# Ale



## Inglip

Umupo sa silya ang ale.
The lady sat on the chair.

This is an example from my book. I haven't yet read the word _'ale'_ It says it means lady. I have always read '_babae - Woman'_ Like in English, we have Lady and woman essentially meaning the same thing, is this the same for ale/babae? Or is it an old word not used anymore, since it is an old book?

So, what is the meaning of ale? and how does it differ from babae?


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## Cake.

It is exactly as you said. _Ale_ and _babae _directly translate to lady and woman. While _ale _isn't commonly used conversationally, it is not strange to do so. Furthermore, _ale _can be used to address women in the same way you use miss like in "Miss, I'd like one of these" which translates to "_Ale, pabili nito_".


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## Inglip

Ok thanks


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## mataripis

ale is an old term for old lady.babae is for ordinary lady. when you are not sure about the status of a person, the use of ale(old lady) and mama'(ma')(old male) is commonly used.  e.g. An old man/woman speaks about his/her prophesy and you don't get what he/she said, you ask,  Sir/madame, pardon me,pls. repeat the explanation about X? (In tagalog, Mama'/ale pakiusap lang,maari bang ipaliwanag nyo uli ang sinabi nyo tungkol sa X?     This is case is in street scenes but when you are in Class A and B groups of people. Use Ginoo=Mr. ,Ginang=Mrs. and Binibini=(ms.) a frmal way of addressing a person.


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## Cake.

I do not mean to be contrary but _ale_ does not translate to "old lady". What I said above is accurate. Old lady in Filipino is "_manang_" and the usage is exactly the same as "_ale_", including it being used for addressing people.


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## Scherle

Cake. said:


> I do not mean to be contrary but _ale_ does not translate to "old lady". What I said above is accurate. Old lady in Filipino is "_manang_" and the usage is exactly the same as "_ale_", including it being used for addressing people.


 
I believe *ale* in that sentence refers to old lady. *Manang* on the other hand is use in Ilocano dialect which means *ate*. And it is unlikely for a textbook to use manang as lady. Or atleast I haven't seen one. 

"...including it being used for addressing people" This is possible but I believe it depends on place where you live.


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## mataripis

Scherle said:


> I believe *ale* in that sentence refers to old lady. *Manang* on the other hand is use in Ilocano dialect which means *ate*. And it is unlikely for a textbook to use manang as lady. Or atleast I haven't seen one.
> 
> "...including it being used for addressing people" This is possible but I believe it depends on place where you live.



Tama ka dyan!


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## Cake.

Scherle said:


> I believe *ale* in that sentence refers to old lady. *Manang* on the other hand is use in Ilocano dialect which means *ate*. And it is unlikely for a textbook to use manang as lady. Or atleast I haven't seen one.
> 
> "...including it being used for addressing people" This is possible but I believe it depends on place where you live.



I've lived my entire life in Manila. Apart from random words, I do not know any dialects so I can say my Filipino is free from dialectal influences. Unless explicitly specified, we must assume all questions are for Filipino and not for whichever dialect.

So perhaps _manang_ means older sister in the Ilocano dialect but in Filipino, it is not so. In everyday conversational Filipino, what I said stands. Also, the sentence on the original post does not hint at an age; "old lady" would be _matandang ale _and in the same vein, you won't see _matandang manang _as it's superfluous and sounds wrong besides.


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## mataripis

Ok. not matandang babae but it is "Nakakatandang babae".We cannot address someone "Ale" who is younger in age.


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