Filipina, Filipino, Philippines, Pilipino, Pilipinas, Pinay, and Pinoy
Filipina, Filipino, Philippines, Pilipino, Pilipinas, Pinay, and Pinoy. What are the differences among these words?
- Philippines is the English name for the country. The name is a truncated form of the Philippine Islands and derives from King Philippe II, the King of Spain (July 25, 1554 – November 17, 1558).
- Filipinas is both the Spanish and Filipino name for the Philippines. It is from the old Spanish name Las Islas Filipinas.
- The people are called Filipinos in English, Spanish, and Filipino. Philippino is incorrect.
- Filipino is the Hispanized (or Anglicized) way of referring to both the people and the Philippines’ language.
- Filipino is for a male, and Filipina is for a female.
- Most Filipinos prefer to call themselves Pilipino and their country Pilipinas.
- Pilipino is how the Philippines’ locals refer to themselves or their national language. The national language is synonymous with Tagalog, widely spoken in Manila, Bulacan, Bataan, and Batangas. The use of “P” or “Ph” is because most Filipino languages do not have the “F” sound (except some native people in the Cordillera and Mindanao).
- For a time, the national language was called Pilipino, but now its official name is Filipino. The modernization of the Philippine national language in 1987 has incorporated the characters F, J, Ñ, V, Q, X, Z into the alphabet, hence using “F” instead of “P.”
- Pinoy is the shortened, colloquial version for Filipino to mean the people, but never the language.
- It becomes Pinay when referring to a female, although Pinoy is also used to refer to both male and female.
- The country’s official name in Filipino is Republika ng Pilipinas, and its official name in English is the Republic of the Philippines.
So, you now know how to distinguish these terms and can use them accordingly: Filipina, Filipino, Philippines, Pilipino, Pilipinas, Pinay, and Pinoy.
You don’t want to offend a potential Filipina date on FilipinaDating by calling her “Philippino,” do you?