Hi everyone. Kamusta? Welcome to the very first Let's Speak Tagalog lesson made by yours truly, Vincent Li. First of all, I would like to congratulate you for choosing Tagalog. The Philippines is a wonderful country and knowing how to speak Tagalog will give you a better understanding in our rich culture.
Let's start with letter A. It is pronounced as /ah/. Ako [it means I]
Don't say /ae/. just /ah/
Next is /ba/. Baboy [it means pig]
/ka/. Kaibigan [it means friend]
/da/ It is a little bit thick compared to English's D as dean. Dalaga [it means lady]
/eh/ Elepante [it means elephant]
/gah/ as in gold. Ginto [it means gold]
/ha/ as in hamon. [it means ham in English]
/i/ as in ibon. Ibon means bird in Tagalog. /i/
/la/ as in lata or can in English. /la/
/ma/ as in mata or in English, eyes. /ma/
/na/ as in nandito [it means here].
/nga/ as in ngayon [it means now]
/o/ This is different to English's O because English's tend to pronounce it as /ow/ like so. In Tagalog, it is just a short /o/. As in oso [it means bear].
/pa/ as in pero or in English, it means but. /pero/. One thing is it's not as explosive as pattern.
/ra/ as in rosas or it means rose. We roll our tongue to just like as any other Asian languages but less trill compared to Spanish such as rrrrrrrrosas.
/sa/ as in /sahig/ it means floor.
/ta/ as in tubig. In English it means water. It is not the same with English T such as take, turn, timbre. Tagalog T is thick.
/u/ as in ulan or rain in English. /u/
/wa/ as in walis or broom in English.
/ya/ as in yeso or chalk in English. /ya/
Now let us practice more. Repeat after I say the word. It is not important if you can't pronounce these words now. Just repeat the words I uttered and with practice, you can master the Tagalog pronunciation. Handa ka na ba?
Ako
Baboy
Kaibigan
Dalaga
Elepante
Ginto
Hamon
Ibon
Lata
Mata
Nandito
Ngayon
Oso
Pero
Rosas
Sahig
Tubig
Ulan
Walis
Yeso
As you can notice, Tagalog alphabet is very similar to Spanish alphabet especially the vowels so this will be easy to those who know how to speak Spanish. But I will really do my best to train your ears for you to learn this even though you're not a Spanish speaker.
Tagalog is also a phonetic language which means you spell how it is pronounced. You don't have to worry with Tagalog spelling. Unlike in English there are inconsistent rules in spelling.
Just keep on practicing every day and for sure, you can speak Tagalog one day fluently. It is important for you to observe your proper pronunciation because phonemes are the key composition of a language. If you can't pronounce the words properly, native speakers might not understand you.
Before we end this lesson, I would like to challenge your tongue to say the word nakakapagpabagabag. That is the most famous word given to a foreigner here in the Philippines to challenge his tongue in pronouncing Tagalog words. Don't give up. Try and try. I know you can do it.
Well I think this is where our Tagalog lesson ends, until next time. Paalam!
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