Tagalog phrases

All 53 phrases this site drills, in one list, ordered by how often you will hear them. With audio, with the register, and with a note wherever the phrase does something the translation does not say.

How to read this list

Rank is how often you are likely to hear it, from most to least. It is an estimate. See the panel at the bottom of this page.
Register is polite, neutral or casual. Getting this wrong is how a learner is rude to somebody's grandmother without meaning to be.
The note, where there is one, is what the phrase is for rather than what it literally translates to. That is usually the part that matters.

There are recordings on this page. 52 of them are a synthetic fil-PH voice and 1 is a human recording, credited where it plays. A learner is owed the knowledge that the thing they are copying is not always a person; human recordings replace the synthetic ones from the top of the list down.

The ones you hear every hour

15 phrases, ranked 1 to 15.

Rank	Tagalog	What it does	Register
1	SigePlay	Okay / go ahead / sureDoes far more work than 'okay' does in English. It ends calls, agrees to plans, waves off an apology and closes a conversation. If you learn one word, learn this one.	neutral
2	SalamatPlay	Thank you	neutral
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
4	Walang anumanPlay	You're welcome	neutral
5	OoPlayKunokuno, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons	Yes	casual
6	OpoPlay	Yes (respectful)Not optional with elders. Oo to your grandmother is the kind of thing that gets remarked on.	polite
7	HindiPlay	No / not	neutral
8	Hindi poPlay	No (respectful)	polite
9	Kumusta?Play	How are you? / heyFrom the Spanish 'como esta'. Works as a greeting on its own, the way 'how's it going' does.	neutral
10	Kumusta po kayo?Play	How are you? (respectful)kayo is the plural 'you' used as a singular respectful one, exactly like French vous.	polite
11	Mabuti namanPlay	I'm fine	neutral
12	Ay naku!Play	Oh no / oh my goodnessAll-purpose exasperation, sympathy or dismay. Fits a stubbed toe, a traffic jam and a national scandal.	casual
13	Sandali langPlay	One moment	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
15	Ingat!Play	Take careHow you end a goodbye. Literally 'be careful', used the way 'take care' is.	neutral

Very common

14 phrases, ranked 16 to 29.

Rank	Tagalog	What it does	Register
16	Magkano?Play	How much is it?	neutral
17	Grabe!Play	Wow / that's intense	casual
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
19	Tara na!Play	Let's go!	casual
20	Wala langPlay	Nothing / no reasonThe answer to 'what's up' when nothing is up, and the answer to 'why did you do that' when you would rather not say.	casual
21	Bahala naPlay	Come what may / we'll see what happensA whole attitude in two words: proceed without a plan and accept the outcome. Often said cheerfully.	casual
22	Talaga?Play	Really?	neutral
23	SayangPlay	What a waste / too badFor a missed chance or a wasted thing. There is no clean English single word for it.	neutral
24	Masarap!Play	Delicious!	neutral
25	Magandang umaga poPlay	Good morning	polite
26	Magandang hapon poPlay	Good afternoon	polite
27	Magandang gabi poPlay	Good evening	polite
28	Anong pangalan mo?Play	What's your name?	neutral
29	Ako si ___Play	I'm ___	neutral

Regular

13 phrases, ranked 30 to 42.

Rank	Tagalog	What it does	Register
30	Hindi ko alamPlay	I don't know	neutral
31	Hindi ko maintindihanPlay	I don't understand	neutral
32	Anong ginagawa mo?Play	What are you doing?	casual
33	Saan ka pupunta?Play	Where are you going?	casual
34	Kumain ka na?Play	Have you eaten?Asked the way English speakers ask 'how's it going'. It is not really about food, and answering 'not yet' will very often produce food.	neutral
35	Mamaya naPlay	Later	casual
36	Sige naPlay	Come on / fine, okaySige plus na turns agreement into either pleading or reluctant surrender, depending entirely on tone.	casual
37	Ano ba!Play	What the -- (mild irritation)	casual
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
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
42	Ano ang ibig sabihin ng ___?Play	What does ___ mean?	neutral

Worth having before you need it

11 phrases, ranked 43 to 53.

Rank	Tagalog	What it does	Register
43	Saan ang banyo?Play	Where's the bathroom?	neutral
44	Malayo pa ba?Play	Is it still far?	neutral
45	Paano pumunta sa ___?Play	How do I get to ___?	neutral
46	Nawawala akoPlay	I'm lost	neutral
47	Pwede bang tumawad?Play	Can I haggle?Fine in a market, not in a shop with price tags.	neutral
48	Ang mahal naman!Play	That's so expensive!	casual
49	Isa nga po nitoPlay	One of these, please	polite
50	Busog na akoPlay	I'm full	neutral
51	Ang sarap ng pagkainPlay	The food is great	neutral
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
53	Ikinagagalak kitang makilalaPlay	Nice to meet youCorrect and quite formal. In practice most people just say Kumusta and a name.	polite

Start with the free sectionThe six words that run the language — Tagalog puts a little word in front of every noun to show what it is doing. There are only six of them. No account, nothing to install.

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.