Learn Hardcore Filipino: Tumulong kami sa pamilya sa bahay ngayong gabi.

tumulong – completed/perfective view of the action (already done, or seen as a whole event)
tumutulong – ongoing/imperfective (is helping / was helping / used to help)
tutulong – contemplated/future (will help / going to help)

In Tumulong kami sa pamilya sa bahay ngayong gabi, the speaker treats the helping as a completed event related to tonight. Depending on context, it can mean:

We helped the family at home tonight (already done as you say this), or
We are helping / will help the family at home tonight (for Filipino speakers, the perfective can also be used when the event is arranged and “fixed” for tonight).

In practice, all three forms could appear in similar contexts, but tumulong emphasizes the action as a whole (done / set).

What exactly does kami mean, and how is it different from tayo?

Both kami and tayo mean we, but:

kami = we (excluding the listener)
tayo = we (including the listener)

In Tumulong kami…, the sentence means “We (but not you) helped…”.
If you say Tumulong tayo sa pamilya…, it means “We (including you) helped / will help the family…”, or invites the listener to be part of the group.

Why is the sentence order Tumulong kami sa pamilya sa bahay ngayong gabi and not something like Kami tumulong sa pamilya…?

Filipino is fairly flexible with word order, but the neutral, natural order in Tagalog often starts with the verb, then the actor, then other details:

Verb – Actor – Other elements
Tumulong kami sa pamilya sa bahay ngayong gabi.

Other orders are possible, for emphasis:

Kami ang tumulong sa pamilya sa bahay ngayong gabi. (Emphasis on kami: We were the ones who helped.)
Ngayong gabi kami tumulong sa pamilya sa bahay. (Emphasis on ngayong gabi.)

But the given sentence is the default, “plain” way to say it.

What does sa mean in sa pamilya and sa bahay? Is it “to,” “for,” or “at”?

The preposition sa is very flexible and can cover several English prepositions:

sa pamilya – can be understood as to the family / for the family
sa bahay – can be understood as at home / at the house / in the house

So in context, sa here has two roles:

sa pamilya – marks the beneficiary/recipient (who you helped)
sa bahay – marks the location (where you helped)

English needs different prepositions (to, for, at, in), but Filipino often just uses sa plus context.

Does sa pamilya mean “to the family,” “for the family,” or “our family”?

By itself, sa pamilya is neutral and can mean:

to the family
for the family
with the family (depending on verb/context)

It does not automatically mean our family.
If you want to say our family, you usually add a pronoun:

sa pamilya namin – for / to our family (excluding the listener)
sa pamilya natin – for / to our family (including the listener)

So:

Tumulong kami sa pamilya. – We helped a/the family.
Tumulong kami sa pamilya namin. – We helped our family.

Is there a difference between sa bahay and sa bahay namin?

Yes:

sa bahay – at the house / at home (general; which house is understood from context)
sa bahay namin – at our house (our home, excluding the listener)
sa bahay natin – at our house (including the listener)

So:

Tumulong kami sa pamilya sa bahay ngayong gabi. – We helped the family at home / at the house tonight (context decides whose house).
Tumulong kami sa pamilya namin sa bahay namin ngayong gabi. – We helped our family at our house tonight.

Can the time expression ngayong gabi be placed somewhere else in the sentence?

Yes. Time expressions are quite flexible. All of these are grammatical:

Tumulong kami sa pamilya sa bahay ngayong gabi.
Ngayong gabi, tumulong kami sa pamilya sa bahay.
Tumulong kami ngayong gabi sa pamilya sa bahay.

The meaning (tonight / this evening) stays the same; moving ngayong gabi mainly changes what is emphasized or what sounds natural in a particular context. Starting with Ngayong gabi often sounds like you’re setting the scene: “Tonight, we helped the family at home.”

What is the difference between tumulong and tinulungan?

Both come from tulong, but they have different focus:

tumulong – actor-focus (focus on the doer)
- Tumulong kami sa pamilya. – We helped the family.
tinulungan – object/beneficiary-focus (focus on the one who receives the help)
- Tinulungan namin ang pamilya. – We helped the family. (Emphasis on pamilya as the one helped.)

So, Tumulong kami sa pamilya and Tinulungan namin ang pamilya both can translate to We helped the family, but:

First highlights kami (we) as the helpers.
Second highlights ang pamilya (the family) as the one being helped.

Is it necessary to say kami, or can I just say Tumulong sa pamilya sa bahay ngayong gabi?

You can drop kami, but then the doer becomes unspecified:

Tumulong sa pamilya sa bahay ngayong gabi. – Helped the family at home tonight. (Who? It’s unclear from the sentence alone.)

Tagalog allows pro-drop (leaving out pronouns) when the subject is obvious from context, for example in a continuing conversation. However, if you want to be clear that we did it, especially in a stand‑alone sentence, you normally include kami:

Tumulong kami sa pamilya sa bahay ngayong gabi. – We helped the family at home tonight.

How would you say “We will help our family at home tonight” more explicitly?

You could make both the future and possession very clear:

Tutulong kami sa pamilya namin sa bahay namin ngayong gabi.

Breakdown:

Tutulong kami – We will help
sa pamilya namin – our family (excluding the listener)
sa bahay namin – at our house
ngayong gabi – tonight

How do you pronounce ngayong in ngayong gabi?

Ngayong is pronounced roughly as:

nga – like “ngah” (the ng sound as in sing
- a)
yong – like “yong” in young but with a clear o sound

Put together: nga-yong [ŋa-jong].

The stress is usually on the second syllable: nga-YONG. So ngayong gabi sounds like nga-YONG ga-BI.

Could the sentence also mean “We helped the family who is at home tonight,” or is it only “We helped the family at home tonight”?

By default, Filipino speakers will understand:

We helped the family, and the location of the helping was at home, tonight.

To make it clearer that it’s the family who is at home, you would usually add more information, for example:

Tumulong kami sa pamilyang nasa bahay ngayong gabi.
- We helped the family who is at home tonight.

So sa pamilya sa bahay in the original sentence is most naturally read as:

to/for the family, at home (location of the action),
not as a relative clause like “the family who is at home.”