Bababa Ba? Bababa.

by Yoshke Dimen

I just received this anecdote from a friend, who had read this somewhere. And it made me realize how fun Tagalog really is as a language.

I was in the elevator with an American. We were going down to the ground floor, but before reaching it, we stopped at the 4th floor. It opened to a Filipino.

She asked me, “Bababa ba?”

I replied, “Bababa.”

In she went. Upon closing of the door, the American asked curiously, “I’m sorry. Did you guys just have a conversation?“

A’right. To all my non-Filipino readers, I’m gonna explain this to you. “Bababa” is the tagalog word for “going down.” And to change any noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, or adjective to a question, all you have to do is add “ba.” Of course, a question mark and the proper intonation go with it.

She: “Bababa ba?” (Going down?)
Me: “Bababa.” (Going down.)

There. Though they might have sounded like they were trying to mimic goats/sheep, they actually had a conversation. Hehehe. Ahlove’t. 

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Anyway, my mum refuses to talk to me at the moment. It was her birthday yesterday and yeah, it kinda slipped my mind. I forgot to greet her. But I don’t think she’s mad at me. Er… Well, yeah, I think she’s mad at me. OK. I’m sure she’s mad at me. I’m worried. Waaaah!

– Family

Comments

  1. things will be ok bet. you and your mom.. 🙂 kahit ano namang mangyari you’re still her son. just try to make it up to her. i know she’ll forgive you. good luck!

  2. aww the Tagalog language was really cute. I wish I understood it. I barely know that many languages. 🙁 As far as your mom, she forgives you. I always forget my family members’ birthday haha They forget mine too so we don’t care much cause it’s not like we did it on purpose lol

  3. haha, yeah, i know right? tagalog is so much fun. pero minsan kapag direchong tagalog ako, ang hirap na, although 6 years palang ako dito sa states, minsan nahihirapan na ako. kahit nga minsan pinoy kausap ko nae-english ko na.

    eto pa.. yesterday, it took me, my bestfriend and my sis about 5 hours to remember what CATFISH is in tagalog!! haha. we refused to call or use the dictionary (online) to look it up. ayun, finally, naisip ko kung ano!

    everything’ll be ok witchu and yer mom. she’s just a lil upset, but she’ll get over it.. make lambing to her, that should do it.

  4. ^^ NINA, i know ‘right. hahaha. I’ve never been out of the country but there are times that I really find it hard to speak a complete sentence in Tagalog. People here laugh at me for saying “nagkameron” instead of “nagkaroon.” Whatever.

    CATFISH??? Why the hell would you want to know the Tagalog word for that? But I’ll try. Is it DALAG? or HITO?

  9. thanks NITOY, and JOSH (eventhough you deleted my comments from your blog. hehehe.) And Josh, try to learn speaking the language. hehehe. It’s really fun.

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