Although this is meant to be a pure grammar course, I want learners to be able to start here if they so choose. I believe starting to learn a language without having a good base in pronunciation can lead to fossilized pronunciation errors in the future, so I decided to include this lesson.
How to do this lesson
Read through the whole thing. As you go along, click the Tagalog words, listen and repeat. Do one at a time until you feel that you are pronouncing it correctly, then move onto the next one.
After going through the whole lesson, go through again, this time without reading any descriptions. Only look at the Tagalog words; cover everything else (RH side can be hidden by selecting) if that helps. Pronounce a word, then click the audio. If your pronunciation was correct, go onto the next word. If not, keep doing it until you feel that you are pronouncing it correctly, then move onto the next one.
If you have time, keep repeating the previous step until you feel that you are pronouncing them all correctly the first time.
Repeat this lesson until it’s easy for you to get them all correct the first time through.
Stress
In a Tagalog word, usually at least one vowel is stressed. Stress is when a vowel is pronounced longer. In new vocabulary for this book, stress will be denoted by underlining. It isn’t denoted in native material. Using the correct stress is important because wrong stress sounds strange to native speakers, and it can cause the word to have a different meaning:
hapon
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(afternoon)
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hapon
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(Japan)
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Glottal Stop
When a vowel has a glottal stop, the sound ends abruptly, like in English after the uh in the word uh oh. There are two places where glottal stops occur. First, they may occur in the last letter of a word if the word ends in a vowel. Not all words ending in vowels have glottal stops, so in new vocabulary for this book, they will be denoted by an accent mark. These are not denoted in native material:
hindí
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(no)
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walá
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(nothing)
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Second, when there are two or more adjacent vowels in a word, all of them will have a glottal stop except the last one. These don’t need to be denoted, since they always occur:
oo
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(yes) sounds like ó + o
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taon
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(year) sounds like tá + on
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Alphabet
A alcohol
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aso (dog)
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B boy
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bukid (farm)
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D dog
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dito (here)
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E elephant
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eroplano (airplane)
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G game
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galing (skilled)
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H heart
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halos (almost)
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I it
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ibon (bird)
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K karate
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keso (cheese)
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L like
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lang (only)
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M mom
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mabuti (fine)
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N name
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na (already)
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O old
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oo (yes)
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P pin
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pero (but)
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R *
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rep (fridge)
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S so
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suká (vinegar)
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T tall
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tamá (correct)
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U destitute
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ulo (head)
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W way
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walá (nothing)
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Y yes
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yaya (nanny)
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* There is no English equivalent, but it’s the same as the Spanish single R. It sounds a bit like the dd in ladder if that helps.
Variations – when i comes at the end of a word, it can be pronounced more like a Tagalog e; k can sound a bit raspy at times
Loan letters C, F, J, Q, V, X, Z sometimes appear, and they are normally pronounced the same as their English counterparts.
Spanish loan letter Ñ sometimes appears in place of the Tagalog ny:
Ñ canyon
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niña (girl)
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Combination letters
DIY/DY jam
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diyan (there)
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NG sang
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ngayon (now)
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NIY/NY canyon
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niya (his/hers)
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SIY/SY shot
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siya (he/she)
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TS chill
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tsaka (furthermore)
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Variations – diy, niy and siy can also be pronounced as their individual letters, or somewhere in between. For example, diyan can be pronounced as jan, di-yan or jyan. The i can also be dropped from the spelling.
Spanish combination LL sometimes appears in place of the Tagalog ly:
LL all-year
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Villalobos (a Spanish surname)
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Names of letters
The names of letters A thru Z and combination letters are the same as English. Ñ is pronounced the same as Spanish (enye).
Special words
NG is a combination letter, but there is also a word spelled the same way.
ng
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is pronounced nang (and roughly means of)
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mga
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is another special word, pronounced manga (a grammatical word used to make plurals)
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