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INTRODUCTION

A, B, C ... the Tagalog and Filipino Alphabets

The Tagalog language has only twenty letters, a, b, k, d, e, g, h, i, l, m, n, ng, o, p, r, s, t, u, w and y. However, the Filipino language, as it is used today, has 28, because of the addition of 8 letters, c, f, j, ñ, q, v, x, and n.

The Unfamiliar Letters Ñ and Ng

Two letters in the alphabet may be unfamiliar to you.

First, ñ—this is the Spanish ñ. Pronounce it the way it is pronounced in Spanish. For example, the word for pineapple is piña, also spelled as pinya.

When spelled with an ñ, it is pronounced PIN-ya, with the accent on the first syllable (approximating a more “Spanish” sound).

When spelled with the letters n and y, pinya, it is pronounced pi-NYA, with the accent on the second syllable.

You will find that in most cases, the spelling and pronunciation has been adapted to Filipino/Tagalog, but you can still find the letter ñ used in names and in other words.

Second, the letter ng may be pronounced as “nang” when used alone as a word, or pronounced as a singular sound “ng” when it occurs at the end of a word (for example, lutang, pronounced lu-tang, meaning “float”) or when it’s followed by a vowel (for example, sanga, pronounced sa-NGA, accent on the second syllable, meaning “branch”).

See It, Say It: Pronunciation Guidelines & Tips

For Filipino/Tagalog, we read a word the way it is spelled, and we spell it the way we read. There are no long vowel sounds.

Basic Sounds

Let us pair off the letter b with the vowel a. Remember the language only has short vowel sounds...no long vowels, no extended vowels, and no aspirated sounds.

Now practice saying these syllables:

ba be bi bo bu

To guide you, here are some words as well as comparisons to sounds in the English language. Note that the accents in the vowels indicate that the stress is on the first syllable.

ba in báyad (payment) with the ba close to the a in “baccarat” (card game)

be in bénda (bandage) with the be close to the be in “bend”

bi in bíbe (duck) with the bi close to “bee” (the insect)

bo in bóte (bottle) with the bo close to “bought”

bu in búkas (tomorrow) with the bu in “boom”

Now try it with the other letters:

ka	ke	ki	ko	ku
da	de	di	do	du
ga	ge	gi	go	gu
ha	he	hi	ho	hu
la	le	li	lo	lu
ma	me	me	mo	mu
na	ne	ni	no	nu
pa	pe	pi	po	pu
ra	re	ri	ro	ru
sa	se	si	so	su
ta	te	ti	to	tu
wa	we	wi	wo	wu
ya	ye	yi	yo	yu

Diphthongs

There are five Tagalog diphthongs (groups of letters that make a single sound): iw, ay, aw, oy, and uy. When you see these, remember that the pronunciation is very different from the way you would pronounce it in English.

For example:

DIPHTHONG		WORD		MEANING
ay		lamay		funeral wake
		(“la” “my”)

With the accent on the first syllable, pronounce the second syllable like English word “my.” Do not pronounce it the way the word “may” (meaning “can”) is pronounced in English.

Another example is the diphthong aw:

DIPHTHONG	WORD	MEANING
aw	bataw	bean pod

With the accent on the first syllable, pronounce the aw here in a way close to the sound taw in the English word “towel.” Don’t pronounce it the way you would the English word “raw.”

Similarly, the three other diphthongs are pronounced the same way. Try them:

	WORD	MEANING
iw	aliw	fun (accent on the second syllable)
oy	kumunoy	quicksand (accent on the third syllable). This is similar to the sound in the English word “annoy.”
uy	kasuy	cashew

Two Vowels but Not Diphthongs

You may also find some words with two vowels together that are not diphthongs, but which you may mistake for such—if English is your native language, then you might naturally tend to read these as diphthongs (or as letters with a single sound). Instead, pronounce them as the separate sounds they are. For example:

	WORD		MEANING
ae	babae	pronounced ba-ba-e	woman
ai	mabait	pronounced ma-ba-it	good person
	kain	pronounced ka-in	to eat
ao	baon	pronounced ba-on	something you bring when you travel

Thus, when you see these vowels together, you simply need to break the word into syllables.

Understanding Interchangeable Letters and Sounds

As you learn the language and listen to native speakers, you might find something puzzling—people interchange the letters d and r, and the vowels e and i, and o and u.

For example, some people say madami (many); others will say marami. People may say either lalaki or lalake (man) and either babae or babai (pronounced ba-ba-e) (woman).

