3. Colons, semi-colons, ellipsis: These punctuation marks, along with apostrophes, question and exclamation
marks, are also used as in English.
4. Brackets: Again, brackets are used just like in English, and punctuation/capitalization
for enclosed texts is used just as English
would punctuate/capitalize ordinary (i.e.
non-enclosed) sentences or phrases.
Section Three - Measurements and Abbreviations
1. Measurements: The metric system is the default system for measurements, although
the use of English measurement units may
also be encountered, in the same way and
frequency as used by English users. We also
have translations for "non-standard" units
of measurements such as "a palm's length",
a "breadth" or a "stride".
To denote decimals, a period is used, while to separate thousands,
a comma is used.
Time is represented as follows:
10.30 am / noon / 4.30 pm / midnight =
10:30 n.u./ 12:00 n.h. / 4:30 n.h. / 12
n.u.
Please note that "n.u." means "ng umaga" ("of the morning"), "n.h."
means "ng hapon ("of the afternoon") and "n.g.", which was not used in
the examples, means "ng gabi" ("of the evening"). However, am/pm (antemeridian/
post-meridian) is also widely used.
Dates are written as follows:
| 20 February 2004 |
20 Pebrero 2004 |
| 20th February 2004 |
Ika-20 ng Pebrero 2004 |
| 20/02/2004 |
20/02/2004 |
| February 20 |
Pebrero 20 |
There should be a space between a figure and a measurement, except
for % and °C - these can be written with
or without a space.
Currency symbols are written as in English, e.g. £230 / 230
pounds sterling / €45 / 45 euro / $98 billion / 98 billion Dollars and P5,000
or P43.17 milyon (P = Philippine Peso).
2. Abbreviations:
N/a = Di-angkop
No. (nos.) = Num. (mga num.)
e.g. = Hal.
WxLxHxD = WxLxHxD
1st /
2nd / 3rd / 4th = Ika-1 / Ika-2 / Ika-3 / Ika-4
Mr. / Mrs. = G./Gng.
Messrs. = G.
Miss = Bb.
Dear Sir / Madam = Mahal na Ginoo/Binibini/Ginang
m (for metre) = m
cm (for centimetre) = cm.
lb (for pound weight) = lb
g (for gram) = g
km (for kilometre) = km
yr (for year) = taon
k (for 1000) = k
EMEA (Europe, Middle-East & Asia) = EGSA
Days of the week: Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun = Lun, Mar,
Mi, Hu, Bi, Sa, Li
Months: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
= En, Peb, Mar, Abr, Ma, Hun, Hul, Ago,
Set, Okt, Nob, Dis
Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter (not normally abbreviated
in English) = Tag-sibol, Tag-init, Tag-lagas,
Tag-yelo (although there are only two seasons
in the Philippines, Summercalled "Tag-init"
and Rainy Season - called "Tag-ulan").
Section Four - Hyphenation
Hyphens are used in many ways, not only in word segmentation. As
seen above in the translations provided
for the weather seasons, the hyphen is used
in (e.g. "Tag-ulan") to denote that it is
the "season of raining" ("ulan" means rain).
Another use of the hyphen is to denote someone
or something that does a task or function,
for example: "taga-buhat" means "carrier"
where "buhat" means "to carry". Another
use of the hyphen is to denote the English
word "should" or "ought" before a verb,
for example: "mag-ingat" means "take caution"
where "ingat" means "caution". Another use
of the hyphen is to denote the continuing
occurrence of a present-tense verb or action,
for example: "tumatakbo-takbo" means "running
continuously" or "running intermittently",
where "takbo" means "to run".
As for word segmentation (breaking down words when words are split
over lines), the general rule is to segment
words using the between consonants when
there are two adjacent consonants, when
available, for example: "pumun-ta" or "pag-kain".
However, when there are no adjacent consonants
(i.e. vowels and consonants are alternating
in succession), then segment the word after
the vowel, for example: "pa-pel" or "benti-lador".
When there are two adjacent vowels, segment
the words between the vowels, just as what
is done with adjacent consonants.
There are some suffixes and prefixes that are commonly joined to
words using hyphens, such as: "mag-" (meaning:
"should" or "ought"), "tag-" (an indicator
of condition), "pang-"(an indicator of function),
"kasing-" (an indicator of equivalence)
and "tig-" (an indicator of individual rations
or division of whole).
There are no particular characters or character combinations which
cannot be separated by a hyphen.
The shorter N (-) rather than the longer M (—) dash is more commonly
used.
Section Five - Miscellaneous Peculiarities
Place names are not spelt differently in Tagalog.
Surnames are normally given after the first name, and written with
the first letter capitalised (although they
could also be all in upper case when the
rest of the name is also written all in
upper case.)
Tagalog uses bold and italics similarly to English.
Section Six - Geographic Distribution
Filipino is the national language of the Philippines. This national
language is based on Tagalog, which originated
in Manila and its neighbouring provinces.
There is practically no difference between
the words and functionality of the "Filipino"
language and the "Tagalog" language, and
as such, one is often called the other.
Tagalog/Filipino is the mandatory medium
of instruction for schools in the Philippines,
although many subjects are taught solely
in English, such as mathematics and the
sciences, because there are quite a lot
of English terms that still do not have
genuine and universally-accepted Tagalog/Filipino
equivalents.
Philippine citizens are quite fluent in English, and approximately
80% of the population could hold a good
conversation in English. The prevalence
of English is such that it English words
are commonly interspersed with Tagalog words
in daily speech, and this has given rise
to an unofficial mixed English- Tagalog
language called "Taglish".
While Tagalog is understood by practically all Philippine citizens,
almost each of the 80 or so provinces in
the Philippines have their own dialect.
The major dialects (based on the number
of people speaking them) are Cebuano/Visayan
(the ambivalence is same as in Tagalog/Filipino;
the Cebuano dialect of the Cebu province
was used as basis for the Visayan official
dialect of the Visayas region of provinces);
Ilocano; Bicolano; Kapampangan; Hiligaynon;
Pangasinense and Waray.
Section Seven - Character Set
