Hiligaynon Language - Loan Words

Loan Words

Hiligaynon has a large number of words that derive from Spanish words including nouns (e.g., santo from santo, saint), adjectives (e.g., berde from verde, green), prepositions (e.g., antes from antes, before), and conjunctions (e.g., pero from pero, but). Moreover, Spanish provides the Ilonggo base for items introduced by Spain, e.g., barko (barco, ship), sapatos (zapatos, shoes), kutsilyo (cuchillo, knife), kutsara (cuchara, spoon), tenedor (fork), plato (plate), kamiseta (camiseta, shirt), and kambiyo (cambio, change).

Spanish verbs used in Hiligaynon often remain unconjugated (have the verb endings -ar, -er or -ir) which in Filipino would almost always be conjugated in the 'vos' form, e.g., komparar, mandar, pasar, tener, disponer, mantener, and asistir.