Describing the Economy

Don’t get fixated on translating economic and financial terms into Tagalog. Filipinos use the English words and phrases in regular conversation. For example, a Filipino will always say ‘credit card’ (in English) instead of the forced Tagalog translation tarheta ng kredito.

It’ll be very amusing to Filipinos if you insist on Tagalog translations. They may even find it insulting. “How can this foreigner think I don’t know what a ‘credit card’ is?”

ekonomiya
economy

pera
money

Masama ang ekonomiya.
The economy’s bad.

Ang hirap ng buhay ngayon.
Life is hard these days.

Ang hirap makakuha ng “credit.”
It’s hard to get credit.

Hindi makahanap ng “credit.”
Can’t find any credit.

magpatakbo ng ekonomiya
run the economy

Hindi marunong magpatakbo ng ekonomiya.
Doesn’t know how to run the economy.

Walang “revenue” ang gobyerno.
The government has no revenue.

One thought on “Describing the Economy”

  1. In ordinary, street-level conversation, the word “revenue” is too formal for ordinary conversations in Tagalog (unless used in the phrase “government revenue”, “Bureau of Internal Revenue”. The word “kita” is more common. (e.g. Kaunti lang ang kita ko ngayon. = I earned little today.) I hope an example will be added too.

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