If you grew up using English at school and at work in the Philippines or Nigeria, CELPIP Speaking can still stall at 7, and the reason is rarely your English. CELPIP’s podcast says an accent does not automatically lower a Speaking score. The habits that do cost marks fall into three groups. A few sounds change words: p and f, b and v for many Filipino speakers; merged vowels and th for many Nigerian speakers. Pace: fast, even speech hides the words that matter, and CELPIP itself warns against it. And fit with the task: answers that stop with time left, long formal openings, and home idioms a rater in Canada may not know. This page takes each habit in turn with the CELPIP dimension it touches, the fix and a drill, and ends with two worked examples written by TalkDrill. CELPIP publishes no results by first language or nationality, so these are tendencies widely described for Philippine English and Nigerian English, not statistics, and not every speaker has every habit.
The honest picture: your English is not the problem, the format is
English is an official language in both the Philippines and Nigeria, and most candidates from either country have studied in it for years. CELPIP does not test whether you know English. It tests whether, in 15 minutes and eight tasks, you can do what each everyday situation asks, recorded on a computer and rated later by three to five raters who are resident in Canada, per celpip.ca’s Results page. The four dimensions and their official factors:
| Dimension | CELPIP’s factors | Where Filipino and Nigerian candidates tend to lose marks |
|---|---|---|
| Content/Coherence | Number, quality and organisation of ideas; examples and supporting details | Ideas said once, not developed; long greetings that carry no idea |
| Vocabulary | Word choice; precision and accuracy; range; suitable use | Home words a Canadian listener may not know: comfort room, brownout, next tomorrow, go-slow |
| Listenability | Rhythm, pronunciation and intonation; pauses, interjections and self-correction; grammar and sentence structure; variety of sentence structure | p and f, b and v; merged vowels; th; fast, even rhythm; Taglish fillers |
| Task Fulfillment | Relevance, completeness, tone, length | Answers that stop early; ma’am and sir with a friend; letter-style formality |
The right-hand column is TalkDrill’s judgement, not CELPIP data. Two official statements set the priorities: CELPIP’s podcast (episode 24) says having an accent does not automatically lower your Speaking score, and CELPIP’s 2020 speaking tips post says: “Unless your accent prevents you from being understood, do not focus on it. Instead, concentrate on using good grammar, accurate and varied vocabulary.” The test room matters too. You may hear other candidates speaking or typing, which celpip.ca’s test-day page calls a standard test room condition, and the podcast warns against answering almost in a whisper. Practise at phone-call volume. The scoring page explains the four dimensions in detail.
The habits at a glance
| # | Habit | Example | Most often in | Dimension |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | p for f, b for v | “pan” for fan, “bery” for very | Tagalog, Cebuano | Listenability |
| 2 | s for sh and z; long and short vowels merged | “sip” for ship; ship and sheep alike | Tagalog, Cebuano | Listenability |
| 3 | i and e, o and u swapped | pin for pen, boot for boat | Some Visayan speakers | Listenability |
| 4 | Answers that stop with time left | Three sentences, then silence | Filipino candidates especially | Task Fulfillment, Content |
| 5 | po, ma’am, sir and Taglish fillers | “Yes ma’am”, “ano”, “kasi”, “diba” | Tagalog | Task Fulfillment, Listenability |
| 6 | Philippine English words | comfort room, open the light, brownout | Filipino | Vocabulary |
| 7 | Vowel merges | ship and sheep, full and fool, cut and cot | Nigerian English | Listenability |
| 8 | th as t or d | “tink”, “dis” | Nigerian English (and Filipino) | Listenability |
| 9 | Even, syllable-timed rhythm | Every syllable equally strong | Nigerian English (and Filipino) | Listenability |
| 10 | Sounds from Hausa or Yoruba | p and f swapped; “hate” for eight | Some Hausa and Yoruba speakers | Listenability |
| 11 | Long formal openings, letter-style register | “I trust this finds you well” | Nigerian candidates especially | Task Fulfillment, Content |
| 12 | Nigerian English idioms | next tomorrow, go-slow, off the light | Nigerian | Vocabulary |
| 13 | Speed | Fast bursts to sound fluent | Both | Listenability |
Filipino and Cebuano speakers: the sounds
1. p for f, b for v
Why it happens. The native sound system of Tagalog, and of Cebuano and the other Visayan languages, has no f or v; the letters entered the Filipino alphabet for borrowed words. Many speakers say p for f and b for v, so “fan” sounds like “pan” and “very” like “berry”. Why it matters. Most of the time context saves you, but fan and pan, fine and pine, vote and boat, van and ban are real pairs, and the habit appears in common words like “family”, “five”, “very” and “have”. Fix. For both f and v, rest your top teeth on your lower lip. Blow for f; buzz for v. Never close your lips. Drill on our p, f, b and v passage.
