PHILIPPINE ENGLISH: Writing Guide to use frequent Philippine English

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

RONNIEDEL I. BAMBA is a Senior High School

teacher, an academician by profession, and a
father. As a faculty of Dr. Maria D. Pastrana
National High School since 2017, he has been
handling Practical Research 1 & 2, and Media
information Literacy. Concurrent with his
position as an English teacher, he is also the
assistant secretary of the Teachers-Personnel Association at
DMDPNHS.

He completed his bachelor’s degree in Pambayang Kolehiyo ng

Mauban. He is completing his academic requirements for his Master’s
Degree in Master of Arts in Education Major in English in Sacred
Heart College Lucena City. His membership affiliation includes
Quezon English Language Teachers Association (QUELTA) and
Quezon Teachers Chess Association.

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 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH: Writing Guide to use frequent Philippine English
This writing guide provides a valuable window of information

Ronniedel I. Bamba on the Distinctive Grammatical features of Philippine English. The

TABLE OF CONTENTS topic is designed to provide a methodology for determining why one

Title Page makes a particular error on grammatical features in Philippine English.

This writing guide for distinctive grammatical features in Philippine
TITLE PAGE ................................................................. i English is an attempt to improve and guide the writing process of the
FOREWORD................................................................... ii
INTRODUCTION .......................................................... iii Graduate School students in writing their master thesis abstract. This
will introduce and adopt Philippine English as they write. As they
IMPORTANT CONCEPTS revise and edit their writing, they can provide grammar instruction that
Subject- verb agreeement................................................ 1
Article usage ..................................................................... 2 guides them in their attempts to identify and correct problems in
Preposition........................................................................ 3 sentence structure and usage.
Tense usage..................................................................... 4
Mass Noun and Count Noun........................................... 5 This writing guide is designed as a resource to enable
Pronoun-Antecedent........................................................ 6 Graduate School students to grammatically write master thesis
abstract using the distinctive grammatical features of Philippine
GLOSSARY.....................................................................
English. The findings of the study were utilized in designing the output
REFERENCES................................................................ 103
were the grammatical error found on the Master Thesis Abstract of
Graduate School students of Sacred Heart College based on Bautista
(2000) Distinctive grammatical features in Philippine English. The
writing guide contains six distinctive grammatical features of
Philippine English which are the following: subject-verb-agreement,
articles, preposition, tense usage, pronoun-antecedent, and Mass
noun and Count noun.
The target users of the writing guide are the graduate students,
Graduate school’s professors, Educational sectors, English teachers,
and future researchers who can use the output of the study for
academic purposes or as a reference in a study.

FOREWORD R. I. Bamba

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 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH: Writing Guide to use frequent Philippine English
INTRODUCTION language instruction (Gonzalez 1991a presents a detailed summary of
the findings from these generational studies).
Philippine English as new English is always a question to ask, Is there
Standard Philippine English? When does an error become a feature of
Standard Philippine English?. These are the questions this writing
guide will attempt to answer.

The Standard Philippine English follows D'Souza's criteria for the

standard: the usage should be widespread, systematic, rule-
governed, and used by competent users in formal situations (1998):
"widespread" means that the usage appears in at least 15 (out of the
150) different texts, "systematic" and "rule-governed" taken together
mean that there is a pattern to the usage and that a rule can be found
to explain it. The last criterion — " — is "used by competent users in
formal situations guaranteed by the very nature of the corpus, i.e.
edited and printed material written generally by professional writers or
professionals in their field.

