Short answer
- People in the Philippines speak Filipino and English as the two official languages, and Filipino is also the national language.
- Filipino is based on Tagalog, but the two names do different jobs. Tagalog is a regional language with its own speakers and history. Filipino is the national language, developed from Tagalog and enriched from other Philippine languages and other languages.
- Most Filipinos also speak a regional language at home. In the 2020 census, Tagalog was the language generally spoken at home in the largest share of households, followed by Bisaya or Binisaya, Hiligaynon or Ilonggo, Ilocano, and Cebuano.
- A visitor will therefore hear more than one language in a single day, often in a single conversation. Filipino and English are the languages most likely to be understood across regions, while the home language changes with the place.
- Spanish and Arabic are to be promoted on a voluntary and optional basis under the Constitution. They are not official languages in the same sense as Filipino and English.
- Filipino Sign Language is the national sign language of the Filipino Deaf and the official sign language of government in transactions involving the deaf, under Republic Act No. 11106.
Why One Question Has More Than One Answer
Ask what language people speak in France and the answer is simple. In the Philippines the answer needs a paragraph, because the country is multilingual: an archipelago of thousands of islands, where different island groups developed different languages long before they shared one state, one school system, or one national language.
A person may speak one language at home, a second at school or work, and a third with someone from another province. This article keeps the official, national, home, and widely understood layers separate.
The Official Position: Filipino and English
The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines states the position plainly. Article XIV, Section 6 says: “The national language of the Philippines is Filipino. As it evolves, it shall be further developed and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages.” Section 7 then says: “For purposes of communication and instruction, the official languages of the Philippines are Filipino and, until otherwise provided by law, English.”
Two points in that wording matter. First, national and official are not the same job. Filipino alone holds the national language title. Filipino and English together hold official language status for communication and instruction. Second, the English clause includes the words “until otherwise provided by law,” which leaves the door open for a future law to change the English position. No such change is claimed in this article.
Section 7 also gives regional languages a defined role: “The regional languages are the auxiliary official languages in the regions and shall serve as auxiliary media of instruction therein.” In plain terms, a regional language can serve as an auxiliary official language in its own region and as an auxiliary medium of instruction there. It does not replace Filipino and English nationally, but it is not left without status either. Section 7 adds: “Spanish and Arabic shall be promoted on a voluntary and optional basis.” Promotion on a voluntary and optional basis is different from official status.
The legal answer is only the frame. The rest of the picture comes from history and census data.
Filipino, Tagalog, and Pilipino: Three Names, One Story
Filipino and Tagalog cause more confusion than any other part of this topic, so they deserve a careful explanation.
Tagalog is a language in its own right, historically spoken in and around Manila and in much of central and southern Luzon, with its own literature, vocabulary, and home-language speakers. When people say “I speak Tagalog at home,” they are naming a real language community, not a label for Filipino.
Filipino is the national language. It was developed from Tagalog as its basis, and the Constitution says it shall be further developed and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages. That wording is the key to the distinction. Filipino starts from Tagalog, but it is meant to grow by drawing on other Philippine languages and on other languages as well. In school, the subject is called Filipino, not Tagalog, and in government and national media, Filipino is the name used for the national language.
Pilipino is the older name for the same national language project. In 1959, the Department of Education called the Tagalog based national language Pilipino, a name that stayed in use for years before Filipino became the constitutional name in 1987. A reader meeting old textbooks or older speakers may therefore meet the word Pilipino where a current document would say Filipino. The change of name does not mean a different language was invented overnight. It marks stages in one national language project, from a Tagalog base toward a language intended to belong to the whole country.
A useful shorthand is to think of Filipino as Tagalog plus: it keeps the Tagalog grammatical core, but accepts words from other Philippine languages and from Spanish and English. A Tagalog purist might prefer a native word where a Filipino speaker happily uses a borrowed word.
How the National Language Was Chosen
The choice of Tagalog as the basis for the national language goes back to the Commonwealth period, not to 1987.
The 1935 Constitution directed the National Assembly to take steps toward the development and adoption of a common national language based on one of the existing native languages. Commonwealth Act No. 184, passed in 1936, created the Institute of National Language to study Philippine languages and to recommend one of them as the basis for the national language.
On 30 December 1937, President Manuel L. Quezon issued Executive Order No. 134, proclaiming the national language of the Philippines based on the Tagalog language. The Official Gazette record of that speech and order explains the reasoning given at the time: after studies of Philippine tongues in general, the Institute concluded that Tagalog most nearly fulfilled the requirements of Commonwealth Act No. 184, and that it was used and accepted by the greatest number of Filipinos. The order was to take effect two years from its promulgation.
