When does the bus for ___ leave?
Ilocano Kaano nga agrubuat ti bus a mapan ___?
Tagalog Kailan aalis ang bus papuntang ___?
When will this bus arrive in ___?
Ilocano Kaano a sumangpet daytoy a bus idiay ___?
Tagalog Kailan darating ang bus na ito sa ___?
More question words
The whole category as a word list: Ilocano Question Words · Tagalog Question Words
Where this comes from
This row is one of 161 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.