# Lapit na Chinese New Year?



## Seb_K

Heya.

Can you guys help me to translate these few phrases ... Thanks.

Lapit na Chinese New Year? (I can roughly understand what this mean but not the direct translation)

xxxx

What about the latter; what does it mean?


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## Cracker Jack

Chinese New Year is fast approaching.


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## Qcumber

It's very rough Taglish.
The Tagalog sentence is:
Malápit ná ang Bágong Taóng Intsék.


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## Cracker Jack

Qcumber said:


> It's very rough Taglish.
> The Tagalog sentence is:
> Malápit ná ang Bágong Taóng Intsék.


 
Nobody says that   . If you want to be purist about it, you can say Bagong Taon ng mga Intsik. I haven't seen it yet, but it could be found in Tagalog newspapers or in literature. But everybody says Chinese New Year. People only refer to Bagong Taon sa New Year of the Gregorian calendar which is January 1.

Although there are those who may call it as such, the majority refer to it as Chinese New Year. And yes, it is very much Taglish. But that is how it is stated.


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## Qcumber

I couldn't care less about Taglish.


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## Qcumber

The corrected expression is used:

Maliban sa mga mahahalangang araw nakalista sa itaas, mayrong mga iba pang pagdiriwang kagaya ng mga piyesta sa barrio, *bagong taon ng mga Intsek*, *...*


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## Seb_K

Salamat, for the explanations!


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## Qcumber

You are welcome, Seb_K.
BTW, the original sentence was a question, wasn't it?
So the translation in correct Tagalog should be:
*Malápit ná bá ang Bágong Taón ng mga Intsék?*
"Is the Chinese New Year near?" > "Are we close to the Chinese New Year?"

ng is the abbreviation of nang
mga is the abbreviation of mangá
Only these abbreviations are used in current publications.


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## Cracker Jack

Just a slight correction.  Chinese in Tagalog is Ints*i*k.  I understand that you deliberately placed the accent to know which syllable is accented but in written Tagalog, accents are not used very often.


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## Qcumber

I came across both forms Intsik (Intsík) and Intsek (Intsék) in texts.

Yes, I noticed Filipinos neglect accents. It all started when appropriate keyboards (made in Germany) were no longer available after WWII, being replaced by US keyboards devised for no other language but English. 

For instance, a person having <ñ> in their name, couldn't even type it properly, and their ID cards exhibited the same mistake, e.g. Pineda for Piñeda, thus confusing two different names.

I think it important to use accents, and absolutely necessary when one gives information to someone learning Tagalog, which is the case in this forum, isn't it?


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## Seb_K

Qcumber, 

Yes, it was a question asked by a friend.


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