Tagalog Long Vowels (Stress)

In Tagalog, stressed syllables have a long vowel, while unstressed syllables have a short vowel.

In this book, all syllables with a long vowel are underlined. Examples:

trabaho	work, job
aso	dog
makakasama	will be able to come along

It is important to make a distinction between long vowels and short vowels to be clearly understood. For one thing, many words change meanings when their long vowels are not clearly audible. Examples:

buhay	life
buhay	alive

mag-aaral	will study
mag-aaral	student, pupil

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See notes on Terminology and Pronunciation Marks

This grammar guide is part of the Learning Tagalog Course.
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