# why the difference? \[philippines vs. filipino\]

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-difference-philippines-vs-filipino/539586>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 15, 2010, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-difference-philippines-vs-filipino/539586 "2010-05-15T23:30:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![texas1952](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@texas1952](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/texas1952)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-difference-philippines-vs-filipino/539586/1 "2010-05-15T23:30:50Z")

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I would like to know why phillippines is spelled with “ph” and fillipino is spelled with “f”. this has puzzled me for years.

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**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-difference-philippines-vs-filipino/539586/2 "2010-05-15T23:33:48Z")

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Also, Phillippines is spelled with two Ps and Fillipino only one. 😕

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**Author:** ![simple\_homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@simple\_homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simple_homer)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-difference-philippines-vs-filipino/539586/3 "2010-05-16T00:17:45Z")

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> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#):
>
> Also, Phillippines is spelled with two Ps and Fillipino only one. 😕

But, both Philippines and Filipino are spelled with only one “l”.

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**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-difference-philippines-vs-filipino/539586/4 "2010-05-16T00:22:19Z")

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The Philipines are named after King Philip (Felipe) of Spain, and were known in Spanish as Las Islas Felipinas. People from there are filipino/as. “The Philipines” is an Americanization of the original name.

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-difference-philippines-vs-filipino/539586/5 "2010-05-16T00:29:20Z")

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phonetic spelling?

I do know that real Filipinos say something that sounds more like pill-ih-PEE-no (IPA: [pɪlɪˈpino])

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**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-difference-philippines-vs-filipino/539586/6 "2010-05-16T02:25:47Z")

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I don’t believe Tagalog even has an “f” sound. (What if the USA’s name included a Xhosa click?)

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**Author:** ![wmfellows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@wmfellows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wmfellows)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-difference-philippines-vs-filipino/539586/7 "2010-05-16T10:42:07Z")

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> [@BigT](#):
>
> phonetic spelling?

No **Spanish spelling**. Easy enough to look up.

Why Americans adopted the Spanish Filipino perhaps is the proper question.

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-difference-philippines-vs-filipino/539586/8 "2010-05-16T12:19:55Z")

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> [@wmfellows](#):
>
> No **Spanish spelling**. Easy enough to look up.
> 
> Why Americans adopted the Spanish Filipino perhaps is the proper question.

I’m aware of the fact that it is Spanish. I was submitting that maybe it was preferred by Filipinos because it was more phonetic. Spanish is really big on eliminating unnecessary letters, and is nearly phonetically perfect.

I’ve met a few Filipinas, and every one of them seemed to prefer to spell even English words phonetically. I thought there might be a cultural reason for that.