Learn about the common mistakes people make when pronouncing Filipino
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Betsey: Kamusta! Hi everyone, I’m Betsey. |
| Becky: And I’m Becky! Welcome back to FilipinoPod101.com. This is Pronunciation lesson 5, Common Filipino Pronunciation Mistakes. Betsey, it’s already the last lesson in our series! |
Lesson focus |
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| Betsey: That’s right! So what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Becky: In this lesson, we’ll give you the Top five common pronunciation mistakes in Filipino. Let’s get right into it with the first common mistake. |
| Betsey: Number 1 is not rolling your R’s. We’ve already said this before many times, but you should make sure you roll your tongue when you’re saying “R” in Filipino. |
| Becky: One of the most noticeable things that a native speaker can tell your level of fluency from, is your pronunciation of “R”. Can you give us an example using the R sound? |
| Betsey: Sure. Rinig (slowly) Rinig. It means ‘hear.’ If you say ‘Rinig (without rolling tongue’) people will notice that you’re not a master of Filipino. |
| Becky: Okay, what other words can we use to practice this sound? |
| Betsey: Ramdam which means “feel” (slowly). Ramdam [pause] |
| Becky: And the next one is..? |
| Betsey: Regalo, which means “gift” (slowly) Regalo [pause] |
| Becky: Listeners, keep practicing the R sound so you can get used to it. |
| Betsey: Okay, let’s see the next mistake. Number 2 is forgetting stress. Make sure you stress a vowel or syllable when you need to. |
| Becky: We talked about the different accent marks in Filipino in our last lesson. Make sure you master them so that you say the stresses correctly. |
| Betsey: Almost all Filipino words have accent marks, but these accents marks are never seen in the written form. So always be careful. |
| Becky: Can you give us some examples? |
| Betsey: Sure. When the word Bába has the acute or Pahilìs mark on the first syllable, it means “chin.” But if you put the stress at the end, the meaning becomes “to go down”. |
| Becky: Making this mistake can also lead to people misunderstanding what you’re say. So keep practicing until you master it. Okay Betsey, what’s the next mistake? |
| Becky: The number 3 mistake is not mastering Repetition |
| Betsey: Let’s talk about UM VERBS and MAG VERBS and their conjugations. Do you remember that Becky? |
| Becky: Yeah I do. It’s still one of the most challenging steps in learning the Filipino language. |
| Betsey: Definitely. So let’s go over some examples. “Alala” is the root word meaning “to remember”. Now with this root word, you can have the word “Nakakaalala” which means “to be reminded of”. It has ‘Alala’ at the end. ‘Alala’ and “Nakakaalala” |
| Becky: I’m not sure if I could read that correctly, though. It’s very long and complicated! |
| Betsey: That’s right. Also, it’s hard to point out the accent marks as well. In this case, you can break it down as “Nakah-kah-alaah-lah”. I think that will help you pronounceddd it more easily, and also do the accents correctly. Remember, practice is key! |
| Becky: That’s just one example but there are much longer and more complicated words that can be a headache. When you see them, make sure to be careful with these and take a second to consider your accents. |
| Betsey: Ok. Let’s move on to the Number 4 mistake, which is...Confusing words that sound similar. If you’re visiting a foreign country and you are not a native speaker, the last thing you want to get in trouble for is saying the wrong word, right? |
| Becky: Yes. In most cases, it’s okay to say something incorrectly because people will figure out what you wanted to say. But it’s still best to pronounce words correctly, as often as you can. Betsey, could you give us an example? |
| Betsey: Sure. When you read the word ‘’Baka’ BAKA, it means ‘maybe.’ However, if you accidentally read it as ‘Baka’ adding the ‘A’ sound between the consonants, that would mean ‘cow.’ It usually happens when you read two consonants together, so be sure to read them correctly. |
| Becky: Okay what’s the 5th and last mistake? |
| Betsey: Number five is forgetting “DIY and SIY” |
| Becky: That sounds like some sort of secret code! |
| Betsey: (laughs) It does. So let me explain more about DIY and SIY situations. You might see some words that have DIY inside the word such as ‘Diyos’ which is spelled like ‘D.I.Y.O.S.’ In this case, Filipino people don’t say the D.I.Y. as ‘Diy’ but read it as ‘J.’ |
| Becky: Can you give us an example? |
| Betsey: For example, the word “Diyos” means “God”. Although the first part of the word is spelled ‘DIY’, you can read it as ‘J.’ So it sounds like ‘Jos.’ |
| Becky: Okay. What about ‘SIY’ situations? That means the words starting with ‘S.I.Y.’ right? |
| Betsey: That’s right. And people read S.I.Y. as simply S.H. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example? |
| Betsey: The word “Siya” means “her” or “him”. It’s spelled ‘S.I.Y.A.’ But you don’t read it as Siya, but Sha. With the same rule, “Kasiya” which means “to fit” is pronounced as “Kasha”, not Kasiya. |
| Becky: Okay. So when you see D.I.Y in a word, read it as ‘J.’ |
| Betsey: And S.I.Y is read as a Sh sound. Once you get used to it, it’s a piece of cake! |
Outro |
| Betsey: Okay, everyone. That was the end of this lesson, and this series. |
| Becky: We hope you enjoyed the series and found it useful, and we’ll see you in another series at FilipinoPod101.com! |
| Betsey: Thank you for listening everyone. Paalam! |
| Becky: Bye! |
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