The vocabulary you need on a bad day
Two topics that look unrelated belong together for a practical reason: both are things you need to discuss when you are not at your best, and both are governed by the same handy word, panaun — which covers weather, season and time all at once.
| Kapampangan | English |
|---|---|
| katawan | body |
| buntuk | head |
| mata | eye |
| arung | nose |
| asbuk | mouth |
| gamat | hand |
| bitis | foot, leg |
| pusu | heart |
Several of these differ from Tagalog in ways you cannot guess — buntuk (Tagalog ulo), arung (ilong), asbuk (bibig), gamat (kamay). Others, like mata, are shared.
The frame is masakit ya ing + [body part] + [possessive].
Masakit ya ing buntuk ku.
My head hurts.
Masakit ya ing atian ku. — My stomach hurts.
Masakit ya ing bitis ku. — My leg hurts.
Everything in that frame is familiar: masakit is a ma- adjective from lesson 15, ya is the obligatory pronoun from lesson 4, ing is the marker from lesson 3, and ku is the possessive from lesson 4. One new pattern, five old pieces.
| Kapampangan | English |
|---|---|
| sakit | illness; pain |
| masakit | it hurts; painful |
| maglagnat | to have a fever |
And lesson 10's ati and ala do good service here:
Ati kung sakit. — I have an illness. / I'm unwell.
Ala kung sakit. — I'm not ill.
| Kapampangan | English |
|---|---|
| doktor | doctor |
| ospital | hospital |
| gamut | medicine |
Nukarin ya ing ospital? — Where is the hospital?
Kailangan kung doktor. — I need a doctor.
Ala lu ring doktor keni. — The doctors are no longer here.
Health vocabulary is the one category where studying in advance genuinely matters. You will not be in a state to look words up when you need them, and in a rural clinic the person helping you may be more comfortable in Kapampangan than in English.
| Kapampangan | English |
|---|---|
| panaun | weather; season; time |
| uran | rain |
| aldo | sun; day |
| angin | wind |
| bagyu | typhoon |
| mapali | hot |
| marimla | cold |
Mapali ya ngeni. — It's hot now.
Ati yang uran. — There's rain.
The Philippines has a dry season and a wet season, not a four-season year. Panaun covering weather, season and time is a neat fit for a climate where the season simply is the weather.
Bagyu is not abstract vocabulary in Central Luzon. Pampanga sits in the typhoon belt and much of it is low-lying floodplain; the word comes up.
| Kapampangan | English |
|---|---|
| dominggo | Sunday; also "week" |
| lunes | Monday |
| martes | Tuesday |
| mierkules | Wednesday |
| huebes | Thursday |
| biernes | Friday |
| sabadu | Saturday |
These are Spanish borrowings, as they are in Tagalog and most Philippine languages — the seven-day week arrived with the calendar that named it. Months are borrowed the same way (enero, pebrero, marso…).
Combine with lesson 8's time words: napun (yesterday), ngeni (now), bukas (tomorrow), bulan (month), banua (year).
Kapilan ya ing pista? — When is the fiesta?
Dominggo ya. — It's Sunday.
Why are the days Spanish? Because the seven-day week itself arrived with Spanish colonisation. Pre-colonial Philippine calendars were organised differently, so there were no native words to keep.
Is masakit "painful" or "difficult"? Both — and context separates them. Masakit ya ing buntuk ku is physical; masakit of a task means hard.
Should I worry about typhoon vocabulary? If you spend a rainy season in Central Luzon, yes. Bagyu, uran and angin are practical words there, not decorative ones.
This is the lesson you hope not to need and will be glad to have. It is also the clearest demonstration of how far you have come: the sentence frame for "my head hurts" required no new grammar at all, only a new noun.
Next, and last: Kapampangan Culture & Fiesta — the festivals, the sayings, and what Amanung Sisuan means.