The distinctive grammar items of Philippine English as stated by

Bautista (2000) in her book “Defining Philippine Standard” were the
agreement of verb and subject, agreement of pronoun and
antecedent, tense usage, article usage, prepositions, mass nouns and
count nouns, and pronoun-antecedent agreement.
Over the years, Gonzalez and his students have identified the
"perduring" features of Philippine English. with Alberca analyzed the
phonological grammatical and lexical features of the Philippine
English used in broadcast and print media (Gonzalez and Alberca
1978; Gonzalez 1985); with Romero and Jambalos, studied data Grammatical error  is a term used in prescriptive grammar to

elicited from different generations of Filipino products of English describe an instance of faulty, unconventional, or controversial usage,

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 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH: Writing Guide to use frequent Philippine English
such as a misplaced modifier or an inappropriate verb tense. Also pronoun. For proper or common plural nouns, for first or second
called a usage error. Compare grammatical errors with correctness. singular pronouns, or plural pronouns, no inflection is used in the
( Richard Nordquist, 2020) present tense.
It's also known as: error, usage error, grammar error or mistake, bad Besides, there were many instances in Master Theses abstract that
grammar marked the verb plurality when the subject is plural is optional and is
most often done in informal writing.

Distinctive Grammatical Features of Philippine English. Example 1

According to Bautista (2000) stated in her book “Defining
Philippine Standard” there were six Distinctive Grammatical features Therefore, it was concluded that the level of financial planning
of Philippine English. The features were the agreement of verb and readiness of teachers towards retirement are directly affected by
subject, agreement of pronoun and antecedent, tense usage, article number of dependents and personal retirement plan. (ASS16/2109)
usage, prepositions, mass nouns, and count nouns, and pronoun-
In Example a1 the plural verb -are does not appear to agree
antecedent agreement. The Grammatical features of Philippine
with the singular subject level. A singular subject in a sentence or
English are categorized into PE1, PE2, PE3, PE4, PE5, and PE6. The
clause requires a singular verb. It seems to have misled the writer into
categorization is important for the reader to easily understand and
using the singular forms of the verb when plural was required.
remember it.
Changing the verb -are to –is needed a correct subject-verb
agreement. 
PE1: Subject-Verb agreement

Example 2
PE1, the grammatical rule is simple and taught to all English
learners from the very beginning. The rule states that the verb should
The term iGen, also known as Generation Z has become an
agree with their subjects. A singular subject needs a singular verb
increasingly popular and common way to address and describe the
and the plural subjects need plural verbs.
generation which are generally kids and adolescents who were born
Furthermore, Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman’s formulation
in late 1990s to early 2020s (Vergara,
(1983) as cited by Bautista (2000), the general rule is straightforward
2016 and Dorsey 2016). (AE32/2017).
in most cases, the subject-verb agreement rule tells to use the third
person singular inflection if the subject is a singular proper name, if a In Example 2 the plural verb -are does not appear to agree
singular common noun, if it is a mass noun or a third-person singular with the singular subject -the generation. Consider changing the verb

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 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH: Writing Guide to use frequent Philippine English
form –are to -is for subject-verb agreement. In this instance, Subject- In this sentence, the word -district does not agree in number
Agreement deviation involved relative clause antecedent. The with other words in this phrase. The singular countable noun -
traditional rule states that the verb must agree with the noun in the district follows the quantifier -both, which requires a plural noun. A
relative clause rather than the noun in the main clause, and the quantifier is a word or phrase that tells us how much or how many.
clausal subject rule states that the clausal subject is generally singular Various types of words and phrases can be quantifiers. This includes
in number. numbers, adjectives, prepositions, pronouns, and other nouns with
prepositional phrases. When used with a countable noun, the noun
Example 3 form must match the plural quantifier. Consider using the plural noun
of a different quantifier. Change the word district to districts for
Moreover, for the school administrators, they are subject-verb agreement.
recommended to consider the utilization of the developed World
History Module and continuously support the teachers in the delivery Example 5
of quality instruction through relevant trainings to the utilization of the
module. (ASS31/2018) The design of the study employed descriptive-correlational research
design since it aimed to determine the significant relationship
This sentence shows that word -trainings is an uncountable between the respondents’ performance in the National Achievement
noun and should not be pluralized. When referring to multiple Test in school year 2013-214 and their final grade in science 6 in the
instances of an uncountable noun, do not make the noun plural. same year which serve basis for the development of computer-aided
Instead, an expression is added before the noun to indicate the plural intervention materials in Science for Grade 7 students.(ABS20/2015)
amount. Consider changing the noun -trainings to -training to make
the statement correct. Mass nouns are typically special nouns that This sentence shows that the plural verb serve does not agree
complicate the rules in subject-verb- agreement. In the most with the singular subject -the same year. A singular subject or clause
straightforward cases, the subject-verb agreement rule tells to use the requires a singular verb. consider changing the verb-serve to singular
third person singular inflection if the subject is a singular mass noun, serves for the subject-verb agreement

