Ilocano Adjectives, Nouns, and Forming Ilocano Sentences

Precy speaks Ilocano and loves helping others learn the fundamentals of the language.

What Is Ilocano?

Ilocano is one of the many languages spoken in the Philippines. Some prefer to refer to Ilocano as a dialect since Filipino, a standardized version of Tagalog, was declared the country's national language.

Although Ilocano isn't taught in Philippine schools, it is spoken throughout the country. It is the third most spoken language in the Philippines, with native Ilocano speakers mostly in Luzon, the largest island located in the northern part of the country.

One Luzon province is my mother's beloved Zambales, where I was born. La Union is another province in the Ilocos Region of Luzon where residents speak Ilocano. In fact, Ilocano was recognized as the province's official language in 2012. Another place where people speak Ilocano is Baguio, also known as the "City of Pines."

Learning Ilocano

Some have told me Ilocano is challenging to learn compared to other regional languages. Learning to speak another language or dialect can be quite difficult.

Is it hard to learn Ilocano? It's true that it takes time and patience. But having a basic understanding of the fundamentals of Filipino helps in the learning process as there are similarities, from words to sentence patterns.

The following are some of the most commonly used Ilocano adjectives and nouns to get you started.

Ilocano Adjectives

Learning Ilocano adjectives is a vital aspect of learning to speak Ilocano. Not only does enabling the language learner to describe everyday situations make learning fun, but knowing these adjectives will also come in handy when carrying out simple conversations.

Following are some adjectives you will often hear used in Ilocano. The Filipino translations are also included.

Commonly Used Ilocano Adjectives

Ilocano Nouns

We will be using the Ilocano adjectives above to describe the following nouns later on. The Filipino words are also included.

Commonly Used Ilocano Nouns

Some Filipino words are the same in Ilocano, while other Ilocano words are fairly close to their Filipino counterparts. A good example is the Ilocano word tindaan and its Filipino counterpart, tindahan, from the table above.

A Lesson on Ti in Ilocano

To understand the use of ti in Ilocano, look at ti as a linker, like a bridge connecting or linking a verb and pronoun to a noun in Ilocano sentences. For Filipino speakers curious about ti, it is the equivalent of ng where ng is used as an object marker in actor-focused verbs. Before we go any further, let's take a look at these examples, where ti links Ilocano verbs and pronouns with nouns.

Below are examples of simple Ilocano sentences with verbs and pronouns attached to them and linked to nouns. Notice similarities of pronouns used. Take a look at the nouns as well.

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Most of these examples are common nouns. Pan de sal is a bread, and parya is a vegetable. Ti is not used to link verbs to proper names.

Simple Ilocano Sentences Using Ti

In addition to ti linking verbs and nouns, ti in Ilocano is also used to connect adjectives to nouns. Let's take a look at some examples of this with commonly used Ilocano adjectives and nouns from the tables above.

The adjective comes first in Ilocano, linked by ti to a noun. Notice that the usage of ti in the table below is now the equivalent of ang in Filipino or the in English.

Ti Connecting Ilocano Adjectives and Nouns

Sentence Expansion

Let's expand our Ilocano sentences by adding some pronouns to some of the examples above.

Napintas ti balay da. Their house is beautiful.

Napintas da. They are beautiful.

Da is an Ilocano pronoun that corresponds to the English they and their. Notice how it was used in the examples. While da or they in the second example receives the Ilocano adjective napintas or beautiful, it is used as the English their in the first example, which shows possession.

Expanding Sentences by Adding Adverbs of Time

Let's see more examples of expanding Ilocano sentences by adding adverbs of time into our previous sentence examples in the table above. Let's use some of the ones listed in the table below.

Let's use one of the examples from the table above of simple Ilocano sentences with the pronoun da. Let's add idi kalman to add time frame and say that something was done yesterday.

Nagdalusak ti balay da idi kalman. I cleaned their house yesterday.

In Filipino, this translates to Naglinis ako ng bahay nila kahapon. This isn't a thorough lesson, but referring to the tables above of adjectives, nouns, and simple Ilocano sentences will help greatly, especially when you're just starting out.

Adding adverbs of time for sentence expansion will help make learning fun. Consider speaking with native speakers; not only will this get you to practice what you have learned, but you'll pick up new words, too.

Comments

PATRICK RENÉ HENRI JOUANNÈS from LACHAPELLE SAINT PIERRE on July 20, 2019:

Great Job ! I read that Ilocalo is not taught at school. If I were you I would try to develop my project.

You maybe won't become rich but for sure you will become famous for ever.

Your country is happy enough to have so many languages still used by millions of people. It's not a problem for unity ! It's a chance for keeping a national pride after centuries of colonialism.

What more, for getting rid of this taglish and tagñol you can pick word from one language to another to enrich the vocabulary. I take the example of your lugan instead of coche !!!

precy anza (author) from USA on July 06, 2018:

Thank you @Cecile and it's a pleasure reading your comment. I hope some other learners find it as well as this article isn't listed on search engines. I am glad you find this article extremely helpful. And I do want it to be as easy to understand as possible. :)

Cecile on June 30, 2018:

Thanks so much for this wonderful and extremely helpful article. Your gradual "sentence-building" approach is a great way to expand fluency. I appreciate all of your many amazing contributions to help Ilocano language learners like me. This article pulls together so many important threads. Agyamanak, Adingko.