“Fire!” in every Philippine language
Fire! across 9 languages, and what the differences tell you.
Last updated
Side by side
| Language | Fire! |
|---|---|
| English | Fire! |
| Tagalog | Sunog! |
| Ilocano | Uram! |
| Cebuano | Sunog! |
| Hiligaynon | Sunog! |
| Waray | Sunog! |
| Bikol | Kalayo! |
| Kapampangan | Api! |
| Pangasinan | Apoy! |
What the pattern shows
Bikol shouts 'Kalayo!', which in Tagalog would be parsed as 'distance'. In an emergency that is the worst possible ambiguity.
Where they agree
- Sunog! — Tagalog, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Waray
Standing alone: English (Fire!), Ilocano (Uram!), Bikol (Kalayo!), Kapampangan (Api!) and Pangasinan (Apoy!).
More health & emergency
Where this comes from
This row is one of 84 concept pages drawn from a parallel set of everyday vocabulary held across nine languages. You can browse all of them, download the whole set under CC BY-SA 4.0, or paste text to find out which language it is.
Compiled from published general reference and pending review by native speakers. If something here is wrong in a language you speak, please tell us.