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Ilocano to Cebuano Translation

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

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Ilocano phrases with Cebuano 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.

IlocanoCebuanoEnglish
Naimbag a bigatMaayong buntagGood morning
Naimbag a malemMaayong haponGood afternoon
Naimbag a rabiiMaayong gabiiGood evening
Naimbag nga aldawMaayong adlawGood day
Kumustaka?Kumusta ka?How are you?
Nasayaat metMaayo raI'm fine
AgpakadaakonAyo-ayoGoodbye
AgyamanakSalamatThank you
Agyamanak unayDaghang salamatThank you very much
Awan ania manWalay sapayanYou're welcome
All 403 phrases

How Ilocano and Cebuano differ

Ilocano and Cebuano sit on separate branches of Austronesian: Ilocano in the Northern Luzon group, Cebuano in the Central Philippine group. They are related in the way English and Russian are related — the same family, far enough apart that the relationship is a fact about history rather than something a speaker can use.

No. Speakers of Ilocano and Cebuano cannot follow each other without having learned the other language. They share sentence structure and Spanish loanwords, which makes written text look more approachable than it is, and almost none of the high-frequency vocabulary.

Ilocano marks its nouns with ti and ti, uses the linkers a and nga, and has a dual pronoun meaning 'you and I' that Tagalog lacks entirely. 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.

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.

  • baga

    Ilocano: Red.

    Cebuano: An ember, or a lung. Never the colour.

  • apo

    Ilocano: A respectful title for an elder or person of authority — roughly 'sir' or 'ma'am'.

    Cebuano: A grandchild.

  • daya

    Ilocano: Blood.

    Cebuano: Deceit, cheating.

  • bantay

    Ilocano: A mountain.

    Cebuano: A guard; to watch over.

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 Ilocano nor Cebuano 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 403 translatable entries in this phrasebook through the translator above and compared each against the human-written Cebuano. It matched or came close 47.6% of the time.

The reverse direction is not equivalent. Ilocano → Cebuano scored 47.6% and Cebuano → Ilocano scored 41.2% — a gap of 6.4 points on the same phrase set, so this direction is the one to trust more.

Full results, category by category

Common questions

Is Ilocano the same as Cebuano?
Ilocano and Cebuano sit on separate branches of Austronesian: Ilocano in the Northern Luzon group, Cebuano in the Central Philippine group. They are related in the way English and Russian are related — the same family, far enough apart that the relationship is a fact about history rather than something a speaker can use.
Can a Ilocano speaker understand Cebuano?
No. Speakers of Ilocano and Cebuano cannot follow each other without having learned the other language. They share sentence structure and Spanish loanwords, which makes written text look more approachable than it is, and almost none of the high-frequency vocabulary.
How accurate is Ilocano to Cebuano translation?
We measured it rather than guessing. Running all 403 translatable entries in our Ilocano–Cebuano phrasebook through this tool, the machine output matched or closely matched the human-written Cebuano 47.6% of the time. It is weakest on everyday verbs (9%) and strongest on months (83%). The direction matters too: Cebuano → Ilocano scored 41.2%, a gap of 6.4 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: 66 of the entries in our Ilocano–Cebuano phrase data are genuinely spelled the same in both languages, including Lima (five), Pito (seven), Walo (eight), Anak (child). Unchanged output is not automatically wrong for this pair.
Which Ilocano words mean something different in Cebuano?
baga — Red in Ilocano, an ember, or a lung. Never the colour in Cebuano; apo — A respectful title for an elder or person of authority — roughly 'sir' or 'ma'am' in Ilocano, a grandchild in Cebuano; daya — Blood in Ilocano, deceit, cheating in Cebuano. We document 5 of these for this pair. They are where the translator is least reliable, because a word it does not recognise is passed through unchanged and can land in the other language as a real word with an unrelated meaning.
How many people speak Ilocano?
The 2020 Philippine census recorded Ilocano as the language generally spoken at home in about 1.86 million households, and 8.0% of the household population identified as ethnically Ilocano. Third-largest language in the Philippines by ethnic population, and the lingua franca of northern Luzon well beyond the Ilocos provinces themselves. Figures elsewhere claiming far larger totals for these languages are generally not supported by census data.
Can I translate Cebuano to Ilocano as well?
Yes — use the Cebuano to Ilocano page, or press the swap button above the text box. We measured both: Ilocano → Cebuano scored 47.6% and Cebuano → Ilocano scored 41.2%. That is a real gap, so this direction is 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 Ilocano 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.