2. s for sh and z, and merged vowel length
Tagalog also lacks native sh, z and th, so “ship” can become “sip”, “zoo” becomes “soo”, and “think” becomes “tink”. Tagalog has five vowels without the long and short pairs of English, so ship and sheep, live and leave, full and fool can sound the same. Fix. For sh, round your lips and pull the tongue back from the s position. For z, hum through an s. For long and short vowels, the short i and long ee drill trains the difference; the minimal pairs page has more lists.
3. i and e, o and u (some Visayan speakers)
Cebuano and other Visayan languages traditionally have three vowel sounds, so some speakers swap i and e in English (“pin” for pen, “bed” for bid) and o and u in the same way (“boot” for boat). If your family speaks Bisaya, record “pen, pin, bed, bid, boat, boot” and check. If you hear no swap, skip this one.
Filipino speakers: short answers, po and ma’am, Taglish and home words
4. Answers that stop with time left
A short, modest answer can feel polite. In CELPIP it loses marks: length and completeness are two of the four Task Fulfillment factors, and Content/Coherence counts the number and development of ideas. CELPIP’s analysis of its own Level 9 sample, on the Score Comparison Chart, praises several supporting reasons and an answer extended “with fewer pauses”. Fix. Give each idea a reason and a short example, and keep a closing move in reserve: a question back to the listener, a promise, or what you learned. In Task 2, use a five-part arc: when and where, the problem, what you did, how you felt, what changed.
5. po, ma’am, sir and Taglish fillers
“Po” and repeated “ma’am” or “sir” are respectful in the Philippines. In Canada, with a friend or a neighbour, they sound distant, and with a manager they can sound subordinate rather than polite. CELPIP’s Level 9 descriptor asks you to adjust your tone to “a range of audiences and situations”, including peers and authority figures; first names and a well-built request do that better than titles. Fillers such as “ano”, “kasi”, “diba” and “parang” count as interjections, which CELPIP names under Listenability, and a Canadian rater cannot credit them as English. Replace them with “so”, “well” or a short silent pause.
6. Philippine English words
Philippine English is a full variety of English, and nothing in CELPIP marks it down as such. The risk is precision: a rater in Canada may pause at a word that is normal in Manila or Cebu.
| You might say | A Canadian listener expects |
|---|---|
| the comfort room, the CR | the washroom |
| open the light, close the light | turn on the light, turn off the light |
| wait for a while (on the phone) | just a moment, hold on a second |
| there was a brownout | there was a power outage |
| the ref | the fridge |
| I’ll bring you to the airport | I’ll take you to the airport, I’ll drive you |
| I ate already | I’ve already eaten |
Nigerian English speakers: vowels, th and rhythm
7. Vowel merges
Nigerian English is usually described as having fewer vowel contrasts than Canadian English. Common merges: ship and sheep, full and fool; the vowel in “cut” said like the one in “cot”; the vowel in “bird” and “work” said with an open e or a, so “work” can sound like “walk” or “wok”; and full vowels, following the spelling, where Canadian English uses the weak schwa. Why it matters. Each merge on its own is understood from context. Several together, at speed, make the listener work, and that is a Listenability matter. Fix. Start with the two pairs that occur most in CELPIP answers: ship and sheep (live, leave; fill, feel) and work and walk. The short i and long ee drill and the schwa guide help; the schwa guide is written for Indian speakers, but the weak-vowel drill is the same.
8. th as t or d
Many Nigerian speakers, and many Filipino speakers, say th as t or d: “tink”, “tree” for three, “dis”, “dey”. Small words like “the”, “this” and “that” are so frequent that a habit here shows in every sentence. Put the tongue tip lightly between the teeth and push air; add voice for this and they. Drill with the voiceless th and voiced th passages.