That decision did not end debate. Speakers of other major languages have argued, then and since, that a national language based on one region’s language puts other regions at a disadvantage. The 1987 Constitution answers that concern in part by defining Filipino as a language to be enriched from other Philippine and other languages. The four dates to remember are 1935, 1937, 1959, and 1987.
What the Census Actually Shows
Legal status tells a reader what is official; census data tells a reader what is spoken at home.
The Philippine Statistics Authority, in its release on the 2020 Census of Population and Housing, reported the language or dialect generally spoken at home. The census asked each household: “What is the language or dialect generally spoken at home by the members of this household?” The figures below are household figures, not counts of individual speakers. That distinction matters, and this article does not convert households into speaker numbers, because the census release reports households and a conversion would require an assumption about household size that the release does not make for this table. The total covered in the release was 26,388,654 households, excluding households enumerated as homeless.
| Language or dialect generally spoken at home | Households | Share of households |
|---|---|---|
| Tagalog | 10,522,507 | 39.9 percent |
| Bisaya or Binisaya | 4,214,122 | 16.0 percent |
| Hiligaynon or Ilonggo | 1,933,512 | 7.3 percent |
| Ilocano | 1,863,409 | 7.1 percent |
| Cebuano | 1,716,080 | 6.5 percent |
| Bikol or Bicol | 1,033,457 | 3.9 percent |
| Waray | 698,745 | 2.6 percent |
| Kapampangan | 639,687 | 2.4 percent |
| Maguindanao | 365,032 | 1.4 percent |
| Pangasinan or Panggalato | 334,759 | 1.3 percent |
| Other languages or dialects | 2,950,009 | 11.2 percent |
| Not reported | 117,335 | 0.4 percent |
Three lessons follow. First, Tagalog is the largest single home language, but most households speak something else at home. Second, several large language communities follow it. Third, the “other” category, at 11.2 percent, covers many smaller languages, including Tausug, Maranao, Karay-a or Kinaray-a, Aklanon, Masbateno or Masbatenon, Surigaonon, and Zamboangueno Chavacano, among others named in the release.
Bisaya or Binisaya and Cebuano appear as separate census categories, because households reported the name they use and the census kept those reports as given. Cebuano is the widely used name for the Visayan language centered on Cebu, while Bisaya or Binisaya is a broader name many speakers use for Visayan speech. Do not add the two categories into a single speaker total.
The census also measures home language, not ability. A household that speaks Ilocano at home may also use Filipino at school and English at work, and none of that ability shows up in a single home language question. Home language figures therefore understate how widely Filipino and English are understood.
The Major Regional Languages, Island by Island
The Philippines has three main island groups: Luzon in the north, the Visayas in the center, and Mindanao in the south.
Luzon
In northern Luzon, Ilocano is the major regional language, strongly associated with the Ilocos Region and Cagayan Valley, and Ilocano speaking communities are also found elsewhere in Luzon and in Mindanao, where migration carried the language south. In central Luzon, Kapampangan and Pangasinan are the major regional languages. Kapampangan is centered on Pampanga and nearby provinces, and Pangasinan, also called Panggalato in the census, is centered on Pangasinan province. In southeastern Luzon, Bikol, also spelled Bicol, is the major regional language group, spoken across the Bicol Region in a set of related varieties that differ in vocabulary and pronunciation from place to place.
Tagalog itself belongs to Luzon as a regional language as well as serving as the base of Filipino. It is centered on the National Capital Region and on the provinces around Manila, including Batangas, Laguna, and Quezon. A reader visiting Manila will hear Tagalog based Filipino most often, but should not assume that the same language dominates every part of Luzon.
The Visayas
The Visayas, the central island group, is home to the largest Visayan language communities. Cebuano, also called Bisaya in everyday speech, is centered on Cebu and is widely spoken across the central and southern Philippines, including large parts of Mindanao. Hiligaynon, also called Ilonggo, is centered on Iloilo and Negros Occidental in Western Visayas. Waray, also called Waray Waray, is centered on Samar and Leyte in Eastern Visayas. Taken together, and allowing for the naming overlap between Bisaya and Cebuano noted above, the Visayan languages account for the largest block of home language use after Tagalog.
These languages are not dialects of Tagalog, and they are not mutually intelligible with it in the way two accents of one language are. A Tagalog speaker and a Cebuano speaker share many related words, because their languages belong to the same family, but they will not automatically understand a full conversation in the other language. In linguistic terms, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, and Waray are languages, not dialects of Filipino or of Tagalog.
Mindanao
Mindanao, the southern island group, adds further large communities. Maguindanao is a major language of the Maguindanao provinces and nearby areas. Maranao is strongly associated with Lanao del Sur and the area around Lake Lanao, and Tausug with the Sulu archipelago. Those two fall in the census “other” category nationally, but they are major languages in their own provinces and cities.
