Social media users were amused when Liza Soberano corrected Enrique Gil in the comments section of an Instagram post that featured her playing Christine in their upcoming romantic film “Alone/Together.”
Gil shared a picture of his love team partner in front of a food stand in the University of the Philippines, one of the settings of the film, and wrote a caption as his character.
While their followers gushed about his sweet caption, there were those who noticed that Soberano corrected a part of Gil’s caption by replying in the comments.
She pointed out that “pako” should be spelled as “pa ‘ko” and accompanied her reply with cat emojis.
Another Instagram user explained Soberano’s comment and mentioned that “pako” can have a different meaning if spelled that way.
@jsettloves wrote: “kinorect nya po si quen. instead of ‘PAKO’ dapat po kse ‘PA KO’ dapat yun iba na kse meaning pag pinagtabi ang PA saka KO”
“Pako” is a Filipino word for “nail.”
Social media users admired her attention to detail while others claimed that the actress might have been “method acting.”
Both star in “Alone/Together,” a film that tells the story of Raf (Gil) and Christine (Soberano) who meet each other eight years after their paths crossed in college.
Christine graduated magna cum laude from the Art Studies program of UP Diliman. She dreams of becoming a museum director of The Louvre or The Met.
Raf took up Biology in the University of Santo Tomas and his only ambition is to graduate.
The case of ‘pa ‘ko’
“Pa ‘ko” (pa ako) is one of the words in the Filipino language that is usually spelled incorrectly as a single word. Others are “na ‘ko” (na ako) and “sa ‘yo” (sa iyo), to name a few.
In some Filipino words, apostrophes are needed to be placed when it is written as this distinguishes the two words that are contracted.
Apostrophe is a punctuation mark that usually indicates one or more letters are omitted in a certain word when it undergoes contraction.
This is apart from the punctuation mark’s common function where it is indicative of a possessive case in nouns (i.e. dog’s tail, cat’s fur).
The word “pa ‘ko” is marked with a punctuation mark to indicate the separation of “pa” from “ako” or “’ko.’”
While Gil in the caption meant “pa ako,” his way of spelling had suggested another meaning.
There are other Filipino words that use an apostrophe and omit letters when it is contracted. Examples are “’to” (ito), “’di” (hindi), “ika’y” (ikaw ay), “tayo’y” (tayo ay), “sila’y” (sila ay) and “ano’ng” (ano ang), to name a few.