Page 168 - Tagalog for Beginners: An Introduction to Filipino, the National Language of the Philippines

The verbs aalis (will leave) and darating (will arrive) are used when asking
about departures and arrivals. The verb bababa (with the accent on the first
syllable) is used to mean “will get off.” In Filipino, we can use either the present
tense or the future tense. For example:
EXAMPLES : Anong oras dumarating ang bus?
What time does the bus arrive?

Anong oras darating ang bus?
What time will the bus arrive?

Saan ka bababa?
Where will you get off?

For alis, dating and baba, we use the prefix um.

Completed Incompleted Contemplative
umalis umaalis aalis

dumating dumarating darating
bumaba bumababa bababa

Similarly, we can also use the noun forms of these words: alis (departure) and
dating (arrival). Thus, we can ask:

EXAMPLES : Anong oras ang alis ng bus?
What time does the bus leave?

Anong oras ang dating ng bus?
What time does the bus arrive?

Note also that in some instances, you will find the verb darating spelled or
spoken as dadating. Bear in mind that this is also acceptable because in the
baybayin script d and r are both indicated by a single character. When Filipinos
were asked, “How do you know whether to read a letter as d or r ?” they replied that

they “simply knew.” Ambiguity was not a problem for them.

II. Particles for More Natural Speech
Some particles (na, pa, and lang) have been introduced earlier. Let us review
them again and see how we can use them in this lesson to have more natural
speech.

TANONG : Anong oras na?
What time is it? (literally, What time already?)