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Cebuano to Waray Translation

Translate Cebuano to Waray instantly, then check the result against a 380-entry phrasebook compiled by hand rather than generated by the tool.

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Cebuano phrases with Waray translations

380 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.

CebuanoWarayEnglish
Maayong buntagMaupay nga agaGood morning
Maayong haponMaupay nga kulopGood afternoon
Maayong gabiiMaupay nga gab-iGood evening
Maayong adlawMaupay nga adlawGood day
Kumusta ka?Kumusta ka?How are you?
Maayo raMaupay manI'm fine
Ayo-ayoPag-ihaGoodbye
SalamatSalamatThank you
Daghang salamatDamo nga salamatThank you very much
Walay sapayanWaray sapayanYou're welcome
All 380 phrases

How Cebuano and Waray differ

Cebuano and Waray are both Bisayan languages within the Central Philippine group — the closest relationship any two languages on this site have. They share grammar, sentence structure and a large part of their core vocabulary, and where they differ they usually differ predictably.

Partly. Both are Bisayan and share grammar and a good deal of vocabulary, but Waray's systematic sound shifts and its own core words — maupay for good, bulig for help, busag for white, bunay for egg — mean a Cebuano speaker follows the shape of a Waray sentence while missing the content words. Comprehension is better than between Cebuano and Tagalog, and well short of conversation.

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. Waray runs a systematic s→h shift against its Bisayan neighbours — sin-o becomes hin-o, sarili becomes kalugaringon — which is the quickest way to tell written Waray from Hiligaynon.

Words that exist in both languages and mean different things

These are where confident readers get caught, and where the translator above is least reliable — a word it does not recognise is passed through unchanged, which can land in the other language as a real word with an unrelated meaning.

  • salog

    Cebuano: A floor.

    Waray: A river.

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?

Neither Cebuano nor Waray is a well-resourced language, and there is very little direct training data between them. The engine translates through English internally, so every result here is two translations stacked on top of each other, and the errors of the first are carried into the second.

We ran all 287 translatable entries in this phrasebook through the translator above and compared each against the human-written Waray. It matched or came close 53.3% of the time.

The reverse direction is not equivalent. Cebuano → Waray scored 53.3% and Waray → Cebuano scored 58.5% — a gap of 5.2 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 Waray?
Cebuano and Waray are both Bisayan languages within the Central Philippine group — the closest relationship any two languages on this site have. They share grammar, sentence structure and a large part of their core vocabulary, and where they differ they usually differ predictably.
Can a Cebuano speaker understand Waray?
Partly. Both are Bisayan and share grammar and a good deal of vocabulary, but Waray's systematic sound shifts and its own core words — maupay for good, bulig for help, busag for white, bunay for egg — mean a Cebuano speaker follows the shape of a Waray sentence while missing the content words. Comprehension is better than between Cebuano and Tagalog, and well short of conversation.
How accurate is Cebuano to Waray translation?
We measured it rather than guessing. Running all 287 translatable entries in our Cebuano–Waray phrasebook through this tool, the machine output matched or closely matched the human-written Waray 53.3% of the time. It is weakest on directions (15%) and strongest on the body (83%). The direction matters too: Waray → Cebuano scored 58.5%, a gap of 5.2 points. Treat it as a helpful draft, not a finished translation.
Why did the translation come back exactly the same as what I typed?
Usually because the engine did not recognise the word and echoed your input rather than failing visibly. But check before assuming it is broken: 181 of the entries in our Cebuano–Waray phrase data are genuinely spelled the same in both languages, including Kumusta ka? (how are you?), Salamat (thank you), Oo (yes), Usa (one). Unchanged output is not automatically wrong for this pair.
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 Waray to Cebuano as well?
Yes — use the Waray to Cebuano page, or press the swap button above the text box. We measured both: Cebuano → Waray scored 53.3% and Waray → Cebuano scored 58.5%. 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. 380 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.