Why is this so? This may be because in the ancient Tagalog script, the baybayin, there was only one symbol for d/r, and for e/i and o/u.*

Today, with the standardization of spelling and grammatical rules, there are guidelines now for the use of d/r. However, you will find that when Filipinos speak, they are less conscious of the rules and will interchange, for example, the word daw (also) with raw. Similarly, the words babae (woman) and lalaki (man) each have that standardized spelling; however, in spoken Filipino the e/i sounds are interchangeable for these words.

Stresses

Now let’s turn to stresses: what syllable should you emphasize when you say a word? Tagalog language books used to actually show printed stress marks, but now, if you read newspapers or literature, no stress marks can be found. Here are some important points to remember:

1. For most words with three or four syllables, the stress is usually on the second to the last syllable. Some examples are: Tagalog, Pilipino, babae (woman), lalaki (man), kabataan.

2. Sometimes a vowel is said with a glottal sound—produced by closing your throat abruptly. For example: batì (greeting), tama (prediction), payapà (peaceful). In some of the words in this book, this glottal sound will be indicted by the grave accent mark (`). Remember, the mark means “glottal sound”—it does not mean to stress that syllable.

3. In many pronunciation guides, you will find the symbol ^ above the vowel of the last syllable. This means two things: the accent is on the last syllable; and there is a glottal stop on the vowel. Some examples are: dagâ (mouse), ba-hâ, (flood), walâ (don’t have; nothing) and hindî (no).

4. Sometimes the stress is on the last syllable. Some examples are: dasál (prayer), kumustá (how are you?) and kayó (second person plural pronoun). In some of the words in this book, this will be indicated by the acute stress mark (´).

5. Some long words (with three or four syllables) have an additional stress. Two examples are eskuwélahán (school) and mágnanakáw (thief).

6. Accents and stress can be confusing when words are put together. For example, when the word ako (I or me) is used alone, the accent is clearly on the second syllable (a-kó). When used with the word po (honorific) to show respect, as in the phrase Ako po si Kathleen, native speakers seem to say “ako po” as if they were one word (a-ko-po) with the accent on the syllable po.

Dictionary Guides versus Spoken Filipino

Sometimes, dictionaries will syllabicate words differently than what you may hear/perceive to hear when native speakers speak. Two examples are the word siya (third person singular pronoun) and Biyernes (Friday).

In most dictionary entries, siya will appear as “si-ya” and you will understand this to mean that there are two syllables, “si” and “ya.” However, when you hear a native speaker ask the question “Sino siya?” (Who is she/he?), you hear “Si-no sha?” Which, then, is the correct pronunciation? Both are correct. The sound “sha” is simply a fast way of saying siya thus making it seem like one syllable.

Similarly, Biyernes is seen as “Bi-yer-nes” but can be pronounced “Byer-nes.”

For this guide, I opted for the traditional way—“si-ya” and “Bi-yer-nes.” Why? Because it is easier to learn the language if you learn these syllables. However, as you get more accustomed to it, you can speak these words faster and sound like a native speaker!

Summing Up

Here are some key pronunciation tips, some of which reiterate what we’ve discussed:

1. There are no long vowel sounds in Filipino/Tagalog. Do not extend the sound of the vowel. For example, when saying “Kumusta ka?” (How are you?), do not say “Kumusta kaaaaaaa?”

2. Unless you are asking a question, the intonation should fall at the end of the sentence.

3. When you see two vowels together, bear in mind that they are not pronounced as one vowel.

4. Some letters such as d/r, i/e and o/u may be pronounced interchangeably by some speakers.

5. Practice the diphthongs discussed on pages 12–13. When you look at the pronunciation guide that appears after each sentence in this guide, if you see hay (as in buhay or life), remember that this is pronounced like high.

6. In many instances, you will hear that pronunciation varies. So if you hear someone say ba-ba-e and another say ba-ba-i, that is fine. Also, siya (third person pronoun, singular) will sometimes be pronounced si-ya (the official dictionary pronunciation), while you may hear other people pronounce this as sha with a noticeable h sound.

7. In this book, diacritic marks will only appear when a word has to be said quickly and the accent is on the last syllable; when there is a glottal stop; and to avoid confusion in case the accent changes the meaning of a word. Moreover, the accent only appears the first time the word is used.

8. To review: báyad (noun, payment) shows that the accent is on the first syllable; bayád (has been paid [verb]) shows that the accent is on the last syllable; tamà (correct) shows that there is a glottal sound and the accent is on the first syllable; and hindî (no) shows that there is a glottal stop and the accent is on the second syllable.

