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The Little Prince By Antoine De Saint-Exupéry Is Now Available In Chabacano!

While Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) written by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry in 1943 now has over 300 translations in different languages worldwide and is now considered the world’s most translated book (not counting religious works), there have been surprisingly only two translations of his book in the Philippines (Filipino and Bicol). El Diutay Principe is only the third edition featuring a Philippine language. The Little Prince is a classic French novella about a pilot who gets stranded in the desert after a plane crash and encounters a little fellow who asks him to draw a sheep for him. Through the course of their meeting, the pilot rediscovers the true meaning of life and what people should value the most. When I came across the book in 2013, I found that I could relate very well to the negative image given to “growing up” in the book. When the idea to translate the book into my mother tongue was presented to me, I didn’t think twice. I thought, ‘a lot of people my ...
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When to Use Pensaba and Ya Pensa in Chabacano



It may be baffling to some when to use pensaba and when to use ya pensa. I imagine it would be difficult especially for Spanish speakers trying to learn Chabacano. But if you speak Tagalog, here's a tip that will greatly help you understand the difference between these two Chabacano words. The equivalent of pensaba in Tagalog is akala while ya pensa is the same as nagisip. In other words, pensaba is used when assuming that something was a fact and later on (implicitly) finding out otherwise. Meanwhile, ya pensa is used to refer to the literal act of thinking. In some cases, you can use ya pensa instead of pensaba when choosing to empasize the act of thinking. Just like in Tagalog, instead of saying akala ko namatay ka na, you may choose to say inisip ko na namatay ka na. The former might sound more correct, though.

Here are some examples using pensaba and ya pensa:

Chabacano: Pensaba yo muerto ya tu.
English: I thought you died already.

Chabacano: Ya pensa-pensa anay yo.
English: I had to think it over.

Chabacano: Pensaba yo ya sale ya tu.
English: I thought you had left already.

Chabacano: Ya pensa yo hondo.
English: I thought hard about it.
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