Letter Names and Alphabetical Order | Filipino Grammar

Filipino letter names are useful when you spell a name, read an initialism, dictate a code, or locate an entry in a dictionary. The alphabet has 28 members, and its ordering treats Ñ and the two-character letter NG as distinct units: N, Ñ, NG, O. That differs both from ordinary English ordering and from software that sorts only by Unicode characters.

Names of the letters

KWF convention gives most letters English-based names written in Filipino spelling. Ñ keeps the Spanish-derived name enye, while the digraph NG is called endyi.

Letter	Name	Letter	Name	Letter	Name	Letter	Name
A a	ey	B b	bi	C c	si	D d	di
E e	i	F f	ef	G g	dyi	H h	eyts
I i	ay	J j	dyey	K k	key	L l	el
M m	em	N n	en	Ñ ñ	enye	NG ng	endyi
O o	o	P p	pi	Q q	kyu	R r	ar
S s	es	T t	ti	U u	yu	V v	vi
W w	dobolyu	X x	eks	Y y	way	Z z	zi

These are names, not automatic pronunciations inside words. The letter A is named ey, but the a in anak is not pronounced like the English letter name A. Likewise, G is named dyi, yet its ordinary native value in gabi is /g/. Spelling aloud and reading a word are separate tasks.

Pakibaybay ang apelyido mo.

Please spell your surname.

R-E-Y-E-S po: ar, i, way, i, es.

R-E-Y-E-S, please: R, E, Y, E, S.

The second example shows a practical convention: speakers may say the written letters and then their Filipino names. Po makes the answer respectful. In very technical settings, organizations may adopt an international spelling alphabet, but the ordinary names above are the standard starting point.

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A letter name answers “Which written symbol?” A sound answers “How is this word pronounced?” Keeping those questions separate prevents English letter names from leaking into Filipino word pronunciation.

Ñ and NG are full alphabet members

Ñ is not N with optional punctuation. It occurs in established proper names such as Muñoz, Santo Niño, and Malacañang. Removing the tilde changes the spelling of the name.

Enye ba ang ikatlong letra ng Muñoz? — Oo, M-U-Ñ-O-Z ang baybay.

Is the third letter of Muñoz ñ? — Yes, it is spelled M-U-Ñ-O-Z.

NG is a digraph: two written characters functioning as one alphabet letter. In an ordinary Filipino word such as ngipin, ng represents the initial /ŋ/ sound. It is not read as the sequence of the letter names en plus dyi.

Nagsisimula sa NG ang salitang ngipin.

The word ngipin begins with NG.

There is an important exception involving abbreviations. In NGO, the first two characters represent separate initials N and G, because the form abbreviates several words; they are not the Filipino digraph NG. Context and the identity of the abbreviation decide the analysis.

Hindi isang salita ang NGO; binabasa ang bawat titik nito.

NGO is not one word; each of its letters is read separately.

This distinction is orthographic, not a claim that every occurrence of adjacent n and g must be one letter. Compare the digraph in ngayon with the morpheme boundary in an unusual compound or the separate initials in an abbreviation.

The official alphabetical order

Use this sequence for learning, dictionary work, and careful manual alphabetization:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N Ñ NG O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

The compact logic is:

Sequence	What it means for sorting
N	Ordinary N entries come first.
Ñ	Names and retained spellings with Ñ form the next letter group.
NG	Words beginning with the digraph NG follow Ñ.
O	O begins the next group.

Sa talaan, nauuna ang nayon, kasunod ang Niño, saka ang ngipin, at pagkatapos ang oras.

In the list, nayon comes first, followed by Niño, then ngipin, and then oras.

Within a letter group, compare the next alphabetic unit. Capital and lowercase forms do not create separate letters for ordinary alphabetical order. An acute, grave, or circumflex accent used in a dictionary marks pronunciation; it does not add another member to the 28-letter alphabet. Ñ, however, remains distinct because the tilde is part of the letter itself.

