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Between hard core grammar lessons, I will take Malcomb’s suggestion and give some readily usable speaking tips.

First, a word about Cebuano vowel sounds. The vowels sounds are similar to that of Spanish: Ah, ehy, ee, and here is the exception: the ‘o’ and ‘u’ sounds can almost be used interchangeably, and are a sound somewhere between ‘oh’ and ‘oo’. Linguists say Cebuano has no ‘o’ sounds at all, and they only use a ‘u’ when transcribing Cebuano.

You also need to know that the time spent on each vowel sound is always the same, and it is a short time. There are no ‘glides’ like we have in English where we slide around on a vowel sound, as in the sentence (said with expression) , “Oh, now I get it!” How did you say that? “Ooooooh, Nooooow, I get it!” and did you change the tone, going up and down the scale a bit while doing those lengthened vowel sounds? Right! That is exactly what you never do with Cebuano. Clip those vowels.

Second, you may have noticed that a lot of times there are vowels next to each other, even the same vowel, as in “Maayong Buntag!” When vowels are next to each other, you (with a few city name exceptions) pronounce both vowels with a glottal stop between them. A glottal stop is what you do when you say, “Uh oh” in English. It is that little stop that separates those two sounds. “Mah-AH-yong BOON-tahg!” Try a few: Diin ka gikan? Buotan ang akong asawa. Naa bay inyong broccoli? (That’s BROH-koh-lee)

One of the hardest things for foreign speakers, at least at first, is the words and syllables beginning with ‘ng,’ which never happens in English. Often, we don’t even hear it and think people are using an ‘n.’ Try this: Say the word ‘song’ and leave your tongue in place at the back of your mouth when you finish. Hold it there and from that position, say the word, “ngalan.” When you can do that, try it in a sentence, “Unsay imong ngalan?” Notice in that sentence, that your tongue is already in position from the word before, so don’t separate the words, just say it! When you have got that one down, try one of the harder ones that are repetitive: ngit-ngit (dark), ngul-ngul (throbbing pain).

In English, we shorten and abbreviate things all the time when we speak, as in “Watcha doin’” and “Whadaya mean by that?” Part of what makes different regional ways of speaking different is the ways in which we shorten things or run them together. In Cebuano, they do the same thing. If, when you speak Cebuano, you enunciate and separate every word, you will sound very strange. BUT in order to learn the grammar patterns, you have to know the longer forms of the words. As I am explaining the grammar, your Cebuano friends will look at those sentences and say, “We never talk like that!” and it is true, they don’t! But some of you will never be able to learn Cebuano if you don’t understand how it works, and that is our purpose.

I will point out two abbreviations which are used all the time, so you will recognize them. It seems like so many words end in ‘ng’, right? Well actually, that is often the word ‘nga’ tacked on the end of the preceding word to make it a descriptive word. “Suka nga puti” (vinegar that is white) becomes “sukang puti.” “Pula nga balay” (house that is red) becomes “pulang balay.” And so on.

The other short cut is for the word ‘ang’ which is such an important first class marker that just about every sentence has one… or does it? Often it is hiding in the letter ‘y’ tacked onto the back of the word before. “Kinsa ang tag-iya niini?” becomes “Kinsay tag-iya niini? (Who is the owner of this?) “Unsa ang imong ngalan?” becomes “Unsay imong ngalan?” “Naa ba ang isda?” becomes “Naa bay isda?” (Is there fish?)

Hope this is helpful!

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