Source: sample_academic2_contrastive

Consonant Systems

When comparing English and Tagalog's consonant systems, we can see that English has a more complicated one than Tagalog. To start off with, English has 25 distinctive phonemes, whereas Tagalog contains only 16. Out of those 25 phonemes, English as nine distinct fricatives and two affricatives, whereas, out of the 16 phonemes, Tagalog only has two fricatives and no affricatives. Below is a Venn diagram that compares the sounds of Tagalog and English purely based off of IPA.
Note: Bold* refers to phonemes that are used in Tagalog exclusively with loan words, and are not included in the 16 consonants originally mentioned. Italics* refers to phonemes that sources list as semi-vowels/semi-consonants in Tagalog.

At face value, the pronunciation system in Tagalog seems fairly straightforward for English speakers, other than a few consonants. However, there are several differences between the method of production of phonemes with the same IPA in Tagalog versus English. To read more about these, go to INSERT LINK HERE. Below, however, are a few examples of the pronunciation of phonemes that are foreign to English.

Audio Comparison of Tagalog Sounds with English

Examples of ng in Tagalog.

Langaw (housefly)

(Source for audio: click here!)

Examples of r in Tagalog

Raw (indicator that information said was heard elsewhere)

(Source for audio: click here!)

Marami (many)

(Source for audio: click here!)