Example 4 The subject-verb agreement will necessitate considering the

conflicting application of the proximity principle. The Graduate
There were 351 student-respondent in public school of both district. students committing errors in the attraction of numbers through
(AM23/2019) proximity where the verb is some distance away from the subject. The

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 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH: Writing Guide to use frequent Philippine English
principle sometimes conflicts and, as a result, the attraction of the An article is a short word like a/an or the that goes before a noun
number through proximity makes the Graduate students committed to make it clear what the noun refers to. An article must be used with
errors in subject-verb agreement. a singular countable noun. Article sometimes needed plural nouns
proper nouns, and uncountable nouns. However, Philippine English
Likewise, Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1983) stressed has two articles: the and a/an. The is used to refer to specific or
that the fact that traditional prescriptions of rules sometimes have particular nouns; a/an is used to modify non-specific or non-particular
been neglected and no longer reflect the actual usage by educated nouns. 
users of the language. This is evident in the study of Al-Khasawneh Similarly, Guella et al., 2008, explained that the definite article
(2013) on the reason for the students’ weaknesses in English. It serves to narrow down the range of things that can felicitously be
concluded that the students did not use and practice the usage of referred to. On the other hand, the indefinite article used when there
English rules inside and outside the class. However, the rules in the exists at least one individual which satisfies a precise condition in the
subject-verb agreement are still strict informal writing and planned context denoted by the Noun Phrase.      
discourse. Furthermore, Bautista (2000) claimed that article is one of the
most difficult points in English grammar to master. Thus, Swales and
However, in this study, the researcher found several errors in
Feak (1994) make the point “three of the most common words in the
spelling, but for Bautista (2000) it might be a typographical error
English language are also three of the most difficult to use” referring
because there are instances that one spelled it correctly and
to the articles a, an, and the. Article usage is difficult for many
sometimes one spelled it incorrectly. Moreover, Ellis (1997) called it a
reasons. One is that in addition to a/an and the, there is another
mistake, because mistakes reflect occasional lapses in performance.
article, and knowing when to use can sometimes be very difficult.
They occur because, in a particular instance, the learner is unable to
Moreover, for the Filipino users of English, articles present a
perform what he or she knows. On the other hand, Bautista (2000)
serious difficulty because the Philippine language has a different basis
stated that typographical errors in writing cannot be accepted in
for the article system, based on whether a noun is in focus or not,
Standard Philippine English. It violated the rule of the subject-verb
rather than on the kind of noun that the article appears with.
agreement and the rule must be considered a categorical rule.
However, an excellent discussion of the rules for English article
However, it can still be considered variables rules of standard
use can be found in Celce-Murcia and Larseen-Freeman (1983) as
Philippine English..
cited by Bautista (2000) and the identification and categorization of

PE2: Article usage deviation in this study’s corpus were guides by their discussion. To
illustrate their detailed discussion, where Brown (1973) as cited in

