Pronunciation ‘Ng’ and ‘Nga’

Unique in Tagalog is ng which as a letter of the alphabet is pronounced ‘nga.’

The nga sound may seem difficult at first, but if you can say ‘sing along’ in English and slur those two words together, you’ll have no problem with nga in Tagalog after some practice chopping off ‘si’ from the beginning and ‘long’ from the end of ‘singalong.’

ngayon
now (today)

ngipin
tooth

nganga
to have the mouth agape

nguso
snout

tingin
a look

pangit
ugly

 

bangus
milkfish

 

By itself,
ng serves as a possessive or genitive marker in Tagalog sentences.

 
An easy way to look at one of its uses is to see it as meaning ‘of’ in English.

Continue reading “Pronunciation ‘Ng’ and ‘Nga’”

Búkas (Tomorrow) and Bukás (Open)

Tagalog words may be spelled the same but can have two different meanings depending on the pronunciation.

For example, notice the difference between bukas (an adverb meaning ‘tomorrow’) and bukás (an adjective meaning ‘open’). The accent is placed on a different syllable.
 

búkas
tomorrow (adverb)

 
 

bukás
open  (adjective)

 
Continue reading “Búkas (Tomorrow) and Bukás (Open)”