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Tagalog to Cebuano translator

Tagalog to Cebuano translation: Tagalog to Bisaya without the po

Paste Tagalog or Filipino and get Cebuano, the Bisaya of Cebu, Bohol and most of Mindanao. People use this direction for messages home to relatives in the Visayas, for memos from a Manila head office to a branch in Cebu or Davao, and for notices that should reach Bisaya-speaking staff or residents in their own language rather than in the Tagalog they learned at school.

Tagalog to Bisaya is less about vocabulary than about habits. Po disappears, because Cebuano has no such word, and the respect it carried has to go somewhere else. Tagalog particles such as raw, rin and sana each have a Cebuano counterpart that looks nothing like them. Verbs are rebuilt around mo- and mi-. The two samples below, a company memo and a message to a grandmother, came out with sound Cebuano vocabulary and one point each worth fixing, and the notes show both.

How do you say po in Bisaya?

There is no Bisaya word for po. Cebuano shows the same respect by addressing one older person in the plural, kamo or the short mo (Kumusta mo, Lola?), with ninyo and inyong for your, and with palihug and salamat kaayo. Leave po out of the translation; a po carried over makes the Cebuano read like Tagalog.

Real Tagalog to Cebuano translations from this page

Each one was run through the translator above and printed exactly as it came back, with a note on what to look for.

A company memo to the Cebu branch

Tagalog44 words

Sa lahat ng empleyado ng sangay sa Cebu: magkakaroon ng pagsasanay tungkol sa bagong sistema ng imbentaryo sa Lunes, ika-19 ng Oktubre, mula alas-nuwebe ng umaga. Mangyaring dumating nang maaga at dalhin ang inyong laptop. Para sa mga katanungan, makipag-ugnayan sa HR. Salamat po.

Cebuano · Formal44 words

Alang sa tanang empleyado sa sangang opisina sa Sugbo: adunay pagbansay bahin sa bag-ong sistema sa imbentaryo karong Lunes, Oktubre 19, sugod alas-nuwebe sa buntag. Palihug pag-abot og sayo ug dad-a ang inyong laptop. Alang sa mga pangutana, palihug kontaka ang HR. Daghang salamat.

Translated by this tool on 30 September 2026 and printed unedited.

Cebu came back as Sugbo, the Cebuano name for the island and province. A reader in Cebu understands it at once, but company memos, addresses and branch names normally say Cebu. Select Cebu in the Tagalog and press Keep before translating if you want it left alone.
The vocabulary is Cebuano all the way through, with nothing Tagalog left behind: pagsasanay became pagbansay, tungkol sa became bahin sa, umaga became buntag and katanungan became pangutana. Sangay became sangang opisina, branch office; many Cebu offices would simply write branch, which is also fine.
Mangyaring dumating nang maaga became Palihug pag-abot og sayo, arrive early, and makipag-ugnayan sa HR became palihug kontaka ang HR, the English contact given a Cebuano ending, a normal office mix of Bisaya and English. Inyong laptop keeps the plural your for a group of employees.
Salamat po became Daghang salamat, many thanks. Po was dropped, as it should be, and daghang adds back some of the warmth. The date ika-19 ng Oktubre became Oktubre 19, and sa Lunes became karong Lunes, this coming Monday.

A message to a grandmother in Cebu

Tagalog40 words

Lola, kumusta po kayo diyan? Uuwi po ako sa Cebu sa Undas para bisitahin si Lolo sa sementeryo. May dala po akong gamot para sa inyo at konting pasalubong. Huwag na po kayong magluto, kakain na lang tayo sa labas.

Cebuano · Informal33 words

Lola, kumusta mo diha? Mouli ko sa Cebu sa Undas aron bisitahan si Lolo sa sementeryo. Magdala kog tambal para nimo ug gamayng pasalubong. Ayaw na pagluto, mangaon na lang ta sa gawas.

Translated by this tool on 30 September 2026 and printed unedited.

