Basic Tagalog for travel
Almost everybody you meet will speak some English. Which is exactly why the small amount of Tagalog you do use lands so hard.
The one with no English version
Para po. Jeepneys have no bell, no button and no stops. You shout this and the driver pulls over. It is the single most useful thing on this page and there is no way around learning it.
| Rank | Tagalog | What it does | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| 38 | Para po!Play | Stop here, pleaseWhat you call out to get off a jeepney. Constant in that one context and almost unused outside it. | polite |
| 52 | Makikiraan poPlay | Excuse me, coming throughFor getting past someone in a crowd. Not the 'excuse me' that opens a question, which is Excuse me po or Pasensya na po. | polite |
Money
| Rank | Tagalog | What it does | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | Magkano?Play | How much is it? | neutral |
| 48 | Ang mahal naman!Play | That's so expensive! | casual |
| 47 | Pwede bang tumawad?Play | Can I haggle?Fine in a market, not in a shop with price tags. | neutral |
| 49 | Isa nga po nitoPlay | One of these, please | polite |
Haggling is normal in a palengke, a wet market, and with some drivers. It is not normal in malls or anywhere with a printed price. Asking pwede bang tumawad first is polite and tells you which situation you are in.
Getting around
| Rank | Tagalog | What it does | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| 43 | Saan ang banyo?Play | Where's the bathroom? | neutral |
| 45 | Paano pumunta sa ___?Play | How do I get to ___? | neutral |
| 44 | Malayo pa ba?Play | Is it still far? | neutral |
| 46 | Nawawala akoPlay | I'm lost | neutral |
When you do not follow
These four will get you further than any amount of vocabulary, because they keep a conversation alive instead of ending it.
| Rank | Tagalog | What it does | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31 | Hindi ko maintindihanPlay | I don't understand | neutral |
| 39 | Pwede mo bang ulitin?Play | Can you repeat that? | neutral |
| 40 | Dahan-dahan lang poPlay | Slowly, please | polite |
| 41 | Marunong ka ba mag-English?Play | Do you speak English? | neutral |
Food
| Rank | Tagalog | What it does | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 | Masarap!Play | Delicious! | neutral |
| 51 | Ang sarap ng pagkainPlay | The food is great | neutral |
| 50 | Busog na akoPlay | I'm full | neutral |
| 14 | Kain tayo!Play | Let's eat!Offered to anyone in the room when you start eating, and it is a courtesy as much as an invitation. If you are not joining, the expected answer is a warm 'Sige, salamat'. | casual |
The politeness that actually matters
Add po to anything you say to somebody older than you or anybody serving you. It costs one syllable and it is the difference between a foreigner speaking Tagalog and a foreigner being polite in Tagalog. More on po and opo.
| Rank | Tagalog | What it does | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Salamat poPlay | Thank you (respectful)po is not a word with a meaning, it is a respect marker. It goes in almost anything said to someone older or senior, and leaving it out is the single most common way a learner sounds rude without knowing it. | polite |
| 6 | OpoPlay | Yes (respectful)Not optional with elders. Oo to your grandmother is the kind of thing that gets remarked on. | polite |
| 18 | Pasensya naPlay | Sorry / my apologiesCloser to 'bear with me' than to an admission of fault. Sorry po is also used and is not considered lazy. | neutral |
| 15 | Ingat!Play | Take careHow you end a goodbye. Literally 'be careful', used the way 'take care' is. | neutral |
The frequency ordering on this site is an informed estimate, not a corpus count. There is no published frequency count for conversational Tagalog, so it prints a rank and never a percentage. When a real count exists, the order changes and this line changes with it.
It teaches Tagalog as spoken around Manila, which is not the same thing as Filipino and is not the whole country. Cebuano and Ilocano are different languages, not accents.
Nothing is drilled until a native speaker has checked it. What has been checked, by whom, and what is still owed is written down on the sources page.
- Phrase lookupSearch a word, see what lives next to it.
- Why Duolingo has no TagalogThe real reason, and what to do instead.
- Basic Tagalog phrasesThe ones you will actually hear, in frequency order, with audio.
- All the phrasesThe whole list this app drills, on one page.
- ang, ng, saNine cells that decide the shape of every Tagalog sentence.
- The pronoun gridTwenty-one cells, three cases, and the two words for we.
- Pronunciation and stressWhy buhay and buhay are different words, and how to hear it.
- Where this comes fromEvery source, every licence, and who checked the Tagalog.
- Tagalog vs FilipinoDifferent names, mostly the same language. What actually differs.
- Is Tagalog hard?Honest answer: the grammar is strange, the spelling is free.
- Tagalog greetingsHello, good morning, and what you say back.
- Hello in TagalogKumusta, and the formal version, with audio.
- Thank you in TagalogSalamat, salamat po, and the reply.
- Po and opoThe respect particle, and the mistake foreigners make with it.
- Mahal kitaI love you, and the word that also means expensive.
- Tagalog and SpanishThousands of shared words, and not one shared grammar rule.
- Is Tagalog tonal?No. But stress changes meaning, which trips people the same way.
- Learn Tagalog freeWhat is actually free, what is a trial, and where to start.
- Tagalog numbersTwo whole systems, and when each one is used.