Filipino is spoken by more than 82 million people, and serves as the national language of the Philippines. It is primarily based on Tagalog and shaped by centuries of linguistic influence from Spanish, English, and native languages.
Malay is spoken by over 300 million people across Southeast Asia, particularly in Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, and southern Thailand. It belongs to the Austronesian language family—just like Filipino—making them linguistic relatives.
Both Filipino and Malay generally follow a subject-verb-object (SVO) sentence structure, making basic sentence construction similar between the two.
Both languages use the Latin alphabet today, although Malay was historically written in the Jawi script (Arabic-based). Filipino spelling includes more Spanish influence, while Malay orthography is more phonetically consistent.
Shared cultural elements include politeness markers, respect for elders, and social harmony. Malay speakers use terms like "Encik" or "Puan" for formal address, paralleling Filipino honorifics like "po" and "ginoo."