Whenever we need to get off the jeepney, we all say "para" to the driver. By now, I believe most Filipinos already know that para is Spanish for "stop", conjugated from the verb "parar" (to stop).
To students of Spanish grammar, it is also known that para is the informal imperative form. Therefore, in Tagálog, para means "humintó ca" (you stop).
Not so polite, isn't it?
Meanwhile, the formal imperative form of parar (the polite version) is "pare" which means "humintó po cayó" (please stop). Since we Filipinos are a polite bunch, won't we rather say pare to the jeepney driver instead of para?
The only problem is that the word pare means something else. It is actually a variant or shortened form of the Spanish word "compadre" which means co-father or co-parent. It is what you call your male friend whom you have chosen to become the godfather of your child. But pare has since become a way of addressing or referring to a friend or companion even if he is not your child's godfather. So yeah, it would be awkward to say "pare, pare" to the jeepney driver.
These are just some of the countless subtleties and nuances of the Spanish language found in Tagálog. And we haven't even tackled all the other Hispanized Filipino languages.
By the way, the word "tsuper" is actually derived from the Spanish "chófer" which means the same thing: driver. Gulat cayó, ¿no?
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