9. Even, syllable-timed rhythm
Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa are tone languages, and Nigerian English is generally syllable-timed: each syllable gets similar length and weight, and small words like “to”, “for” and “and” keep their full vowels. English listeners in Canada find the key words by their stress, so even rhythm hides them. Fix. One strong syllable per content word, weak small words, and a falling voice at the end of each statement. The word stress guide and the intonation patterns guide show the shapes.
10. Sounds from Hausa or Yoruba
Two smaller habits apply only to some speakers. Some first-language Hausa speakers swap p and f (“pood” for food, “fen” for pen). Some Yoruba speakers add or drop h at the start of words, so “eight” and “hate”, “air” and “hair” can swap. Record a list of each pair; if you hear no swap, skip it.
Nigerian English speakers: long openings, formal register and home idioms
11. Long formal openings and letter-style register
Formal greetings are a mark of respect in Nigerian English, and some candidates open a CELPIP task the way they would open a formal letter: “Good day, my dear friend, I trust this message finds you and your family in good health.” It uses up the first seconds, adds no idea, and sounds out of place with a neighbour. Phrases such as “I wish to bring to your notice”, “my humble self” and “I hope you understand my plight” have the same effect in speech. CELPIP’s Level 9 descriptor asks you to adjust style and tone to the audience; with a friend or neighbour in Canada that means short, warm and direct, with politeness carried by the request: “Would it be possible to…?”, “Could you…?”.
12. Nigerian English idioms
| You might say | A Canadian listener expects |
|---|---|
| next tomorrow | the day after tomorrow |
| I’m coming (when leaving for a moment) | I’ll be right back |
| there was a go-slow | there was a traffic jam |
| off the light, on the light | turn off the light, turn on the light |
| flash me | give me a call, send me a text |
| the meeting will hold on Monday | the meeting will take place on Monday |
| I resume work by six | I start work at six |
Two habits both groups share: pace and the person in the prompt
13. Speed
Confident English speakers often speak fast to sound fluent. CELPIP’s 15 October 2026 post on moving from Level 7 to 9 is direct: “Your goal is to make your ideas easy to understand, not to speak as quickly as possible.” Fast speech also merges the vowels and drops the final consonants above, and leaves you with time on the clock and nothing left to say. Fix. Chunks of four to six words with a short pause between them, and a fall at each full stop.
The person in the prompt
Every CELPIP Speaking task names a situation and usually a person: a friend, a neighbour, a colleague, a manager. Relevance and tone are Task Fulfillment factors, so speak to that person from your first sentence, by name if the prompt gives one, about their problem. A general speech about the topic, however correct, misses what the task asks. The tasks page shows the opening move for each of the eight tasks, and our CELPIP Speaking guide gives the overview.
Worked examples: one Filipino and one Nigerian answer, before and after
All four versions were written by TalkDrill to show the habits on this page. They are not real candidates or official CELPIP material, and we do not attach a level to them.
Prompt 1 (TalkDrill-written, Task 2 style)
Talk about a time you helped a neighbour with a problem. Describe what happened and how you felt.
Before
“Yes ma’am, one time I helped my neighbour. She is old already. Her ref is broken so I helped her. I called my cousin, he is a technician. Then it was fixed. She was happy. That’s all po, thank you.”
After
“One winter in Winnipeg, my neighbour, Mrs Thompson, knocked on my door late on a Sunday evening. She’s in her eighties and lives alone, and her fridge had stopped working. All her food for the week was inside, and the stores were already closed. I went over, checked the plug and the breaker, and when that didn’t help, I called my cousin, who repairs appliances. He talked me through resetting the thermostat at the back, and twenty minutes later it was humming again. While we waited, we moved her milk and meat into my fridge, and she told me about her late husband, who used to fix everything himself. What stayed with me was how relieved she was, not about the food, but about not having to call a stranger. Since then I check on her every Sunday.”
Prompt 2 (TalkDrill-written, Task 6 style)
Your upstairs neighbour, Mark, plays loud music late on weeknights, and you start work early. You could complain to the building manager or speak to Mark yourself. You have decided to speak to Mark. Explain your decision to him and what you would like.
Before
“Good evening my dear neighbour, I trust you are doing well and your family is fine. I am coming to see you because of this noise matter. I did not want to report you to the manager. Please, you need to off the music by ten, because I resume work by six and I cannot be sleeping with this noise. It is not fair at all. I hope you understand my plight.”
