How to text like a Filipino: an SMS language primer (2024)

Generally speaking, the Filipino culture is marked by a deep appreciation for singing, dancing, storytelling, boxing, Miss Universe, cheesy teleseryes, air-con, all things sweet and salty, and... wait for it... texting. Yes, texting. It may not seem like it, but Filipinos are actually well-known for their nimble thumbs and cellular savvy.

In fact, the Philippines, which is home to 105 million people, is commonly referred to as "the text messaging capital of the world," due to the Filipino people's diehard obsession with SMS (or Short Message Service) that is unrivaled by societies elsewhere in the world.

Over the years, texting in the Philippines has evolved into a subculture that consists of its own lingo, customs, and etiquette. It's somewhat of a digital dialect at this point; one that goes perfectly hand-in-hand with Tagalog. Go to any restaurant in Manila and you'll find foodies composing messages on their phones rather than conversing with one another. Visit any mall and you'll witness shoppers demonstrate the art of the walk-and-text with complete mastery. Hop on any bus and you'll see commuters with their faces buried in their screens.

It's inescapable—no matter where you turn, phones are constantly beeping with alerts for incoming messages. Filipinos have an almost jerk reaction to scramble into their pockets and answer right away. It's like what you'd see on a typical day in a Westernized city, but on steroids. My cousins in the Philippines can probably text faster than I can type on a computer keyboard.

On average, Filipinos as a collective send 400 million texts a day, which adds up to an average of 142 billion texts a year. That's a mindblowing statistic, considering that cellular mobile phone services only started showing up in the country in 1991. Since then, the Philippines has registered almost 30.4 million smartphone users nationwide. That's around 32 percent of the country's total population. How did SMS become so popular in the tiny island nation?

The simple answer is it's cheaper to send a text than to make a call or communicate using one's mobile data. Poverty is a prominent theme in the Philippines, with approximately a fifth of the population living below the poverty line. On top of the fact that the Philippines lacks the infrastructure necessary to support sufficient economic growth, the nation's poorest families work and live in agricultural areas that are vulnerable to natural disasters and disease. Typhoons, earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic eruptions are common in the island nation, and they have caused as much as $23 billion US in damages in the past two decades.

There is a general lack of spending on education, which means not everyone has access to schooling (perhaps that is where the Filipino belief that education is "the sure way out" stems from). It doesn't help that most rural families tend to have large families as a result of generally unmanaged population growth. Not having access to schooling means not being able to land jobs in the city, and jobs in the city are, for the most part, not that well-paying, anyway. All of these things contribute to a difficult life and an inclination to save money wherever possible. That being said, cellular mobile services are so affordable in the Philippines that 36 percent of Filipino families in the bottom 30 percent income stratum can manage to own cellular phones.

Even the middle class has a good reason to text instead of talk. Installation costs and monthly fees for fixed household lines are expensive, so it makes more sense to opt for cellular mobile services instead. When pre-paid accounts were rolled out, they had no monthly fees and didn't require a credit check, so they became more accessible and more appealing to the general public. Nowadays, SMS is not free, but at a rate of around P1 per text, no one's complaining. I mean, if there's one thing Filipinos love, it's a bargain.

With 164 character limits set per text, people began to abbreviate their words and use emojis in place of some to save space. Over time, the abbreviations caught on and a new SMS language was born; one that was made by Filipinos, for Filipinos. If you own a smartphone in the Philippines, which you almost certainly do, you'd be expecting texts, not calls.

As Filipinos are generally expressive but nonconfrontational, the SMS language gives them the means to strike a balance between the two traits. Josephine Aguilar, a sociology professor at the University of Santo Tomas, says it's a way for people to speak risque while being protected by the coded language. Of course, there are the expected problems like texting while driving (which makes things worse on the EDSA) and classroom distraction, but texting still remains to be an integral part of everyday Filipino life.

As technology continues to advance, more Filipinos are beginning to switch to online chats and messenger apps. The Department of Information and Communications Technology of the Philippines reported a 40 percent drop in text messaging from 2016 to 2019, which indicates a shift in interest from A-to-B communication to self-broadcasting. Still, for now, in a world of 4G LTE and social media, the Filipino SMS language is trickling into a new era and remains to be the people's liberation from the trials and tribulations of third-world life.

Interested in learning some Filipino SMS language basics? Here are some examples I've pulled from various sources online:

ALM = alam (know)

AND2 = nandito (I'm here)

AQ = ako (me)

AYLAB = i love

BAE = before anyone else

CGE = sige (sure)

CNSBI = sinasabi (is saying)

CR = comfort room

DTO = dito (here)

FFTB = fresh from the bathroom

FWIS = from where I stand

GA2WIN = gagawin (I will do)

JGH = just got home

KC = kasi (because)

KGV = kagabi (last night)

KKB = kani-kaniyang bayad (everyone pays for themselves)

KME = kami (we)

KNB = ka na ba (are you)

KONA = ko na (I already)

KOTD = kicks of the day

KPG = kapag (when)

KSP = kulang sa pansin (an attention seeker)

LGI = lagi (again)

LNG = lang (only or just)

MSRP = masarap (delicious)

NGAUN = ngayon (today)

NOBATO = ano ba ito? (what is this)

OA = overacting

PG = pag (if)

PPNTA = (going to go)

SATIN = sa atin (to us)

SAU = sa iyo (to you)

SENYO = sa inyo (to you)

SMS = sa madaling salita (an attention seeker)

TCCIC = take care cuz I care

TEKS = texts

mahal kta = mahal kita (i love you)

ngagers = nganga (mouth breather)

pagwpa = magpaganda (make oneself pretty)

petix = procrastinate

sateng lahat = sa ating lahat (to all of us)

Source: Tagalog Lang, FAQ.ph

A text message using the abbreviations would look like this, for example:

"kpg ikaw sad.. and2 lng me, kpg away k nla awy q cla ala me pkialam kng mdmi mng kaaway q, bsta alm q ur spcl kya ayw q msktan k.. kc mahal kta eh, wd (with)"

Photo by Pia Wurtzbach