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Cebuano to English Translation

Translate Cebuano to English instantly, then check the result against a 403-entry phrasebook compiled by hand rather than generated by the tool.

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Cebuano phrases with English translations

403 entries across 24 categories, compiled from published references rather than generated by the tool above. This set is compiled from general reference and is awaiting confirmation from native speakers, which is why each entry carries a pending-review marker.

CebuanoEnglish
Maayong buntagGood morning
Maayong haponGood afternoon
Maayong gabiiGood evening
Maayong adlawGood day
Kumusta ka?How are you?
Maayo raI'm fine
Ayo-ayoGoodbye
SalamatThank you
Daghang salamatThank you very much
Walay sapayanYou're welcome
All 403 phrases

How Cebuano and English differ

Cebuano is an Austronesian language of the Central Philippine group, spoken mainly in Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental. English is Indo-European. The two share no ancestry at all, and what they do share is three centuries of contact: English is co-official in the Philippines, so Cebuano carries a thick layer of English borrowings on top of an older Spanish one.

There is no question of mutual intelligibility here — the languages are unrelated. What matters instead is that English is the pivot: this translator, like most, routes Cebuano through English internally. That makes Cebuano↔English the strongest direction available for this language, and it is why translating Cebuano into another Philippine language is measurably worse than translating it into English.

Cebuano is the largest Bisayan language and the lingua franca of most of Mindanao, so a great deal of what is loosely called 'Bisaya' online is Cebuano specifically.

Machine translation across Philippine languages fails in patterns rather than at random. We wrote up what those patterns are and why they happen, measured against Ilocano.

How accurate is it?

Cebuano to English is the best-supported kind of direction this tool offers, because English is what the engine pivots through. That does not make it reliable — it makes it the least unreliable option for this language.

We ran all 403 translatable entries in this phrasebook through the translator above and compared each against the human-written English. It matched or came close 45.2% of the time.

The reverse direction is not equivalent. Cebuano → English scored 45.2% and English → Cebuano scored 53.6% — a gap of 8.4 points on the same phrase set, so the other direction is the one to trust more.

Full results, category by category

Common questions

Is Cebuano the same as English?
Cebuano is an Austronesian language of the Central Philippine group, spoken mainly in Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental. English is Indo-European. The two share no ancestry at all, and what they do share is three centuries of contact: English is co-official in the Philippines, so Cebuano carries a thick layer of English borrowings on top of an older Spanish one.
Can a Cebuano speaker understand English?
There is no question of mutual intelligibility here — the languages are unrelated. What matters instead is that English is the pivot: this translator, like most, routes Cebuano through English internally. That makes Cebuano↔English the strongest direction available for this language, and it is why translating Cebuano into another Philippine language is measurably worse than translating it into English.
How accurate is Cebuano to English translation?
We measured it rather than guessing. Running all 403 translatable entries in our Cebuano–English phrasebook through this tool, the machine output matched or closely matched the human-written English 45.2% of the time. It is weakest on everyday verbs (0%) and strongest on months (92%). The direction matters too: English → Cebuano scored 53.6%, a gap of 8.4 points. Treat it as a helpful draft, not a finished translation.
How many people speak Cebuano?
The 2020 Philippine census recorded Cebuano as the language generally spoken at home in about 1.72 million households, and 8.0% of the household population identified as ethnically Cebuano. PSA counts 'Cebuano' and 'Bisaya/Binisaya' as separate census categories, so the true Cebuano-speaking total is higher than the Cebuano row alone. Figures elsewhere claiming far larger totals for these languages are generally not supported by census data.
Can I translate English to Cebuano as well?
Yes — use the English to Cebuano page, or press the swap button above the text box. We measured both: Cebuano → English scored 45.2% and English → Cebuano scored 53.6%. That is a real gap, so the reverse direction is actually the more reliable of the two.
Is it free, and are there limits?
It is free with no account required. A single translation is capped at 5,000 characters, and there is a rate limit to keep the service available for everyone. There is no limit on how many translations you can do overall.

Related translators

Who maintains this

Compiled and maintained by John Smith. Last checked .

I compile Philippine-language phrase data from published references, check it against multiple sources, and measure the machine translation on this site rather than making claims about it. I am not a linguist. Entries I have not been able to confirm are marked as pending review rather than presented as verified.

No native Cebuano speaker has reviewed this data yet. 403 phrasebook entries are marked pending review. See the phrasebook and its sources.

Translations are produced by a general-purpose machine translation engine and are not a substitute for a professional translator.