From letters to words
Learning to read in Filipino moves from letter sounds to syllables to words. The four sheets follow that order: the alphabet, syllable tables, joining syllables, and finding the missing syllable in a picture word.
Ñ and NG
NG counts as one letter in the Filipino alphabet, so it has its own syllable table (nga, nge, ngi, ngo, ngu) and its own box on the alphabet page.
In the MATATAG curriculum
- KinderLetter names and letter sounds, writing capitals and lower case, and blending sounds into words.
- Grade 1Reading and Literacy: the letters and sounds of the first language, and splitting two- and three-syllable words into syllables.
- Grade 2Filipino begins as a subject: the sounds of the Alpabetong Filipino, syllable patterns, and words with diphthongs and consonant clusters.
- Grade 3Reading and writing learned Filipino words accurately, including words with clusters.
The Alpabetong Filipino has 28 letters: the 26 of the English alphabet plus Ñ and NG, with NG counted as one letter after Ñ. It grew out of the Abakada, the 20-letter alphabet of Lope K. Santos’s 1940 grammar (A B K D E G H I L M N NG O P R S T U W Y). The 28-letter form dates from 1987. It keeps the Abakada letters and adds C, F, J, Ñ, Q, V, X and Z for names, borrowed words and sounds from other Philippine languages.
Filipino lessons name syllable patterns with K for katinig (consonant) and P for patinig (vowel). The syllable tables here practise KP syllables such as ba and ka, the open syllables children decode first. The Grade 2 Filipino guide then moves on to patterns like KPK (the pis in lapis) and KKP (the pla in plato). The consonants here follow the old Abakada order, long used for ba be bi bo bu drills.
Summarised in our own words from DepEd’s MATATAG Kindergarten, Reading and Literacy (Grade 1) and Filipino (Baitang 2–10) Curriculum Guides (2023), and the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino’s spelling guide.
