Origins of the Chabacano Dale

The Chabacano word for 'give' is dale. This word has very interesting origins. If you speak Spanish, you know that this word comes from that language. But let us dissect this word in Spanish first to appreciate it more.

The word dar in Spanish means 'to give'. The word le meanwhile, means 'him' or 'her' or 'you'. When you give an informal command in Spanish and you say give him or her (something), you say 'dale'. Here is an example:

Spanish: Dale (a el) un pedazo de pan
English: Give him a piece of bread

In Chabacano however, the Spanish dale becomes a whole word and means 'to give'. Here are some sentences using this word.

Chabacano: Dale tu con ele pan
English: Give him (or her) bread

Chabacano: Dale cen con ele
English: Give him (or her) money

Chabacano: Puede tu conmigo dale arroz?
English: Can you give me some rice?

Chabacano: Ta dale ele comida na mga pobre.
English: He (or she) gives food to the poor.

Chabacano: Ya dale regalo si Mario con Pilar ayer.
English: Mario gave a gift to Pilar yesterday.

As you can see by the examples above, the word dale is also used for declarative sentences and not just imperative sentences. Another thing that you might have also observed, you don’t have to put the subject and the indirect object anymore when it is implied (like in the second example).