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 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH: Writing Guide to use frequent Philippine English
Bautista (2000), suggested eight circumstances for the use of the it. This instance can be found from the given eight circumstances for
definite article because the noun has a specific reference for the the use of a definite article from Bautista (2000). This instance falls
speaker and hearer.  under the category of unique because of the characteristics that
unique by entailment.
Example 1
Example 3
This study is a non-experimental, quantitative research using
descriptive correlational survey through Factor Analysis.( AM03/2018) These results further imply that utilization of code-switched
remediation module and code-switching during remedial classes is
This sentence shows that the indefinite article a may be redundant
more effective than using a remediation module written in English.
when used with the uncountable noun research in this instance.
( AM11/2019)
Uncountable nouns may or may not use determiner, but they do not
use the indefinite article a or an. Other determiners include the This sentence shows the missing usage of the article between the
definite article where the possessive adjectives, possessive nouns, word -that and -utilization. Adding the article, -makes the sentence
and quantifiers. Consider removing the article -a since the word correct. This case is the second biggest category on the study of
research is uncountable and they do not use the indefinite article. Bautista (2000), is that “missing of definite article for specific
Bautista (2000) stated that Omission of the indefinite or definite article references”, the sentence above representing missing -the and the
seems to be the count noun treated as noncount or mass nouns and specific references.
thus do not carry the article. On the other hand, research is an
example of noncount nouns that show an article that notionally can be Example 4
counted.
The study aimed to determine the level of financial planning readiness
Example 2
towards retirement of the teachers in terms of money management
Majority of the respondents’ birth order belonged to middle child with and financial knowledge.(ASS11/2019
a frequency of 87 of 60%. (ABS18/2015)

This sentence shows that the sentence is confusing: the

instances of “-majority” appearing without an article. The word
majority must put an article –the before the word -majority to make the
sentences correct. The word majority functions as a noun so putting
an article before the word majority makes clear that the noun refers to

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 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH: Writing Guide to use frequent Philippine English
This sentence shows the noun phrase -retirement seems to be Also, this finding noted some usage of “majority” without an article
missing a determiner before it. An article is a type of determiner. on Master Thesis abstract, but the deviations were systematic and
Possessive adjectives, possessive nouns, and quantifiers are also ruled governed. Thus, several deviations showing omission of the
determiners. Single countable nouns usually require a determiner. In indefinite or definite article come from technical writing of abstract to
here the word- retirement is a single countable noun. Consider adding lessen the words and might have influenced using the generic noun in
an article -the to make the sentence correct. the register. However, in writing an abstract it follows a certain
number of words to make it concise. The researcher found out that
Example 5 the students may intentionally omit the article to lessen the words and
meet the total number of words needed for abstract, in that view most
As a result of the study, the researcher
of the Students tend to commit errors. Furthermore, another
developed conceptual  framework in teaching grammar for the
explanation for the omission of an indefinite or definite article seems
Teachers of English.(AE05/2016)
to be the count noun treated as noncount or mass nouns and thus do

This sentence shows that the noun phrase -conceptual not carry the article. In this analysis, the Graduate Students having

framework seems to be missing a determiner before it. The difficulty in differentiating properly the count noun to mass noun.

word- conceptual framework is a single countable noun that usually Furthermore, this finding can be seen from the study of Swasti (2014)

requires a determiner. A determiner is an article that has a different that concluded that the students having difficulty in differentiating

type, it might be possessive adjectives, possessive nouns, and properly the countable noun to mass noun. On the other hand, there

quantifiers. Consider adding article – a or the to make the sentence are several examples of noncount nouns that show an erroneous

correct  article, words like training, concepts, districts, research, barriers,

biology which notionally can be counted. Given these numerous rules
and their differential applications in different registers and dialects,
The deviations in article usage are widespread and have been variable use of articles would probably be a feature of Standard
made by the users who are competent in the use of formal English. Philippine English.
This confirms the observation of Bautista (2000) that “the use of
articles a/an, and the is one of the most difficult grammar points”, but
Swan (2005) provides a measure of comport, he asserts that most PE3: Prepositional usage

article mistakes do not matter too much. Even if one leaves all the
PE3 is a set of words indicates words that indicate how a noun or
articles out of a sentence, it is usually possible to understand it.”
noun phrase relates to the rest of the sentence. Some prepositions,