Kumusta po kayo became Kumusta mo, the short plural Cebuano uses for respect, which is right for Lola. Two sentences later para sa inyo became para nimo, the singular your. A grandchild keeping the respectful form would write para ninyo; mixing the two in one short message is the thing to fix.
Gamot became tambal, which is the Cebuano word for medicine; in Cebuano gamot is more often heard as the root of a plant. Labas became gawas and konting pasalubong became gamayng pasalubong, so no Tagalog word was left in the text.
May dala po akong gamot, I have medicine with me, came out as Magdala kog tambal, I will bring medicine. For a visit that has not happened yet the meaning survives. Kakain na lang tayo sa labas became mangaon na lang ta sa gawas, with ta including Lola in the we, as tayo did.
Huwag na po kayong magluto became Ayaw na pagluto. It is natural Cebuano but drops the you altogether, so the last respectful plural in the Tagalog is gone; adding mo to that sentence would keep it. Undas stayed Undas, which Cebuano speakers understand.

Where po goes when Tagalog becomes Bisaya

A polite Tagalog message leans on po and opo, often more than once a sentence. None of it can be carried into Cebuano as a word. What carries over is the plural: kayo for one respected person becomes kamo or mo, and sa inyo becomes ninyo or kaninyo. On top of that come palihug, salamat kaayo or daghang salamat, and titles such as Lola, Nang or Nong.

Tagalog	Cebuano	Note
Kumusta po kayo?	Kumusta mo?	plural mo for one elder
Opo	Oo	plain yes; tone and title do the rest
Salamat po	Salamat / Daghang salamat	no po
para sa inyo	para ninyo / para kaninyo	not para nimo, for an elder
Mangyaring ...	Palihug ...	please, in notices and in speech
Ingat po kayo	Amping mo	take care, to an elder or a group

The grandmother sample shows why this needs reading: the translator chose mo for Lola in the first sentence and nimo in the third. Pick one level for the person and keep it to the end of the message.

Raw, rin, sana: Tagalog particles and their Bisaya versions

Tagalog and Cebuano both scatter short particles through a sentence to add hearsay, emphasis or hope. Some are the same word in both, which makes it easy to assume the others are too. They are not, and a Tagalog particle left in a Cebuano sentence is one of the quickest ways to make it sound borrowed.

Tagalog	Cebuano	Meaning
raw / daw	kuno	so they say, reportedly
rin / din	pud / sad / usab	also, too
sana	unta	hopefully, should
yata	tingali / basin	maybe, I think
kasi	kay	because
tapos	unya / dayon	then, after that
lang, ba, na, pa	lang, ba, na, pa	the same in both

Because lang is shared, mangaon na lang ta in the grandmother message carries exactly the same shrug as kakain na lang tayo: we will just eat out instead.

Verb forms: -in becomes -on, and pupunta becomes moadto

Tagalog marks an action still to come by doubling a syllable: kakain, uuwi, pupunta. Cebuano uses the prefix mo- instead (mokaon, mouli, moadto), and mi- or ni- for what is done. Object-focus verbs change their ending as well. Where a Tagalog future adds -in, Cebuano usually adds -on, and a command that Tagalog gives as dalhin mo becomes a Cebuano form ending in -a.

English	Tagalog	Cebuano
I will go home	Uuwi ako	Mouli ko
We ate	Kumain kami	Mikaon mi
It will be read	Babasahin	Basahon
Bring it	Dalhin mo	Dad-a
Don't forget	Huwag mong kalimutan	Ayaw kalimti
to visit (Lolo)	bisitahin	bisitahan

The memo shows one more shape: Mangyaring dumating nang maaga became Palihug pag-abot og sayo, with pag- in front of the root for a polite instruction. Cebuano uses the same pattern in everyday goodbyes such as Pag-amping, which is why it sits comfortably in a memo.

Cebu or Sugbo: names, dates and numbers

The memo translated the place name: sangay sa Cebu became sangang opisina sa Sugbo. Sugbo is the Cebuano name and still in everyday use, so it is not an error, but a branch that calls itself Cebu Branch on its letterhead should stay Cebu. Select the name in your Tagalog and press Keep, and the translator passes it through unchanged. Do the same for barangay and street names and anything copied from an ID.

