Page 60 - Tagalog for Beginners: An Introduction to Filipino, the National Language of the Philippines

The linker na is contracted into “ng” and attached to either ba or the
pronoun.
Not contracting results in outdated language we never find in contemporary
life. You may notice that kind of language in old books.

Example of the (outdated) long form:
Mayroon ba sila na mga libro?

Do they have books? (Have ba they linker books?)
Example of the short form we should use:

Mayroon ba silang mga libro?
Do they have books? (Have ba they linker books?)

Mga Tala Sa Kultura (Culture Notes)

Why do some of the nouns studied above seem to be derived from Spanish or
English?
The Philippines was a colony of Spain for around three hundred years (1562–
1898), ending with the Philippine revolution of 1896 and the declaration of
independence in 1898. The United States, at war with Spain, then sought to make
the Philippines its own colony. Signed on December 10, 1898, the Treaty of Paris
ended the war between the two nations, and Spain ceded the Philippines to the

United States in exchange for twenty million dollars. Filipino revolutionaries
resisted the new colonial power, resulting in the Philippine American War (1899–
1902), also known as the Philippine War of Independence. The war ended with the
surrender of the Filipino general Emilio Aguinaldo, and the Philippines then
became a colony of the United States for forty years.
It is therefore not surprising that the Filipino language has many words derived
from Spanish and English. Words such as “mesa” and “silya” were words
introduced during the Spanish colonial period, at the same time that these
furnishings were introduced in Filipino households. In precolonial times, Filipinos
lived in the bahay kubo (literally, “cube house,” but this term refers to houses
made of bamboo) and did not have chairs or tables. Some households had very low
tables (similar to other Asian cultures), which they called “dulang.” Thus, the first
words derived from Spanish came to be used because of the “imports” of the period.

Similarly, many words, especially those referring to technology, such as
“telepono” or “computer,” are derived from English. The spelling depends on the
time period the word was introduced. Since the telephone became popular before
the introduction of the letter f in the alphabet, we use “telepono” (influenced by
telefono in Spanish). However, more people are inclined to just retain the spelling
of “computer,” because c has been in the alphabet since 1986, instead of