Sabi ni Tatay, maaga tayong aalis bukas ng umaga.

Sabi is a very common conversational way to mean said or according to what someone said.

So Sabi ni Tatay means:

• Dad said
• or more literally, According to Dad

In everyday Filipino, sabi is often used instead of a fully inflected verb like sinabi when reporting speech casually.

Compare:

• Sabi ni Tatay... = Dad said... / According to Dad...
• Sinabi ni Tatay na... = Dad said that...
  This sounds a bit more explicit or formal.

So in this sentence, Sabi ni Tatay is a natural, common spoken way to introduce what Dad said.

Ni is a marker used before a specific person’s name when that person is in a non-focus role, such as the doer of sabi in this kind of expression.

So:

• ni Tatay = by Dad / Dad’s

In this sentence:

• Sabi ni Tatay literally works like The saying of Dad or What Dad said
• natural English: Dad said

You will often see ni before names or family titles:

• ni Maria
• ni Kuya
• ni Nanay
• ni Tatay

Because after sabi, the speaker being referred to is marked with ni, not ang or si.

Here are the roles:

• si Tatay would mark Tatay as the topic/focus in some sentence patterns
• ni Tatay marks him in the form required by sabi

So:

• Sabi ni Tatay = correct
• Sabi si Tatay = not correct here

Also, Tatay is used like Dad rather than the father. It is a family title used as a name or form of address.

Tayong is the linker form of tayo.

The pronoun tayo means we including the person being spoken to. When it directly connects to a following word or predicate, it often becomes tayong.

So:

• tayo = plain form
• tayong = linked form

In this sentence:

• maaga tayong aalis = we will leave early

You can think of -ng here as helping connect tayo smoothly to what follows.

Similar examples:

• tayong dalawa = the two of us
• tayong lahat = all of us
• aalis tayong maaga = also possible, with a different word order emphasis

Yes. Tayo is the inclusive form of we.

That means it includes:

• the speaker
• the listener

So tayong aalis means we are leaving, and the listener is part of that group.

This is different from kami, which means we but not including the listener.

Compare:

• Aalis tayo. = We’re leaving. (including you)
• Aalis kami. = We’re leaving. (not including you)

This distinction is very important in Filipino.

Aalis is the future aspect of the verb alis (to leave).

The verb is formed by reduplicating the first syllable:

• root: alis
• future: aalis

So:

• aalis = will leave
• umaalis = is leaving / leaves
• umalis = left

In this sentence:

• maaga tayong aalis = we will leave early

The doubled a comes from repeating the first syllable of the root to mark future aspect.

Maaga means early, and in Filipino it often comes before the part it describes.

So:

• maaga tayong aalis literally = early we will leave
• natural English = we will leave early

This word order is very natural in Filipino. Adverbs and descriptive words often appear before the predicate or action phrase.

You may also hear:

• Aalis tayong maaga.

This means the same basic thing, but the emphasis is slightly different.

• Maaga tayong aalis highlights early
• Aalis tayong maaga highlights the action leaving

Yes, bukas already means tomorrow, but bukas ng umaga specifically means tomorrow morning.

Breakdown:

• bukas = tomorrow
• umaga = morning
• bukas ng umaga = tomorrow morning

The ng here links the time expressions together.

So the sentence is not just saying we’ll leave early tomorrow, but more specifically we’ll leave early tomorrow morning.

Here, ng works like a linker between time expressions.

So:

• bukas ng umaga = tomorrow in the morning / tomorrow morning

It does not mean exactly one single English word. In this pattern, it helps combine the expressions naturally.

You will see similar time phrases such as:

• mamayang gabi = later tonight
• kahapon ng hapon = yesterday afternoon
• bukas ng gabi = tomorrow evening

In this sentence, ng is part of the normal way to build the phrase tomorrow morning.

It mainly modifies the action aalis.

So the meaning is:

• We will leave early and this will happen
• tomorrow morning

In other words:

• maaga tells you how early the leaving happens
• bukas ng umaga tells you when it happens

So the structure is basically:

• Dad said
  • we will leave early
    • tomorrow morning

Yes. Adding na is also possible:

• Sabi ni Tatay, maaga tayong aalis bukas ng umaga.
• Sabi ni Tatay na maaga tayong aalis bukas ng umaga.

Both are understandable and natural. The version with a comma is very common in speech and writing when introducing reported speech informally.

The na works somewhat like that in English:

• Dad said that we will leave early tomorrow morning

But in casual Filipino, na is often omitted after sabi.

It is mostly conversational and natural everyday Filipino.

Why:

• Sabi ni Tatay is a casual, common spoken way to report speech.
• Tatay is a family word like Dad, not a formal term.
• The whole sentence sounds like normal family conversation.

A more formal version might use:

• Sinabi ni Tatay na maaga tayong aalis bukas ng umaga.

That version is still natural, but slightly more formal or explicit.

Yes, Filipino allows some flexibility in word order.

For example, these are all natural:

• Sabi ni Tatay, maaga tayong aalis bukas ng umaga.
• Sabi ni Tatay, aalis tayong maaga bukas ng umaga.
• Bukas ng umaga, maaga tayong aalis, sabi ni Tatay.

The core meaning stays similar, but the emphasis changes:

• putting maaga first emphasizes early
• putting bukas ng umaga first emphasizes tomorrow morning
• putting sabi ni Tatay at the end sounds like an afterthought or report tag

So Filipino word order is flexible, but each arrangement can shift what feels most prominent.