Mindanao is also home to Chavacano, a Spanish based creole language centered above all on Zamboanga City. Chavacano draws much of its vocabulary from Spanish while its grammar follows Philippine language patterns, and it is one of the clearest living reminders of the Spanish period in Philippine language history. It is not Spanish, and a Spanish speaker will recognize many Chavacano words without necessarily following a full Chavacano conversation.
Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Ilocano, and other languages from Luzon and the Visayas are widely spoken in Mindanao because families moved south over generations, so Mindanao languages include both long standing local languages and large migrant language communities side by side.
English in the Philippines
English is the second official language, and its role is different from its role in most countries where English is official. In the Philippines, English is a language of government, law, higher education, science, business, and much of national media. Laws, court decisions, university textbooks, and many official forms use English, often alongside Filipino. A visitor dealing with a government office, a university, or a large company is likely to be able to use English.
That official strength does not mean English is the home language of most Filipinos. The census home language table does not list English among the leading home languages. The normal pattern is different: Filipino and a regional language at home and in community life, English added at school and used in formal and professional settings. The history explains the split. English became the medium of public education under American rule in the early twentieth century, and it kept its official and educational role after independence. Filipino developed as the national language in parallel, for national communication and identity. The two languages therefore grew into complementary roles rather than competing for the same job. Filipino carries national identity and everyday national communication. English carries much of law, science, higher education, and international business. Most educated Filipinos move between the two, and code switching between Filipino and English in a single conversation is normal, not a sign of weak command of either language.
Spanish, Arabic, Chinese Languages, and Other Languages
Spanish deserves a section of its own, because its present small speaker numbers hide its large historical footprint. Spain ruled the Philippines for more than three centuries, and Spanish was the language of government, the church, and much of elite education during that period. It left a deep mark on Filipino vocabulary, on place names, and on family names. Today, however, Spanish is not widely spoken as a home language, and the Constitution treats it as a language to be promoted on a voluntary and optional basis, not as an official language. A visitor who speaks Spanish will recognize many borrowed words in Filipino, but should not expect to hold a full conversation in Spanish with most Filipinos.
Arabic is associated with Islam in Mindanao and with religious education, and the Constitution likewise provides for its promotion on a voluntary and optional basis. Chinese languages, above all Hokkien and Mandarin, are spoken in Filipino Chinese communities, particularly in commerce and family life. They are community languages, not official languages.
The Philippines also has many indigenous languages beyond the census top ten, including languages of the Cordillera, of Palawan, and of Mindoro. Some have only a few thousand speakers, and some are endangered as younger speakers shift to a larger regional language, to Filipino, or to English.
Language or Dialect? A Distinction That Matters
In everyday Philippine speech, people often say “dialect” when they mean a regional language. A person from Cebu might say “my dialect is Bisaya,” and a person from Ilocos might say “my dialect is Ilocano.” That everyday use is understandable, and this article does not scold speakers for it. But for a reader trying to understand the picture, the technical distinction matters.
In linguistics, a dialect is a variety of a language. Two dialects of one language are generally mutually intelligible, even if they differ in accent and in some words. A language is a system that is not mutually intelligible with another system, even if the two are related. By that test, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Waray, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Bikol, and Maguindanao are languages, not dialects of Tagalog or of Filipino. They belong to the same broad Austronesian family, and they share related words and similar grammatical patterns, but a speaker of one cannot simply understand a full conversation in another without learning it. Within each of those languages, there are dialects in the technical sense: Bikol varies across its region, Cebuano varies between Cebu, Bohol, and Mindanao, and Ilocano varies across its provinces.
Writing and Sign Language
Most Philippine languages today are written in the Latin alphabet, using the Filipino alphabet as adapted for each language. Road signs, newspapers, schoolbooks, and social media posts in Filipino, Cebuano, Ilocano, and other major languages all use Latin letters. Baybayin, the precolonial Philippine script, survives today mainly in cultural, artistic, and revival contexts rather than as the everyday writing system. A visitor may see Baybayin on artworks and logos, but everyday written communication uses the Latin alphabet.
Spoken languages are not the whole picture. Filipino Sign Language is the national sign language of the Filipino Deaf, and Republic Act No. 11106, the Filipino Sign Language Act, declares it the national sign language of the Philippines and the official sign language of government in all transactions involving the deaf. The Act also provides for its use in schools, broadcast media, and workplaces, and for its role as the language of instruction in deaf education. Filipino Sign Language is not a signed version of spoken Filipino. It is a visual language with its own grammar, and its legal basis is distinct: the Constitution governs Filipino and English as official spoken languages, and Republic Act No. 11106 governs Filipino Sign Language as the national sign language.
