Among the things we are grateful to the Americans is for bringing us the English language. Spaniards did not propagate Spanish here as they did in Cuba, Puerto Rico or the rest of Spanish America. But neither did they discourage those who could from learning and mastering their language so that we have a rich Filipino Spanish literature. Nineteenth century illustrados like Jose Rizal, Pardo de Tavera, the Luna brothers and others, together with twentieth century writers like Recto, Bernabe and others mastered the Spanish language. Spanish policy here was to use the local languages for development and the teaching of the faith. The American policy on the other hand pursued the teaching of English to the masses through the public school system importing teachers like the Thomasites. An example of dedicated teachers was Nellie Kellogg van Schaick who even after her death through her trust fund continues to educate Filipino medical doctors.

In numbers of English speakers we are third or fourth after the U.S.A. and India. We have our own brand of English so that Yahoo asks clients their preference between British, or American. or Filipino English.

We use the English language not only as a common language among Filipinos but also as a tool to access the literature and technology of the rest of the world. For a good number of Filipino English speakers some grammar and pronunciation usage cause problems which if corrected will improve accuracy. Ten rules can correct almost all common violations. Violations of the first two rules make up more than 50% of the mistakes. The reason for these lapses is because the Filipino languages hardly change the endings of words. They change the beginning or the middle bur hardly ever the endings in contrast to Spanish in which the endings of words constantly change. English change endings of words only in two instances and these are where the Filipino English speakers trip up.

English puts an “s” at the end of verbs in the third person singular, present, and in the plural of many nouns. It also changes to “d” or “ed” the endings of regular verbs in the past tense. Half of Filipino grammar mistakes are due to these two rules. Other violations share the other 50 percent of mistakes. A third rule requires the present tense of the main verb after “to” in the infinitive or after an auxiliary verb. “Yesterday I went to worked” would be wrong grammatically and so would “I did not worked.” In both cases the present form “work” is correct. Other violations include the proper use of the preposition, the right use of the articles “a” “the,” or no article; the correct form of the irregular verbs; the shifting from past to present and vice versa; the tendency to use the progressive “ing” or the use of the passive form; the incorrect use of the form of the main verb after the auxiliary verb “to have” which demands a past participial form in the main verb. These usages should have been learned or corrected in the grade school but often left uncorrected so that even graduate school students violate these rules. Many have not been made aware of these grammatical rules which degrade their mastery of the English language. (In another article problems in pronunciation would be tackled.) emeterio_barcelon@yahoo.com.