Filipino Language (Tagalog) Trivia
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50 free Filipino Language (Tagalog) trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Wikang Filipino is the national language of a country with well over a hundred living languages, and its story is full of arguments: which tongue to build it on, what to call it (Tagalog, Wikang Pambansa, Pilipino, Filipino), whether to let in C, F and Ñ, and how many weeks of August to spend celebrating it. These 50 trivia questions about Filipino language cover the history and the mechanics. You will meet Manuel L. Quezon and his December 30, 1937 order, Lope K. Santos's 20-letter Abakada, the seven-member Institute of National Language, the 1959 rename to Pilipino, the 1987 Constitution, the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino and the ISO code 'fil'. Then the language itself: the 17 letters of Baybayin and the kudlit that changes a vowel, the markers ng and mga, Spanish and Hokkien loanwords, pitó versus siyete, the Laguna Copperplate and the Doctrina Christiana of 1593, Taglish, and the words English borrowed back — boondocks, jeepney, yaya. Easy questions stay with Buwan ng Wika and the two official languages; the hardest ask about Pablo Clain's dictionary and the krus-kudlit of 1620. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and comes with a short explanation. Use it for a Buwan ng Wika quiz bee, a Filipino class, or a trivia night with a Philippine twist — play online or print it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01When explorers named the islands 'Filipinas' after Philip in the 1540s, what was he?
Crown prince
Crown prince: he took the throne as Philip II only years later, so the islands were named for an heir, not a king.
Q 02Manila's name is said to combine Tagalog for 'there is' with the name of what?
Shrub
Shrub: the city's name later passed to manila hemp, the fiber that first gave manila paper its name.
Q 03Which of these languages does the 1987 Philippine Constitution promote on a voluntary and optional basis?
Arabic
Arabic: it has been a language of worship and religious learning for Filipino Muslims since Islam reached the islands centuries ago.
Q 04The jeepney's name blends 'jeep' with which older word for a small hired passenger vehicle?
Jitney
Jitney: jeepneys began as army jeeps that Filipinos customized to carry paying passengers after World War II.
Q 05Most Philippine languages descend from a language carried by ancient migrants from where?
Taiwan
Taiwan: that is why the island's surviving aboriginal languages are still relatives of most Philippine languages.
Q 06Before colonial rule, what material did Filipinos most often cut Baybayin letters into?
Bamboo
Bamboo: scribes cut the letters with knife or dagger points, then wiped ash over them so the characters stood out.
Q 07A 2024 Philippine law ended the rule requiring which teaching medium from kindergarten to Grade 3?
Mother tongue
Mother tongue: required in those grades since 2013, it was dropped when the bill lapsed into law without the President's signature, and classes reverted to Filipino and English.
Q 08Which president proclaimed Tagalog the basis of the national language on December 30, 1937?
Manuel L. Quezon
Manuel L. Quezon: his order approved a panel's pick of Tagalog as the language used by the most Filipinos, though only one of the panel's seven members represented Tagalog speakers.
Q 09The toy name yo-yo is thought to come from which Philippine language?
Ilocano
Ilocano: Filipino immigrant Pedro Flores popularized the toy in California in 1928, showing off tricks before opening a yo-yo factory.
Q 10Filipinos welcome visitors with 'Mabuhay!', a word that literally wishes them what?
Long life
Long life: that is why Filipinos also raise 'Mabuhay!' as a toast at celebrations, much like 'cheers'.
Q 11Which grammarian's Balarila introduced the 20-letter Abakada alphabet?
Lope K. Santos
Lope K. Santos: his grammar became the official textbook when schools began teaching the national language in 1940.
Q 12The Tagalog word 'balikbayan' caught on after the government used it in 1973 to name what?
A tourism program
A tourism program: it lured Filipinos abroad home for visits with travel perks, and the boxes they brought with them became known as balikbayan boxes.
Q 13The Tagalog word 'bayanihan', for communal cooperation, is traditionally pictured as neighbors carrying what?
