Pig Latin is primarily used by English-speaking people. The rules are pretty simple, but you need to practice to get good at it. It is better if you can practice with a friend…afterall, it is a form of communication and it takes at least two to achieve.
Basic Rules
All words begin with a vowel and end with “ay.” There are a few variations, which will be explained later.
Words beginning with one or more consonants are changed so that the first vowel is the first letter of the word and the consonant or consonants that were originally at the beginning of the word are moved to the end of the word and followed by “ay.” For example:
- Pig Latin becomes Ig-pay Atin-lay (you can also write it as Igpay Atinlay)
- Keeper become Eeper-kay
- The becomes E-thay
- Float becomes Oat-flay
Words beginning with one or more vowels are changed more simply….”way” is added to the end of the word in standard Pig Latin. For example:
- Adventure becomes Adventure-way
- Eight becomes Eight-way
- Art becomes Art-way
The letter “y” can be either a consonant or vowel, depending on where it is. For example:
- Yarn becomes Arn-way
- Rhythm becomes Ythm-rhay
Closed form compound words where two words are melded together to form a word, such as firefly, softball, and notebook. Closed form compound words can work better in Pig Latin if the words are split up, so the word is less understandable to a non-Pig Latin speaker/listener. For example:
- Firefly becomes Ire-fay Y-flay rather than Irefly-fay (although that one is fun to say either way)
- Softball becomes Oft-say All-bay
- Notebook become Ote-nay Ook-bay
Variations
There are a few variations, especially in how words beginning with vowels are formed. Three common variations to adding “way” to the end of a word are:
- Adding “yay” to the end of the word. For example, otter would become otter-yay, rather than otter-way.
- Adding “ay” to the end of the word. For example, orangutan would become orangutan-ay.
- Adding a “w” or “h” or “y” to the beginning of a word beginning with a vowel and adding “ay” to the end of the word. For example, apple becomes either wapple-ay, happle-ay, or yapple-ay.
More Examples:
Lost in the Adventure becomes Ost-lay in-way e-thay Adventure-way.
How are you? becomes Ow-hay are-way ou-yay?
Let’s thumb-wrestle for it becomes Et’s-lay umb-thay estle-wray or-fay it-way.
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