What a Visitor Will Actually Hear, and What to Learn
In Manila and the surrounding provinces, the visitor will hear Filipino based on Tagalog most often, mixed freely with English. In Cebu City, Davao City, Iloilo City, Bacolod, or Tacloban, the local language comes first in markets and neighborhood conversation, with Filipino and English used for national media, schooling, and dealings with visitors. In rural areas, the home language dominates more strongly, with Filipino as the bridge language for outsiders. Do not be surprised when a conversation switches languages halfway through. Switching is the norm, not the exception.
For most learners, study Filipino first. It is the national language, taught across the country and used in national media and government. Add the local language second if you are staying in one region: Cebuano for Cebu, Ilocano for Ilocos, Hiligaynon for Iloilo.
A Small Phrase Guide
| English | Filipino | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Good day | Magandang araw | A general polite greeting |
| Good morning | Magandang umaga | Used in the morning |
| Good afternoon | Magandang hapon | Used in the afternoon |
| Good evening | Magandang gabi | Used in the evening |
| Thank you | Salamat | The standard short form of thanks |
| Thank you very much | Maraming salamat | A warmer, fuller form of thanks |
| Yes | Oo | The common affirmative |
| No | Hindi | Also used as “not” in sentences |
| Excuse me | Pasensya na | Used to apologize |
| How are you? | Kamusta ka? | A common friendly greeting |
| I do not understand | Hindi ko naiintindihan | Useful when a conversation moves too fast |
| Do you speak English? | Marunong ka ba mag-Ingles? | A polite question, not an assumption |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main language spoken in the Philippines? There is no single main home language. Filipino is the national language and, with English, an official language. Tagalog is the largest single home language, at 39.9 percent of households in the 2020 census, but most households speak another language at home.
Are Filipino and Tagalog the same language? They are closely related but not identical in use. Filipino is the national language, based on Tagalog and defined as a language to be enriched from other Philippine and other languages. Tagalog is a regional language in its own right, centered on Manila and surrounding Luzon provinces.
What are the two official languages of the Philippines? Filipino and English, for communication and instruction, under Article XIV, Section 7 of the 1987 Constitution. Filipino alone is the national language, under Section 6.
Is English widely spoken in the Philippines? English is widely taught and used in government, law, higher education, business, and national media, and is generally usable in cities and tourist areas. Ability varies by schooling, region, age, and occupation, and English is not the home language of most households.
What language do people speak in Manila? People in Manila mainly speak Filipino based on Tagalog, often mixed with English. Tagalog is the regional language of the Manila area, and Taglish, the mix of Filipino and English, is common in everyday Manila speech.
What language do people speak in Cebu? People in Cebu mainly speak Cebuano, also called Bisaya, at home and in community life, with Filipino and English used for national communication and dealings with visitors. A visitor who speaks Filipino will generally be understood in Cebu, but will not automatically understand Cebuano conversation.
How many languages are spoken in the Philippines? There is no single agreed total, because the count depends on whether related varieties are counted as separate languages or as dialects. The safe statement is well over one hundred languages, with eight to ten large regional languages accounting for most home language use, plus many smaller indigenous languages.
Do Filipinos speak Spanish? Most Filipinos do not speak Spanish as a home or everyday language today, although Spanish has left a large mark on Filipino vocabulary, place names, and family names, and Chavacano in Zamboanga is a Spanish based creole. The Constitution provides for Spanish to be promoted on a voluntary and optional basis, not as an official language.
What is Taglish? Taglish is the common mix of Tagalog based Filipino and English in everyday speech, particularly in Manila and other cities. Speakers switch between the two languages within a conversation, often using English for technical terms and Filipino for everyday expression.
Should I learn Filipino or Tagalog before visiting? Learn Filipino first, because it is the national language and will be understood across the country. If you are staying in one region, add basic phrases in the local language, such as Cebuano in Cebu or Ilocano in Ilocos, as a second step.
Sources & references
- Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, 1987 Constitution, Article XIV, Sections 6 and 7: national language, official languages, regional languages as auxiliary official languages, and promotion of Spanish and Arabic on a voluntary and optional basis.
- Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, Speech of President Quezon on Filipino National Language and Executive Order No. 134, 30 December 1937: Tagalog proclaimed as the basis of the national language, following the Institute of National Language resolution of 9 November 1937.
- Philippine Statistics Authority, "Tagalog is the Most Widely Spoken Language at Home (2020 Census of Population and Housing)," Reference Number 2023-42, released 7 March 2023: household language table used in this article, including the household question wording and the exclusion of households enumerated as homeless.
- Senate of the Philippines, Legislative Reference Bureau, Republic Act No. 11106, the Filipino Sign Language Act, signed 30 October 2018: Filipino Sign Language declared as the national sign language of the Filipino Deaf and the official sign language of government in transactions involving the deaf.