A family's house
Q 21Which president extended Language Week to a full month in 1997?
Fidel V. Ramos
Fidel V. Ramos: his proclamation credited the language at the base of Filipino with a role in the 1896 revolution, while the nation celebrated a century of independence.
Q 22Filipinos call the plant Mimosa pudica 'makahiya', a name that roughly means what?
Shy
Shy: its leaves fold shut when touched, as if bashful, and the Latin species name pudica carries the same idea.
Q 23In 1882, a Manila periodical printed Rizal's essay on love of country alongside what?
A translation
A translation: Marcelo H. del Pilar rendered the essay in Tagalog so that readers of the bilingual paper who lacked the colonizers' language could follow it.
A family's house: when a family moved, neighbors turned up unasked to lift the whole house and carry it to its new site.
Q 14Under the 1991 law creating the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, what does each commissioner represent?
A language group
A language group: the law seats commissioners for Cebuano, Hiligaynon and other major languages because Filipino is meant to grow from the country's other languages.
Q 15In the Tagalog verse tale 'Ibong Adarna', princes hunt a magical bird because its song can do what?
Cure the king
Cure the king: its songs also lull listeners to sleep, so the youngest prince stayed awake by cutting his arm and squeezing citrus juice into the wounds.
Q 16The Zamboanga creole Chavacano gets its name from a colonial-era word meaning what?
Vulgar
Vulgar: colonial elites dismissed the creole as a language of the street and the kitchen, to set it apart from their own speech.
Q 17Buwan ng Wika, the national language celebration, is held in which month?
August
August: it was chosen because the month holds the birthday of the president hailed as father of the national language.
Q 18A 2018 law requires Philippine TV news programs to carry what?
Sign language insets
Sign language insets: the same law made Filipino Sign Language the national sign language and the medium of deaf education.
Q 19The original 1946 Language Week ended on April 2, the birthday of which Tagalog writer?
Francisco Baltazar
Francisco Baltazar: the poet, better known as Balagtas, lent his name to the balagtasan, a Tagalog verse debate first staged in his honor in 1924.
Q 20Why did Ramon Magsaysay move Language Week out of March-April in 1955?
Schools were on break
Schools were on break: a 1946 proclamation had called on every school to lead the observance, but the March–April dates fell during vacation.
Q 24Tagalog belongs to which language family?
Austronesian
Austronesian: its speakers spread so far by sea that Malagasy, spoken in Madagascar off Africa, is most closely related to a language of Borneo.
Q 25The name Tagalog is thought to come from taga-ilog, meaning what?
River dweller
River dweller: that is the popular derivation, but a 1901 study judged it unlikely because the i of ilog should have survived, and some prefer taga-alog, from a lowland pool.
Q 26What is the first known complete book written in Tagalog, printed in 1593?
Doctrina Christiana
Doctrina Christiana: the catechism was printed as a teaching tool, giving converts basic prayers like the Lord's Prayer in their own language and script.
Q 27Old Tagalog words may appear in which 10th-century artefact, written mostly in Old Malay?
Laguna Copperplate Inscription
Laguna Copperplate Inscription: it is a certificate clearing a nobleman's unpaid debt in gold, so his relatives would no longer be held liable as payment.
Q 28Tagalog was first declared official in 1897 by the charter of which revolutionary republic?
Biak-na-Bato
Biak-na-Bato: weeks after adopting that charter, its leaders accepted a payout and exile in Hong Kong, yet other revolutionaries kept on fighting.
Q 29Filipino vendors' 'buwenamano' literally means what?
Good hand
Good hand: vendors say it of the day's first sale, which they often discount because they believe it sets their luck for the rest of the day.
Q 30Which patriotic kundiman, likening the homeland to a caged bird, became a protest anthem against Marcos?
Bayan Ko
Bayan Ko: first written to protest American rule, it was revived decades later by crowds demonstrating against a Filipino dictator.