Your first real sentences, and the one particle that makes everything polite
Kapampangan greetings are built from one adjective and one noun, which means that once you learn the pattern you get four greetings for the price of one. Let's start there.
Every greeting uses mayap ("good"), the linker a, and the part of the day:
mayap + a + [time of day]
| Kapampangan | English | When |
|---|---|---|
| Mayap a abak! | Good morning! | until about noon |
| Mayap a ugtu! | Good noon! | around midday |
| Mayap a gatpanapun! | Good afternoon! | afternoon |
| Mayap a bengi! | Good evening! | after dark |
You will hear both Mayap a abak and Mayap a yabak. Both are correct and both are common — the y is a glide that grows naturally between the two vowels. Say whichever feels easier; nobody will correct you.
Notice ugtu. Kapampangan gives midday its own greeting, which English does not. If you arrive somewhere at half past twelve, Mayap a ugtu is the natural thing to say.
Komusta comes straight from Spanish ¿cómo está? and has been Kapampangan for centuries.
Komusta ka? — How are you?
Komusta na ka? — How are you now? (the na adds "by now, these days")
Mayap ku naman. — I'm fine.
Mayap ku naman, salamat. — I'm fine, thank you.
You can also point komusta at other people and things:
Komusta ya ing pasyenti? — How is the patient?
That ya is a pronoun meaning "he/she/it", and Kapampangan insists on it even though "the patient" is right there in the sentence. This is a rule that will govern everything you say in this language, and lesson 4 gives it the attention it deserves. For now, just copy the pattern.
If you learn one word from this lesson, learn pu. It is the Kapampangan equivalent of Tagalog po, and it does an enormous amount of work for a two-letter word. Drop it into almost any sentence and the sentence becomes respectful.
| Plain | Polite |
|---|---|
| Mayap a abak! | Mayap a abak pu! |
| Salamat. | Salamat pu. |
| Wa. | Opu. |
Note that last row: the polite "yes" is not wa pu but opu, a word of its own.
Use pu with anyone older than you, anyone you have just met, anyone serving you, and anyone in a position of authority. Among close friends of the same age it is dropped. Using it when it isn't needed makes you sound formal but never rude — so when in doubt, use it. As a learner you will be forgiven almost any grammatical error faster than a missing pu.
| Kapampangan | English |
|---|---|
| Salamat. | Thank you. |
| Dakal a salamat. | Thank you very much. (dakal = "many, much") |
| Wa. | Yes. |
| Opu. | Yes. (polite) |
| Ali. | No. / Not. |
| Pasensya na. | Sorry. / Excuse me. |
An earlier edition of this site gave Pakawari as the everyday "excuse me / sorry." That is not how the apology is normally made. Use Pasensya na (add pu to be polite), which is what you will actually hear in Pampanga.
Lagyu is "name".
Nanung lagyu mu? — What is your name?
Juan ya ing lagyu ku. — My name is Juan.
Read that answer literally and it says "Juan he the name my." Three things are happening, and all three are normal Kapampangan:
You do not need to understand any of that yet. Learn the sentence whole, and the pieces will come apart on their own over the next three lessons.
The most famous Kapampangan sentence in the Philippines is:
Kaluguran daka.
I love you.
and its gentler sibling:
Buri daka! — I like you!
That daka is not one word that means "you". It is two pronouns welded together — "I" acting on "you" — and this welding is the single most distinctive feature of Kapampangan grammar. Lesson 5 is devoted to it.
Kaluguran itself is worth a moment. It means "beloved" and also simply "friend". A language that uses one word for both is telling you something about how it sees friendship.
Add the politeness particle, or give the polite form.
Can I just use Tagalog greetings in Pampanga? You can, and you will be understood — almost everyone is bilingual. But that is precisely why using Kapampangan lands so well. A greeting in the local language marks you as someone who chose to learn it.
Is pu really that important? Yes. Philippine politeness systems are grammatical, not optional decoration. Omitting pu to an elder reads roughly like calling a stranger by their first name and interrupting them.
Why does "my name" put the "my" after the noun? Because Kapampangan possessive pronouns follow what they modify: ing lagyu ku, "the name my". There is a second way to say it that puts the possessor first, and lesson 4 covers both.
Greetings are the part of a language people actually notice. Nobody compliments a foreigner on their aspect marking; everybody notices a well-placed Mayap a abak pu. These six or seven phrases will open more doors in Pampanga than the next five lessons combined.
Next: The Markers — ing, ning and king, the three small words that hold every Kapampangan sentence together.