After
“Hi Mark, sorry to knock this late. Have you got a minute? It’s about the music in the evenings. I could have gone to the building manager, but I’d much rather sort it out with you directly. I don’t mind the music during the day at all, but my shifts start at six, so after ten it’s been keeping me up. Would it be possible to turn it down after ten on weeknights? Weekends are a different story; I’m not trying to spoil anyone’s fun. And if it ever does get loud while I’m asleep, could I just text you instead of knocking? That way neither of us has to involve the manager.”
| Change | Habit fixed | Dimension |
|---|---|---|
| Prompt 1: a setting, a problem, what you did, a feeling and what changed, instead of six short facts | Answer that stops early | Task Fulfillment (length, completeness), Content/Coherence |
| Prompt 1: no “Yes ma’am” or “po”; the answer starts with the story | Titles and particles | Task Fulfillment (tone) |
| Prompt 1: fridge, appliances, breaker, thermostat instead of ref and broken | Philippine English words; general words | Vocabulary |
| Prompt 2: “Hi Mark, sorry to knock this late” instead of a formal greeting | Letter-style opening | Task Fulfillment (tone, relevance) |
| Prompt 2: “turn it down”, “my shifts start at six” instead of “off the music”, “I resume work by six” | Nigerian English idioms | Vocabulary |
| Prompt 2: the decision (“I’d much rather sort it out with you directly”) said plainly, instead of “I did not want to report you” | Decision left implicit | Content/Coherence, Task Fulfillment |
| Prompt 2: a request, a concession and a fallback instead of “you need to” and “it is not fair” | Directness and register | Task Fulfillment (tone), Content/Coherence |
Read each After version aloud at a calm pace, with every f, v and th correct and a fall at each full stop. Then run the same two situations in role-play practice, with the AI playing Mrs Thompson and Mark.
Drills, ten minutes a day
Pick the drills that match your own recording. Two minutes each, aloud, then one recorded CELPIP task where you listen only for that habit. Lines are written by TalkDrill.
- f and v (Filipino speakers, 2 min). Pairs: fan, pan; fine, pine; very, berry; vote, boat; van, ban. Then: “Five very friendly visitors found the van at the far end of the field.”
- Long and short vowels (both groups, 2 min). Pairs: ship, sheep; live, leave; fill, feel; full, fool; pull, pool; work, walk. Then: “We will leave the ship and live by the sea, so I feel it is the full deal.”
- th (both groups, 2 min). Pairs: three, tree; thin, tin; think, tink; they, day; those, doze. Then: “I think these three things are worth the extra thought.”
- Pace (both groups, 2 min). Read the Mark answer above at your normal speed and time it. Read it again with a pause at every comma and full stop and a fall at each full stop. Keep the second version, even though it is slower; it is the one a rater can follow.
- Home words (2 min). Say the Canadian version from each table above three times, then use three of them in a recorded Task 1 or Task 6.
For the sounds, read-aloud practice records you and plays it back. For length, tone and register, role-play practice lets the AI play the person in the prompt. The 30-day plan puts these drills in week 2, and the practice bank gives you prompts for all eight tasks.
Booking in Manila, Bacolod, Lagos, Abuja or Dubai
CELPIP sets its fee by country and charges per sitting. On 21 October 2026, celpip.ca’s country date tables listed the following; the live test date finder is the authority on the day you book.
| Country | Fee listed | Centres in the listing we read | ID accepted (test-day page) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Philippines | PHP 10,000 | Manila, Bacolod | Passport booklet or refugee travel document |
| Nigeria | NGN 229,000 | Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, Port Harcourt | Passport booklet or refugee travel document |
| UAE | AED 1,100 to AED 1,200, by date | Dubai | Passport booklet, refugee travel document or Emirates ID |
The policies on celpip.ca’s overview page apply everywhere: arrive 45 minutes early, because check-in closes 15 minutes before the start; cancel at least seven calendar days before for a 50 per cent refund; transfer at least seven days before for CAD 50 plus tax; and register for no more than one sitting in any five calendar days. Results appear online in 2 to 4 business days as a PDF score report. If you already live in Canada and are applying for citizenship, you take CELPIP-General LS, and IRCC’s citizenship language page asks applicants aged 18 to 54 for CLB 4 in speaking and listening. The fees page and the dates and centres page have the step-by-step booking guide.