Tagalog Optional Glottal Stops

Technically, the following vowels begin with a glottal stop.

vowels

example

pronun­ciation

meaning

vowels at the beginning of a word

aso  

“‘aso”

dog

vowels following a hyphen

mag-aral  

mag’aral”

to study

vowels following another vowel

maaga  

ma’aga”

early

vowels

vowels at the beginning of a word

example

aso  

pronun­ciation

“‘aso”

meaning

dog

vowels

vowels following a hyphen

example

mag-aral  

pronun­ciation

mag’aral”

meaning

to study

vowels

vowels following another vowel

example

maaga  

pronun­ciation

ma’aga”

meaning

early

However, these glottal stops usually disappear in rapid speech.

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Tagalog grammar book

From Essential Tagalog Grammar by Fiona De Vos
Part of Learning Tagalog: Fluency Made Fast and Easy
Want to speak Tagalog fluently? Learn more

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