Say what?! – Sawikain versus Salawikain

Don’t be confused with these two words – “sawikain” and “salawikain“. They sound almost the same but they have totally different meanings.

Salawikain are proverbs. Filipina Soul has growing collection of Filipino Proverbs or Salawikain, so check them out here, here and a full list in this page.

Sawikain are idiomatic expressions. They are composed of two or more words that have an entirely different meaning when joined together or hyphenated.

Some examples of SAWIKAIN:

1. Anak-pawis. The literal translation of “anak” is son; pawis” is sweat. The idiom really means “blue-collar worker” to signify sweat and hard work are exerted.

2. Balat sibuyas. It’s the Tagalog translation for “onion-skinned” which means a sensitive person.

3. Makapal ang bulsa. In English, it’s a person with a thick wallet, which means lots of money = wealth.

4. Magaan ang Kamay. In English it’s a light-handed person, which means one who is easily provoked to hit another person.

5. Di makabasag-pinggan. Literal translation is “someone who can’t break a plate” to mean a very demure, gentle or shy person.

More idiomatic expressions or sawikain are found in this website.

10 Responses to “Say what?! – Sawikain versus Salawikain”

  1. July 24th, 2008 | 5:20 pm

    [...] are proverbs. Filipina Soul has growing collection of filipino Proverbs or Salawikain, so chhttp://www.filipinasoul.com/say-what-sawikain-versus-salawikain/RGEP FrameworkIf you see courses with filipino titles and descriptions, it means that the medium of [...]

  2.   zhelie
    August 8th, 2008 | 8:51 pm

    ……nu bayan pede ba ung mgaa salawikain na hindi pa nalalaman?!?!same narin sa sawikain…hay thnx nalang..but u didnt help me for my project s2pid site!

  3.   anna
    September 15th, 2008 | 1:23 am

    pede nio poh ilagay kung anu ouh ung ibag sbhin bg mga sawikain…hehehe…

  4.   Joey0811
    September 16th, 2008 | 6:09 am

    thanks a lot…

  5.   nicole
    September 16th, 2008 | 7:27 am

    very cool!!

  6.   levin_pogi05
    October 5th, 2008 | 8:24 am

    ang lupet!!! wow!!!

  7.   wew
    January 28th, 2009 | 5:22 am

    ang panget bali ala yan wik

  8.   unknown
    March 8th, 2009 | 12:34 am

    mas maganda ang salawikain dahil gusto ko eh anong pakealam nyo

  9.   lee
    June 12th, 2009 | 12:35 am

    sana poh ipaliwanag ng mabuti ang salawikain.at sawikain..kong ano nga ba tlaga..hnde poh yong translation..

  10.   iveejoiebhem
    July 28th, 2009 | 4:09 am

    ..thank you so much..Ang ganda ng site nyu..sa mga ngsasabi na stupid ang site na to,mas stupid kau..hehe..belat..!


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