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 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH: Writing Guide to use frequent Philippine English
such as in, on, after, or since, express temporal-spatial relationships, (2000) from Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman: verb + preposition
in other cases, the relationship is more abstract and the best wherein the verb is –teaching and the preposition –in.
preposition to use may depend on the words around it. These are
known as dependent prepositions, and they do not follow a clear Example 2

pattern. In writing a Master thesis abstract one must choose the

For law enforcers this may serve as their basis on what to
preposition carefully because sometimes changing a preposition can
improve with regards in writing the police drug reports and for future
completely change the meaning of the phrase.
researchers. (AE20/2019)

However, Bautista (2000) defines prepositions as another

In this sentence shows that one can identify the standard usage of
category of deviations in prepositional usage. Prepositions are
Philippine English: regards to: instead of Standard American English
identified almost as often as articles as a problem in English language
regards in. The usage has become widespread that it has even been
learning – they constitute the second most difficult aspect of the
transferred, the instance data, to a noun + prepositional phrase
language, after articles, for English language learners.
functioning as adverbial. A “regards are associated with movement

Furthermore, Bautista (2000) added that verbs are combining toward a destination, and the preposition associated with destination

with different prepositions that give significantly different meanings: ‘to to.

provide for, ‘to provide with’, while there are verbs that combine with
different prepositions with little or no change in meaning: ‘compete
Example 3
with’, ‘compete against’.

The sample of this study consisted one hundred fifty-five (155)

Example 1
Grade 10 students of St. Francis High School, Sariaya, Quezon.

This can serve as a guide in teaching problem solving. (AM35/2018)

( AM39/2017)
This sentence shows that preposition usage is missing

In this sentence, it appears that the preposition -in shows between the word consisted and one. Consider adding

incorrect usage in this context. Consider changing it to -for to make prepositions of in to make the sentence correct. This case was

the sentence correct. In this instance, another feature of prepositions exemplified on the list adopted by Bautista (2000) from Celce-Murcia

co-occurs with verbs and adjective that can be learned as an integral and Larsen-Freeman's feature of preposition: Adj. + preposition

part of verb or adjective, as exemplified on the list adopted by Bautista (consisted + of). 

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 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH: Writing Guide to use frequent Philippine English
Example 4 sometimes changing a preposition can completely change the
meaning of the phrase. Exemplar 14 might consider changing the
Based from the result of the first and second quarter examination it preposition -from to -on and Exemplar 15 may change the word – on
was found out the there are some least mastered competencies in to -in to make the sentence correct
Araling Panlipunan 10.(ASS37/2016)

Missing prepositions in the sentence structure had pointed out as

Example 5
a problem area. The combination of Verb + preposition is a problem

For the students: participation on the production of the improvised because the position is almost arbitrary such as, why consist of rather

instrument and bulletin board display focused on unfamiliar terms in than consist in, for example, or why interested in rather than

Biology. interested on, and it must be entered as part of the lexical entry for the
verb or adjective. Also notice the variability in the usage of the
Example 4 and 5, show that preposition -from and -on may be preposition in certain constructions, for example, different from,
incorrect here. The relationship is more abstract and the best different to, and different than, and cater for, and cater to. The
preposition to use may depend on the words around it. In this case, distinction between at, on, and in, is likewise tricky because more
prepositions express temporal or spatial relationships such as in, on, specific and more general as a characterization of prepositional use
after, or since. These are known as dependent prepositions, and they for times and places is all a matter of relative degree. It may be that
do not follow any clear pattern, choose prepositions carefully because patterns for prepositional usage will take a while to form, and
sometimes changing a preposition can completely change the meanwhile, prepositional choice shows distinctive in Standard
meaning of the phrase. Exemplar 14 might consider changing the Philippine English.
preposition -from to -on and Exemplar 15 may change the word – on Likewise, Bautista (2000) stated that the construction of
to -in to make the sentence correct. Preposition can be identified as standard usage in Standard Philippine
Englishsuch as result to instead of the Standard American
English result in and this usage has become so widespread that it has
Example 4 and 5, show that preposition -from and -on may be
even been transferred.
incorrect here. The relationship is more abstract and the best
preposition to use may depend on the words around it. In this case,
.
prepositions express temporal or spatial relationships such as in, on,
PE4: Tense Usage
after, or since. These are known as dependent prepositions, and they
do not follow any clear pattern, choose prepositions carefully because

