How to Speak Pig Latin

by WhileTrue

Introduction

Pig Latin is the most popular and widely spoken language game in the English speaking world. The object of Pig Latin is to keep outsiders from understanding a certain group's conversation.

This page aims to teach Pig Latin the way I understand it. It teaches the basic rules, as well as additional notes.

The Basic Rules

1. Find the onset of the word. The onset is the consonant or group of consonants at the beginning of a word. The onset of the words below are underlined:

pig

train

street

If the word start with a vowel, leave the word as it is until step 3.

2. Move the onset to the end of the word.

igp

aintr

eetstr

3. Add ay to the end of the word.

igpay

aintray

eetstray

If the word begins with a vowel, simply add way to the end. (Other suffixes for words beginning with a vowel include -ay and -yay, but this is the way I learned it.)

eggway

Notes

1. Correctly translate words with qu. For these words, the qu is or is part of the onset because the u here makes a w sound, despite being a vowel letter.

queen -> eenquay, NOT ueenqay

square -> aresquay, NOT uaresqay

2. Know how to differentiate consonant y and vowel y. Note the difference in the sound y makes in the following words:

Consonant: yellow

Vowel: loudly, gym, style

3. You may optionally split up compound words. A compound word is two words put into a single word, e.g. toothbrush. These may optionally be split up and translated as separate words.

toothbrush -> oothtay ushbray OR oothbrushtay