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Tagalog to Cebuano Translation

Translate Tagalog 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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Tagalog 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.

TagalogCebuanoEnglish
Magandang umagaMaayong buntagGood morning
Magandang haponMaayong haponGood afternoon
Magandang gabiMaayong gabiiGood evening
Magandang arawMaayong adlawGood day
Kumusta ka?Kumusta ka?How are you?
Mabuti namanMaayo raI'm fine
PaalamAyo-ayoGoodbye
SalamatSalamatThank you
Maraming salamatDaghang salamatThank you very much
Walang anumanWalay sapayanYou're welcome
All 403 phrases

How Tagalog and Cebuano differ

Tagalog and Cebuano both belong to the Central Philippine group of Austronesian, but to different subgroups within it — Tagalog to Tagalog, Cebuano to Bisayan. They share sentence structure and a layer of Spanish-era vocabulary; the everyday words are their own.

No. These are the two largest languages in the Philippines and they are not mutually intelligible, which is a live political point rather than a neutral fact. Both are Central Philippine, so the grammar rhymes and the Spanish loanwords match, but the core vocabulary does not: unsa against ano, kinsa against sino, asa against saan. Cebuanos generally understand Tagalog through schooling and media; the reverse is uncommon.

Tagalog is the basis of Filipino, the national language, so its vocabulary reaches every province through school and media — which is why speakers of the other seven usually understand it and the reverse is rarely true. 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.

Cebuano is well enough resourced that machine output between it and Tagalog is better than most pairs here — but the false friends are unusually dangerous, because both sides are confident readers. Cebuano aso is smoke, Tagalog aso is a dog; Cebuano langgam is a bird, Tagalog langgam is an ant.

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.

  • wala

    Tagalog: Nothing, none, absent.

    Cebuano: Left — the direction. It also carries the 'none' sense, so only context separates them.

  • usa

    Tagalog: A deer.

    Cebuano: One — the numeral.

  • pila

    Tagalog: A queue, a line of people waiting.

    Cebuano: How many.

  • bukid

    Tagalog: A field, farmland, the countryside.

    Cebuano: A mountain.

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 Tagalog 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 57.3% of the time.

The reverse direction is not equivalent. Tagalog → Cebuano scored 57.3% and Cebuano → Tagalog scored 52.4% — a gap of 4.9 points on the same phrase set, so this direction is the one to trust more.

Full results, category by category

Common questions

Is Tagalog the same as Cebuano?
Tagalog and Cebuano both belong to the Central Philippine group of Austronesian, but to different subgroups within it — Tagalog to Tagalog, Cebuano to Bisayan. They share sentence structure and a layer of Spanish-era vocabulary; the everyday words are their own.
Can a Tagalog speaker understand Cebuano?
No. These are the two largest languages in the Philippines and they are not mutually intelligible, which is a live political point rather than a neutral fact. Both are Central Philippine, so the grammar rhymes and the Spanish loanwords match, but the core vocabulary does not: unsa against ano, kinsa against sino, asa against saan. Cebuanos generally understand Tagalog through schooling and media; the reverse is uncommon.
How accurate is Tagalog to Cebuano translation?
We measured it rather than guessing. Running all 403 translatable entries in our Tagalog–Cebuano phrasebook through this tool, the machine output matched or closely matched the human-written Cebuano 57.3% of the time. It is weakest on everyday verbs (17%) and strongest on things to buy (100%). The direction matters too: Cebuano → Tagalog scored 52.4%, a gap of 4.9 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: 116 of the entries in our Tagalog–Cebuano phrase data are genuinely spelled the same in both languages, including Kumusta ka? (how are you?), Salamat (thank you), Oo (yes), Lima (five). Unchanged output is not automatically wrong for this pair.
Which Tagalog words mean something different in Cebuano?
wala — Nothing, none, absent in Tagalog, left — the direction. It also carries the 'none' sense, so only context separates them in Cebuano; usa — A deer in Tagalog, one — the numeral in Cebuano; pila — A queue, a line of people waiting in Tagalog, how many in Cebuano. We document 13 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 Tagalog?
The 2020 Philippine census recorded Tagalog as the language generally spoken at home in about 10.52 million households, and 26.0% of the household population identified as ethnically Tagalog. Spoken at home in 39.9% of Philippine households. Filipino, the national language, is standardised Tagalog — which is why both share the code 'tl'. Figures elsewhere claiming far larger totals for these languages are generally not supported by census data.
Can I translate Cebuano to Tagalog as well?
Yes — use the Cebuano to Tagalog page, or press the swap button above the text box. We measured both: Tagalog → Cebuano scored 57.3% and Cebuano → Tagalog scored 52.4%. 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 Tagalog 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.