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 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH: Writing Guide to use frequent Philippine English
It communicates an event’s location in time. There are three the moment of reference, and the deviations use the simple past
main tenses: past, present, and future. Each of these tenses can tense to run counter to that basic axis time. The base form of the verb
take four main aspects: simple, perfect, continuous (also known is the correct usage in this context.
as progressive), and perfect continuous. The perfect aspect is
formed using the verb to have, while the continuous aspect is formed Example 2
using the verb to be.
In writing a master thesis abstract, the most used tenses are The research made used of descriptive interpretive research design.

the present simple, the past simple, and the present perfect. (APA The respondents

7th Edition) were the five Grade 2 teachers of Gulang-gulang Elementary School,

Moreover, the past form of the verb is usually found in the part Lucena, Lucena North District. (AE35/2016)

of the abstract that discusses the method while modal + verb is

This sentence shows the sentence, or clause uses an
usually used to the part of the abstract that states recommendation.
incorrect form of the verb -used. The verb must be in the present
Furthermore, Bautista (2000) added for the language used to use the
term -use to make the sentences correct. In this instance the basic
appropriate tenses within a discourse, it is important to stay within one
axis time is the present, corresponding to the moment of reference,
axis of orientation, like present or past, and make appropriate ‘before’
and the deviations which use the simple past tense to run counter to
and ‘after’ time references with that axis.
that basic axis time. The correct form in this context is the use of the
basic form of the verb since it represents the basic time axis in the

Example 1 present as Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1983) emphasized,

For the teachers: consider to enhance teaching strategies on how to when you combine a verb with a form of to be, you typically need an

unlock biological terms, conduct a workshop on the improvisation of -ed or -ing form. When you combine a verb with a modal like a can

the equipment such as models of the human anatomy, dissecting and should, you typically need the base form of the verb.

sets, and etc. with the used of localized materials that could be used
Example 3
in learning Biology.( ABS34/2018)

Specifically, looked into the following: (1) The Grade 2 teacher’s

This sentence shows the word -used does not seem to fit this
beliefs and practices about reading process, teaching of reading and
context. This must be replaced with a present form of a verb -use. It
learning of reading;( AE34/2016)
appears that the sentence shifting tense from present tense to past
tense. In this instance, the basic axis time is present, corresponding to

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 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH: Writing Guide to use frequent Philippine English
This sentence or clauses uses an incorrect verb - Also, Celce-Murcia and Larsen- Freeman (1983) explained
looked. Consider changing it to -look. The verb has five forms: base that the key point in each axis has a basic or neutral form and two
form, third-person singular present, simple past, present participle, possible marked forms, first signaling a time before the basic time axis
and past participle. For regular verbs, the simple past and the past and the second one signaling time after the basic time of that axis.
participle forms are the same while for irregular verbs, the simple past Furthermore, shifting tense from before the time axis to after the time
and present are usually different. In this instance the basic axis time is axis occurs on Master Thesis Abstract. 
the present, the base form of the verb -look must be correct in this However, there are many instances on the Master Thesis
context that corresponds to the moment of reference, and the Abstract use the past form of the modal (could, would, might) rather
deviations which use the simple past tense to run counter to that basic than the present form, (can, will, may) when what is expected is the
axis time as stated in Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1983). present form of the modal. Moreover, the past form of the verb and
In writing the master thesis abstract, the most used tenses are the present perfect is usually found in the part of the abstract. In
the present simple, the past simple, and the present perfect. (APA stating the objectives of the study tense of the verb may use the
7th edition) present and past form of the verb, In discussing the methods the past
simple tense of the verb may be used, this must be straightforward
and do not use the future tense of the verb as the study already
Example 4 completed, and on the result, the present or past simple tense of the
verb may be used, the most important findings of the study may
Furthermore, the researcher recommends to use the finding of this
include here, while present simple tense of the verb may be used in
study as basis for a similar academic endeavor. (ASS09/2018)
conclusion, lastly modal + verb is usually used to the part of abstract

