Commonly confused words can be tricky for language learners (and native speakers too) but can also be interesting teaching points. Recently a staff member at ESL Library mentioned that it would be great to have a post on the spelling of Philippines and Filipino. Why is the country spelled with a “ph” but the language and people with an “f”?

Historically Speaking

Country

In 1542 after the Spanish conquest, the Spanish named the islands las Islas Filipinas after King Philip II (the name Philip being Felipe in Spanish). The English spelling of the country name became the Philippines (since Philip is the English spelling of the name Felipe). Since there was no /f/ sound in almost all of the islands’ many languages and dialects at that time, the country name was pronounced Pilipinas (with a /p/ sound) by the native inhabitant of the Philippines.

Today, we say the Philippines in English and Filipinas in Spanish and Filipino. However, many Filipino people still prefer to call their country Pilipinas.

Language

The two current official languages of the Philippines are Filipino and English. Filipino is spelled with an “f” in almost all languages, including English and Spanish. There was a time where Filipinos called their language Pilipino, but its official name is now Filipino. Interestingly, there are approximately 182 languages in the Philippines, 12 of which have more than one million speakers each and are spoken by more than 90% of the population. The Filipino language was developed in the 19th century and is mainly based on Tagalog, which was the language spoken in the capital of Manila.

People

The terms Filipino (male) and Filipina (female) are used for the inhabitants of the Philippines. These words function as both nouns and adjectives (e.g., a Filipino [noun] / Filipinos [noun] / Filipino people [adjective]). English never came up with a suitable equivalent (possibly because the use of Filipino for an inhabitant of the Philippines only came about in the late 19th century), so the Spanish Filipino (with the “f” spelling) was adopted into English.

Like with the country name, many Filipino people still prefer to call themselves Pilipino.

What commonly confused words or spelling difficulties come up in your classroom? Share them with us in the comments section below. You might even inspire another blog post!

Related

See blog posts on Lay Vs. Lie, Especially Vs. Specially, and Everyday Vs. Every Day.

Sources

• http://www.pilipino-express.com/history-a-culture/in-other-words/127-the-basics-of-philippino-filipino.html
• https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2010/04/why-is-filipino-spelled-with-an-f.html
• http://www.hawaii.edu/cps/filipino.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_Philippines#National_and_official_languages