hi Adelle - of course you are, and I am sure your uncle will agree :) but to a westerner who would naturally pronounce DIN and RIN with very different prononciations, it is harder to understand until you start to pronounce them more similarly. I noticed what you said about i/e - I already noticed a wide variation, for example some say hind-ee' and some say hind-ay'.

Yes and No. Amongst Tagalog speakers, these are allophones. Use is based on region, dialect and preferences. There is no difference in the usage of 'din' and 'rin' amongst Tagalogs themselves. The 'Balarila' or grammar usage that others have commented is based on formal Filipino. Although Tagalog and Filipino are used interchangeably, they are not the same. For example, Filipino is closer to Manila Tagalog as opposed to the Tagalog spoken in Marinduque or Batangas. So work written in say Batangueño would be hard to understand (maybe even not) by those that learnt Filipino as an auxiliary language in other parts of the islands or the world even. Example: 'pasa(a)n ka?' in Batangueño (where are you going?) sounds like: 'Are you being carried?' in Filipino (or Manila Tagalog for that matter). Or, 'kamusta' is a common spelling in Tagalog but is correctly spelt as 'kumusta' in Filipino. 'Bundok' is the correct form in Filipino even if other Tagalog dialects (or languages) pronounce it as 'bunrok'. So regional and dialectical differences in Tagalog are outside the considerations of the formal and standardised forms and grammar of Filipino that has been developed as the basis for the national language. Native Tagalog speakers sometimes take this for granted and forego the standard 'Balarila' as taught in school and the rest of the country. But as someone mentioned, no one outside academics would notice the grammatical difference. There is none in common usage and hearing say 'siya din' would not leap out as incorrect unless one is being graded in 'Filipino' subject in school.