This sentence shows that the verb use is usually in the gerund that states recommendation.

form when following the word -recommends. Consider replacing it with Likewise, Bautista (2000) asserts that in the Philippine context,

the -ing form to make the sentence correct. A gerund is a form of a this may be due to an attempt to sound more elegant or more official

verb, always ends in – ing, and always acts as a noun, when following or perhaps, more polite. Moreover, the use of the past form of the

a verb, a gerund or gerund phrase is the object of the verb, a subject modal to signal politeness or formal usage can be an emerging

complement, or the subject of an inverted sentence. Certain verbs are feature of Standard Philippine English. The consistency in staying

almost always followed by a gerund. Here, the sentence happens within one axis of time in the use of the present and past form of the

before the time axis, this must be in the progressive form of the verb. verb in Master Thesis Abstract may be a deficiency in performance or
maybe disclosing a pattern that is beginning to form a variety.

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 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH: Writing Guide to use frequent Philippine English
requires a quantifier to be pluralized. In this case, the mass noun was
PE5: Mass and Count Nouns being pluralized without the use of a quantifier.
Example 2
PE5 can be separated into individual units and counted. Mass
nouns and Coun Nouns can be both a singular and a plural form. This study is a non-experimental, quantitative research using
They are often used with some sort of quantifier, or quantity word, to descriptive correlational survey through Factor analysis. (AM03/2018)
show how they are counted. Most Philippine English nouns are count
nouns. Furthermore, Bautista (2000) stressed the distinction of Mass This sentence shows that the mass noun non-experimental is

nouns and count nouns in Philippine English to basic English preceded by the indefinite article. In this case, an indefinite article is

grammar. These nouns have implications for article choice, redundant when used with the uncountable noun research. The

agreement of subject and predicate, pluralization of noun forms, and uncountable noun may or not may use a determiner that includes a

agreement of quantifier and noun. Basic English grammar only deals definite article, possessive adjectives, possessive pronouns, and

with article usage and subject-verb agreement. quantifiers, but they do not use the indefinite article -a or – an. In this

. context, removing the article -a is appropriate in the sentence.

Example 1

For the teachers: consider to enhance teaching strategies on

how to unlock biological terms, conduct a workshop on the Example 3
improvisation of the equipments such as models of the human
anatomy, dissecting sets, and etc. (ABS34/2018) There were 351 student-respondent in public school of both
district. (AM33/2019)
This sentence shows that noun -equipments appears to be a
mass noun and should not be made plural. When referring to multiple This sentence shows the singular countable noun district follows

instances of an uncountable noun do not make the noun plural. the quantifier both, which requires a plural noun. A quantifier is a word

Instead, an expression is added before the noun to indicate the plural or phrase that tells us how much or how many. There are various

amount. This includes phrases such as pieces of, a bit of, and kinds types of words and phrases that can be quantifiers. This includes

of. This should be equipment because this word is a mass noun that numbers, adjectives, prepositions, pronouns, and other nouns with
prepositional phrases. When used with a countable noun, the noun
form must much the plural quantifier. In this context, consider using a

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 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH: Writing Guide to use frequent Philippine English
plural noun district or different quantifier. In this instance the where Standard Philippine English, together with other New
categories of deviation (mass noun converted to a collective noun, Englishes, can be comfortable in introducing innovation.
count noun given less/ many quantifiers)
Example 4 PE6: Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement.

