What Filipino means and which setting to use
Filipino is the national language of the Philippines and one of its two official languages, alongside English. It grew out of Tagalog, the language of Manila and the surrounding provinces, and earlier went by the name Pilipino. Today it is the language of national TV news, schoolbooks, government notices and most conversations between Filipinos from different regions.
The speech model lists it under Tagalog, code tl. This page preselects that option. Filipino and Tagalog recordings both belong there, so you do not need to choose between them.
The modern Filipino alphabet has 28 letters, adding c, f, j, ñ, q, v, x and z to the older Abakada set. That is why you will see both Pilipinas and Filipinas, or pamilya next to newer spellings of English loans. The transcript uses the Latin alphabet throughout and does not output Baybayin.
Filipino spoken outside Manila
Many people speak Filipino as a second language. A speaker who grew up with Cebuano, Ilocano or Hiligaynon often talks in Filipino with their home accent and a few words from that language. The draft will still follow, but expect more corrections than with a Manila-born speaker, mainly in vowels and in words borrowed from the regional language.
If the speaker switches fully into Cebuano or another regional language for long stretches, those parts will not transcribe reliably, because those languages are not in the list. Note the timestamps and fill those parts in by hand.
Formal Filipino, like a news report, a homily or a lecture at a state university, usually gives a cleaner draft than fast talk among friends. Recording quality matters more than register, though. Keep the microphone close and the radio off.
Numbers, time and money in Filipino speech
Filipinos rarely count in native Filipino words in daily life. Amounts, prices and times are usually said in English or in Spanish-derived words. The transcript writes what it hears, so plan to check these during review.
- Time is often said with Spanish forms, such as alas tres for three o'clock or alas siyete y medya. These may appear as words rather than digits.
- Prices can switch between English (two hundred pesos), Spanish-derived (singkwenta) and native forms (limampu) in one call.
- Dates, phone numbers and account numbers said in English may come out as digits or words. Compare every number you plan to rely on.
- Respectful forms like po and opo are short and easy to drop. Listen for them if tone and politeness matter in your transcript.
What people upload in Filipino
Common files are voice messages and video calls between overseas Filipino workers and their families, community and church events abroad, interviews with Filipino nurses, seafarers and caregivers for research, local government or barangay meetings, and vlogs that need Filipino subtitles. WhatsApp and Messenger voice notes can be saved and uploaded as they are, and you can paste a YouTube or TikTok link instead of a file.
For research interviews, keep timestamps on in the DOCX export so you can return to the exact moment of a quote. For a vlog, export SRT or VTT.
Editing and sharing the transcript
The transcript is a draft. Filipino has less training data than English, so read the whole text with the player running. Click any line to hear it again and correct the word in place. Exports come in TXT, DOCX, PDF, SRT, VTT and CSV. Speaker labels are on paid plans or with a Minute Pack.
RocketScribe keeps the text in Filipino and does not translate it. Use the Google Translate link on the transcript to read it in English, or the AI prompt export to ask an AI assistant for a summary. Your files are never used to train AI models.