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