Dates move to month first, so ika-19 ng Oktubre becomes Oktubre 19. Clock times use the same Spanish-derived numbers in both languages, alas-nuwebe in each, so only the part of the day changes: ng umaga to sa buntag, ng hapon to sa hapon, ng gabi to sa gabii. Counting is where the native numbers part ways.

Number	Tagalog	Cebuano
1	isa	usa
2	dalawa	duha
3	tatlo	tulo
4	apat	upat
5	lima	lima
6	anim	unom
10	sampu	napulo
second	ikalawa	ikaduha

In a memo, check any number that was written as a word in the Tagalog: dalawang araw should come back as duha ka adlaw, two days, with ka linking the number to the noun.

Mistakes to check before you send

Mo and nimo in one message

If the Cebuano starts with Kumusta mo and later says nimo to the same elder, the respect has slipped. Use ninyo or kaninyo throughout for an elder, or nimo throughout for a friend.

A place name translated

Cebu may come back as Sugbo. Press Keep on the name before translating when it belongs to a company, an address or an official document.

Po left in the Cebuano

A po carried into the Bisaya reads as Tagalog. Delete it and let the plural mo or kamo, or a title such as Nang or Lola, carry the respect.

Raw and rin kept as they are

Replace raw or daw with kuno, and rin or din with pud or sad. They are small words, but they appear in almost every Tagalog chat message.

Gamot left for medicine

Use tambal. Many Cebuano speakers will understand gamot from Tagalog, but a medicine list or a clinic reminder should not depend on the reader making that switch.

Text-speak in the Tagalog

Write sa iyo rather than sayo before translating. Sayo is a Cebuano word for early, as og sayo in the memo shows, and shortened Tagalog is easier to misread than spelled-out Tagalog.

Family messages and internal memos like the two above are fine from the translator; a notice to the public, a medical instruction or a safety sign for readers in Cebu or Mindanao should be read by a native Bisaya speaker before it is printed.

Tagalog to Cebuano translation questions

How do you say mahal kita in Bisaya?

Gihigugma tika is the full Cebuano form, the one used in songs, letters and serious moments. In everyday texts many people write Love tika, mixing English and Bisaya. Tika does the job of the Tagalog kita: I to you, in one word.

What is ingat ka in Bisaya?

Amping, or Pag-amping as a slightly fuller goodbye. To someone older or to a group, say Amping mo. Ingat is understood in Cebu, but amping is the Cebuano word.

Why did the translator write Sugbo instead of Cebu?

Sugbo is the Cebuano name for Cebu, so the translator treated Cebu as a word to translate. Both are correct. If you need Cebu, select it in the Tagalog and press Keep before you translate.

Is Undas the same as Kalag-kalag?

They refer to the same days in early November when families visit the graves of their dead. Undas is the usual Tagalog word and is understood across the Philippines; many Cebuano speakers say Kalag-kalag. Either works in a message to family in Cebu.

Why does my Bisaya use both mo and nimo?

Mo, short for kamo, is the plural you that Cebuano uses for respect; nimo is the singular your. The translator mixed them in the grandmother sample. For an elder keep the plural (mo, ninyo, inyong); for a friend or a child keep the singular (ka, nimo, imong).

How do I say salamat po in Bisaya?

Salamat, or Daghang salamat and Salamat kaayo for thank you very much. The memo sample turned Salamat po into Daghang salamat. For an elder, add their title instead of po: Salamat kaayo, Lola.

Should English words like laptop and HR stay in the Bisaya?

Yes, when that is how the office talks. The memo kept laptop and HR and turned contact into kontaka, a Cebuano verb built on the English word. Forcing a native word onto every office term would make the memo harder, not easier, for staff in Cebu to read.

Going the other way? Translate Cebuano to Tagalog.

Written and checked by the AI Writing Assistant team. Last reviewed 30 September 2026.