The Tagalog Alphabet And How It Sounds
Twenty letters, five pure vowels and one sound English never puts at the start of a word. Learn these and you can read almost any Tagalog word out loud correctly.
The Abakada
The original Tagalog alphabet, the abakada, has twenty letters. The modern Filipino alphabet adds the letters used in Spanish and English loanwords, but these twenty carry almost every native word you will meet as a beginner.
aso
dog
bahay
house
kamay
hand
dagat
sea
elepante
elephant
gatas
milk
hapon
afternoon
isda
fish
lupa
ground
mata
eye
ngipin
tooth
ngayon
now
oras
hour
puso
heart
relo
watch
sapatos
shoes
tubig
water
ulan
rain
wika
language
yelo
ice
The Five Pure Vowels
This is the single biggest difference between Tagalog and English pronunciation. Each vowel has exactly one sound, every time, in every word. There is nothing to memorise and no exceptions to trip over.
The Four Common Mistakes
Turning Vowels Into English Glides
English speakers stretch o into oh-u and e into ey. Filipino vowels are pure and short. Say the vowel and stop, the way you would in Spanish or Japanese.
Breaking Up The ng Sound
Ng is one letter and one sound, the ending of the word sing. In ngayon it comes at the start of the word, which English never does. Practise by saying singer, then dropping the si.
Ignoring Where The Stress Falls
Stress changes meaning. Say it on the wrong syllable and you have said a different word, as in the classic pair of buhay meaning life and buhay meaning alive.
Guessing At The Spelling
Tagalog is written the way it sounds. Once you know the twenty letters, you can read almost any word aloud correctly the first time you see it.
Reading Is The Easy Part
Because spelling follows sound, most learners can read Tagalog aloud within a day. What takes practice is hearing yourself and being corrected. In the app every letter, word and sentence is recorded by Filipino speakers, and you can record yourself and compare.