Why do you spell 'Philippines' but 'Filippinos'?

The rule does not always follow.

For example, people from the Netherlands are called Dutch.

In the case of The Philippines, the original name is spanish: "las islas filipinas". The people living in it were filipinos.

When the americans arrived, they translated it to english which was "The Philippine Islands", which later became "The Philippines". This is largely because the traditional translation of "Felipe" is "Philippe".

However, the "filipino" name for the people was kept.

It was further translated to the Filipino language which yielded "Pilipinas" for the Philippines, and Pilipino for Filipino

So the result was: (English / Spanish / Filipino )

Place name: "The Philippines" / "Las Filipinas" / "Ang Pilipinas"

People: "Filipinos" / "Filipinos" / "Pilipino"

Because Philippines represent the country and it's in english. Double p as well because the name of Philippe until today in the west is always double p. Got replaced with F to represent the people though pilipino alphabeth never had an F. But to highligh the PH which the equivalent in spanish language is F so in advance academy of language of the country they decided after centuries of argument to adapt the "F"ilipino for the citizens, and Ph for the country. It was the issue before I graduated.

@ Actually, the King who gave his name to the Philippines that time was living in Belgium when the Spanish was active over Europe. In fladers with the influence of the Dutch Philippe has never been an "F". If you go to Spain of course it should be an "F" but in northern Europe starting in France, "PH" pronounciation or writing will always be a "PH", besides i doubt if spanish alphabeth has ph, but F

My guess is that The Philippine Islands is the English way of spelling it.

The Spanish way was Las Islas Filipinas after King Felipe.

I assume the Tagalog way of spelling it would be with an F instead of PH. Like Filipinos and Filipinas.

Your government probably could change it to Tagalog speling if it so choose to do it. I guess they are content with the English spelling.

English can be complicated. Remember at school trying to figure out Psychology and Psychiatrist thinking why is it spelt psy when you say ---sy. Where does the P come in to it. Or the --ch-- when it sounds like K . So its just another quirk of the English language.Just to be picky the last syllable of Philippines, Pines-- is spoken as Peeens , not Pines. That alone is also a quirk in the name of the country.

I suppose, you could hardly traces the link with spanish language between a masculine singular nous Filipino and the feminine singular nous Filipina here....

The word PHILIPPINES indicates the name of country while FILIPINOS is what you called the living human in that territory. Never confused, PHILIPPINES (Country), FILIPINOS - PINOY (Person who lived), FILIPINO - TAGALOG (Language).

I also noticed those with missing teeth have a problem pronouncing the 'P' and the 'F'. LOL

It's actually "Failippines" and "Failipinos".