Some words and phrases and their respective definitions or uses are peculiar to Philippine English and may not appear in most English dialects.
Some examples are:
Apartelle - A budget hotel.
Ballpen - A ball point pen, or simple a pen.
Barbecue - Roasted meat must be cut into pieces and put into a skewer in order to qualify as a "barbecue", basically a satay.
Batch - A graduating class.
Biodata - A resumé.
Blowout - taking several people out to a restaurant and paying for everybody.
Boundary - An amount public transport drivers pay their operators daily; any excess belongs to the driver as his daily wage. (jargon)
Brod - Short for brother. Usually used among members of a college fraternity.
Cabinet (furniture) - refers to "closet".
Calling Card - refers to a "business card," not a phone card.
Change oil - An oil change.
Chit - A restaurant bill.
Combo - A musical band.
Commute - Same meaning as in other forms of English, but is almost always used to refer to the act of taking public transportation.
Commuter - Same meaning as in other forms of English, but implies one who takes public transport (rarely used to refer to motorists, often excluding them).
Coupon Bond - Bond paper. Coupon here is pronounced /kopon/ not /kyupon/.
Course - While also used to refer to individual classes/subjects (as in US English), a "course" often refers to an entire degree program (as in UK English).
CR (Comfort Room) - Toilet, bathroom.
Dine-in - "Eat in", "for here"
Dormer - A dormitory resident.
Drawer (furniture) - refers to the whole "dresser," rather than to individual drawers.
Duster - A loose house dress or sun-dress.
For a while - Used on the telephone to mean "please wait".
Get down / go down (a vehicle) - "Get off". Derived from Tagalog context ("Bumaba ka", literally meaning "(you) get down").
Gimmick - A planned or unplanned night out with friends.
Green jokes - Dirty jokes
Jeepney - mass transit trams originally made from US military jeeps. (See "Owner" below)
Middle name - Mother's maiden name.
Officemate - a co-worker
Open/close the light/computer/TV - Turn/switch on /off the light/computer/TV.
Owner - a Jeep-derived vehicle for private, non-commercial use.
Pack-Up - used instead of "wrap-up" when referring to movie sets, presentations, etc.
Parlor - salon, i.e. beauty parlor = beauty salon
Practicumer - Refers to a student who participates in a course of study that involves the supervised practical application of previously studied theory; an intern. (Practicum - internship)
Remembrance - A souvenir or memento.
Rubber shoes - Sneakers or athletic shoes.
Salvage - A slang word for summary execution. The meaning evolved from frequent usage in sentences such as 'The corpse was salvaged from the Pasig river', from "salvage" meaning recovered or found. The victim would usually be a victim of summary execution. The word may also be related to the Spanish-derived Tagalog slang "sinalbahe" (literally "turned bad").
Better : 'The corpse of a salvaged person was found floating on the Pasig River.'
The above sentence would mean the person was salvaged on the Pasig River.
Sari-Sari Store - refers to a convenience store or booth.Sari-sari is Tagalog for "mixed variety," but the term is generally used in English communication. Sometimes called a "variety store" in the Canadian sense.
Shooting (film) - used in the movie industry instead of "filming".
Slang - Good English pronunciation
Slippers - Flip flops.
Softdrink - Filipinos prefer to spell soft drink as one word.
Step-in - Stylish ladies' sandals minus the strap.
Stow away - To run away from home.
Subdivision - A gated community.
The other day - Used specifically to refer to the "day before yesterday" (from the Tagalog expression "noong isang araw").
Thrice - Three times. While it is also used in other forms of English, it is much more prevalent in Philippine English.
Toga - refers to the commencement/graduation gown
Tomboy - A boyish lesbian. A "tomboy" is almost always presumed to be a lesbian, although the word is rarely used for feminine-looking lesbians.
Traffic - implies a traffic jam. Often used as an adjective, referring to heavy traffic volume.
Violet - used instead of "purple."