Magkatabi sa indeks ang Maya at maya, pero hiwalay ang N sa Ñ.

Maya and maya are adjacent in the index, but N and Ñ are separate.

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For careful Filipino alphabetization, temporarily box every ng that represents the digraph. Treat the box as one unit placed after Ñ, not as n followed by g.

Dictionaries and computer sorting can differ

Many computer systems use generic locale or Unicode sorting. Such a system may place ngipin among other n words because it sees n + g, or it may treat ñ as a decorated form of n. That output describes the software's collation settings, not the official pedagogical order of the Filipino alphabet.

In a database, library catalog, or workplace directory, follow the institution's declared sort rule (administrative/technical). If no rule is stated and you are manually alphabetizing Filipino vocabulary, use the 28-letter order above. Honest usage requires this qualification: digital lists in contemporary life do not all implement NG as one sortable unit.

Bakit nasa ilalim ng N ang ngipin sa listahan? — Iba ang ayos ng sistema, pero NG ang titik sa alpabetong Filipino.

Why is ngipin under N in the list? — The system uses a different sorting order, but NG is a letter in the Filipino alphabet.

The phrase sa ilalim ng N uses the grammatical word ng, while NG ang titik names the alphabet letter. Capitalization makes the metalinguistic use easy to see, but the two forms also have different functions. Do not replace the phrase marker with nang merely because the two often sound alike.

Spelling established and borrowed forms

Alphabetical order does not tell you how to adapt a loan. The presence of C, F, J, Q, V, X, and Z makes it possible to preserve modern loans and names, but older integrated words keep established Filipino forms. Thus keso is filed under K, not under Q as if its spelling were still Spanish queso.

Hanapin mo ang keso sa ilalim ng K, hindi sa Q.

Look for keso under K, not Q.

Wala sa C ang Cebu sa listahang ito dahil mga pangalan ng pagkain lang ang laman.

Cebu is not under C in this list because it contains only names of food.

The first sentence concerns spelling; the second concerns the contents of a list. Both show why alphabetization comes after correct word identification. The modern alphabet overview explains which spellings are preserved, while loanword adaptation handles competing forms.

Common Mistakes

1. Naming Filipino vowels as though their letter names were their word sounds. Letter names belong to spelling aloud, not to ordinary reading.

❌ Ey-en-ey-key ang bigkas sa anak.

Incorrect — this substitutes letter names for the pronunciation of the word anak.

✅ Anak ang bigkas; A-N-A-K ang baybay.

It is pronounced anak; it is spelled A-N-A-K.

2. Treating Ñ as plain N. This changes an established proper name.

❌ Munoz ang apelyido niya.

Incorrect if the person's registered surname is Muñoz — the tilde is part of Ñ.

✅ Muñoz ang apelyido niya.

Their surname is Muñoz.

3. Splitting the digraph NG when alphabetizing an ordinary Filipino word. In the official order, NG follows Ñ.

❌ Nauna ang ngipin sa Niño sa talaang alpabetiko.

Incorrect under official Filipino alphabetical order — NG follows Ñ.

✅ Nauna ang Niño sa ngipin sa talaang alpabetiko.

Niño comes before ngipin in the alphabetical list.

4. Writing the plural marker from its pronunciation or historical long form. The conventional modern spelling is mga.

❌ Nasa mesa ang manga aklat.

Incorrect — manga is not the modern spelling of the plural marker.

✅ Nasa mesa ang mga aklat.

The books are on the table.

Key Takeaways

Learn letter names for spelling and abbreviations, but do not use them as word-pronunciation rules.
The crucial middle sequence is N, Ñ, NG, O.
Ñ is an independent letter, and NG is a two-character digraph functioning as one letter in ordinary Filipino words.
Initialisms such as NGO may contain separate N and G rather than the digraph.
Generic computer sorting may not match official Filipino alphabetization; follow an explicitly stated institutional rule when one exists.

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