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.