; and conduct relevant trainings or workshops that center on PE6 is the agreement of the pronoun to its antecedent. To

developing effective instructional  understand one must first understand pronouns wherein a pronoun is

a word used to stand for or take the place of a noun, they come in
materials in teaching Economics to further help teachers in the
different forms depending on what they refer to and how they are
creation of innovative teaching aids. ( ASS35/2018)
used in the sentence, while an antecedent refers to another noun or
pronoun. It usually goes before the pronoun. Bautista (2000) stressed
This sentence shows that the word- trainings is an uncountable
the rule for pronoun and their antecedents to Philippine English as
noun and should not be plural. When referring to multiple instances of
straightforward: pronouns should agree with their antecedents in
an uncountable noun, do not make the noun plural. Instead,
number and gender. 
expressions are added before the noun to indicate the plural amount.
This includes phrases such as pieces of, a bit of, and kinds of.
Example 1
Consider changing the noun to training or add an expression to
indicate plural amount like pieces of training. Based on the findings, it was recommended that: students shall
Conversion of a mass noun to count nouns on the Master Theses challenge to strive more in learning Mathematics, participate and
abstract views the count noun and non- noun in a different way. In cooperate to discover his own gaps. (AM43/2019)
other words, the words that have already become count noun in
This sentence shows that the pronoun -his is in the wrong
Standard Philippine English, such as equipment are reclassified as
forum. Changing it to pronoun -their will make the sentence correct. A
referring to an item of equipment. Another reason for the
pronoun comes from a different form depending on what they prefer
reclassification is that some of the nouns on the list of deviations are
and how they are used in the sentence. In these instances, lack of
occasionally used as count nouns. Since the distinction between
agreement in number is violated here. Going from a plural antecedent
count and mass is gradually shifting in the established Englishes,
to a singular pronoun. Subject pronouns must be correct in this
Thus, as noted in Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1983) and
context instead of the possessive pronoun.
Swales and Feak (1994) cited by Bautista (2000), then this is an area

Example 2

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 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH: Writing Guide to use frequent Philippine English
The result, the researcher was able to devise a conceptual construct antecedent it may create confusion in writing, However, Bautista
which might serve as a basis for other corpus-based analyses. (2000) asserts that this kind of deviation is an error and should not
(AE16/2018) consider the feature of Philippine English. This means that making
This sentence shows the pronoun problem here. -Which may pronoun and the antecedent agree in all environments and context
replace a proper pronoun ---they to make the sentence correct. As should remain the rule in Standard Philippine English. If it remains in
mentioned above, it is given that a pronoun comes from a different the rule that is Standard Philippine English.
form depending on what they prefer and how they are used in the
sentence. In this instance lack of gender agreement. The violation, in
this case, involves gender, the researcher does not have identified
gender, so it misled the writer to put a proper pronoun here. The
American Psychological Association recently updated its publication
manual for its 7th edition. It is stated that “they” is a generic third-
person singular pronoun to refer to a person whose gender is
unknown or irrelevant to the context of the usage. In this context the
pronoun -they are in the correct form.

Example 3
Thus, they themselves experience and are still experiencing a change
in their culture and identity: (AM14/2018)
This sentence shows the intensive pronoun -themselves may
refer to the subject of the sentence or clause. Consider removing it to
make the sentence in a Pronoun- antecedent in agreement. The same
GLOSSARY
pronoun is called intensive pronoun when it is used only for emphasis
and does not change the meaning of the sentence. The intensive Grammatical error is a term used in prescriptive grammar to describe
pronoun is not a grammatical error, but it is often overused, In here an instance of faulty, unconventional, or controversial usage, such as
emphasis is unnecessary and redundant. a misplaced modifier or an inappropriate verb tense. Also called
The deviation in pronoun-antecedent agreement constitutes a usage error. Compare grammatical errors with correctness.( Richard
performance errors, when the pronoun does not agree to its Nordquist, 2020)

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