Get Sentenced! Grammar

I usually advise students to learn three things: how affixes change words; honorifics or words used for polite language such as po and opo; and the structure of the language—and then just to plunge into speaking the language. For example, let’s say you know of the affix nag-. Now, a friend asks you “Ano ang ginagawa mo tuwing Sabado?” (What do you do on Saturdays?). If you play soccer, you can just say, “Nagsa-soccer ako.” (I [play] soccer.) Note that the affix nag was simply added to the word soccer and the first syllable of soccer (“sa”) was just repeated.

Some students of mine will just add “po” to every sentence to “sound Filipino” to their parents.

Parent: What time will you be home?

Student: I don’t know po.

There are four main points we need to remember in Tagalog/ Filipino grammar: sentence order; focus and markers; the complex system of affixes; and aspects of the verb.

1. In spoken Filipino, the usual order of the sentence is verb-subject-object.

In English we say: I am eating an apple.

In Tagalog/Filipino, we say: Eating I marker apple. (Kumakain ako ng mansanas.)

The marker here is ng because it “marks” the object—the apple.

2. This bring us to the second point: markers, focus and affixes. Tagalog/Filipino has a complex system of affixes and these affixes change depending on the focus of the sentence. For example:

Kumain si John ng mansanas.

John ate an apple.

(Literally, Ate marker John marker apple.)

The focus here is on John as indicated by the marker si, and not on the apple he is eating.

If we would like to change this and make the apple (mansanas) the focus instead of John, the doer of the action, then we can say:

Mansanas ang kinain ni John.

Apple is what John ate.

(Literally, Apple marker eating marker John.)

We know that the focus is on the apple because of the marker ang which is closer to the word mansanas (apple).

3. Third, as you may have noticed by now, the affix used for the verb kain (to eat) changes depending on the focus.

When the focus was on the subject or the doer of the action we used um before the first vowel of the root word kain. Thus “um” + “kain” results in kumain. When the focus was on the object “apple,” we used the affix in before the first vowel of the root word kain. Thus, “in” + “kain” results in kinain.

As you read and speak Tagalog/Filipino, a good knowledge of affixes will be helpful. Let us go back to our root word kain or “eat.”

With the affix:

• pag → “pagkain.” The affix pag, usually used for nouns, gives us a clue that “pagkain” means “food.”

• nagpa → “nagpakain,” and means you did something for others. “Nagpakain ako sa mga kaibigan ko.” (I fed or gave food to my friends.)

• pina → “pinakain,” and means someone did something for you. “Pinakain ako ng kaibigan ko.” (My friend fed or gave food to me.)

• pa → “pakain,” which you use when asking a favor. “Pakain!” (Please let me eat some of the food you have.)

Some affixes also give you clues to the meaning of words. The affix ka, for example, connotes relationships. A few words that start with ka are kapatid (brother/sister), kaibigan (friend) and kaklase (classmate).

The affix ma is usually used for adjectives: mabait (good person), maganda (beautiful), matangkad (tall person).

4. Finally, most Filipino language scholars are of the opinion that Tagalog/Filipino does not have tenses, but aspects. Instead of past, present, and future tenses, Tagalog/Filipino has completed, incompleted, and contemplated aspects.

Completed action—Kumain ako ng mansanas. (I ate an apple.) (literally, Ate I marker apple.)

Incompleted action—Kumakain ako ng mansanas.

(I am eating an apple.) (literally, Eating I marker apple.)

Contemplated action—Kakain ako ng mansanas.

(I will eat an apple.) (literally, Will eat I marker apple.)

For the equivalent of the present perfect tense, simply add the word na.

For example, in response to the question, “Have you eaten?” we can answer: Kumain na ako. (I have eaten.) (literally, Eaten already I.)

Or in response to the question “Have you ever eaten an apple?” we can use the affix naka-: Nakakain na ako ng mansanas. (I have eaten apples.) (literally, Have eaten already I marker apple.) Here the verb is used with the affix naka, connoting “have eaten.”

Many people tend to be overwhelmed by all these grammar rules. But this is what I think: your goal is not to have the most perfect grammar. It is to use the language to communicate. Remember that most Filipinos will not mind a grammar slip here and there…so just start speaking!

* In recent years, you may find that many Filipino-Americans, Filipino Canadians or those born in other countries who are of Filipino descent have studied the baybayin as a way of learning more about their heritage. There are websites such as www.baybayin.com and www.eaglescorner.com/baybayin/baybayin.html which you may want to explore.