Learn Tagalog for your trip
Manila and beyond, polite forms included.
- 10 modules
- 4 missions
- 258 phrases to search, hear and save
- 2 games
Try it free for 14 days.
Photo credit
Photo by Jarno Colijn (opens in a new tab) on Unsplash, used under the Unsplash License (opens in a new tab).
A travel guide with First Steps and a Getting about track, and four missions: riding a jeepney or tricycle, eating at a carinderia, shopping at a market or sari-sari store, and booking an island-hopping tour.
Real situations, one at a time.
4 missions, each a situation you will meet on a trip. You practise the key language, then the conversation.
Missions
Ride a jeepney or tricycle
Take a jeepney or tricycle across town, pay correctly and get off where you mean to.
Eat at a carinderia
Order a canteen lunch you like, enjoy it and pay, without a menu.
Shop at a market or sari-sari store
Buy fruit, snacks or gifts at a market or sari-sari store, at a fair price, politely.
Book an island-hopping tour
Book the island-hopping trip you want in El Nido or Coron, and know exactly what you're getting.
The Tagalog you learn, in order.
It starts with First Steps, the survival language for your first hour, then a travel track for the places you will go.
- 1First StepsMagandang umaga po, hello, thank you, and how to get what you need.
- 2Getting aboutPara po! Jeepneys, markets, island boats and friendly strangers.
- 10
- modules, each in short lessons
- 108
- words and expressions
- 15
- sentence patterns
- 258
- phrases in the phrasebook
Tagalog you can use on day one.
These are from the first lessons. In the app each has audio, a note on when to use it, and a way to save it.
Magandang umaga po!
Good morning! (polite)
Maraming salamat po!
Thank you very much!
Magkano po ito?
How much is this?
Marunong po ba kayong mag-English?
Do you speak English?
Pakiulit po.
Could you say that again, please?
Gusto ko po ng kape.
I'd like a coffee, please.
Hindi ko po naiintindihan.
I don't understand.
Three things about Tagalog for a traveller.
Po
Adding "po" to a sentence makes it polite, to anyone older or in a position of respect. The guide uses it throughout, so the polite form is the one you learn.
Tagalog and Filipino
Filipino, the national language, is based on Tagalog. The guide's phrases work in Manila and across much of Luzon.
Beyond Manila
Palawan, Anilao and the Cordillera each have a note on which language you will hear and how widely Tagalog is understood.
Places the course has notes on.
Each note is a habit of that place, so you know what to expect where you are going.
Metro Manila
Manila, Makati, BGC, Quezon City
Palawan
El Nido, Coron, Puerto Princesa. Tagalog widely used
Batangas
Anilao, Taal. Batangueño Tagalog
Baguio & the Cordilleras
Ilocano and Cordilleran languages locally; Tagalog widely understood
The same app plans the trip you are learning Tagalog for.
Takes your phrases offline
Download the travel guide on Wi-Fi. The phrasebook, survival and travel packs, local notes and audio then work with no signal.
Plans the trip too
Put places on days, save the TikToks and reels that gave you ideas, see the stops on a map and share the plan.
Keeps your travel map
Colour in the countries you have been to and the ones you want to go to.
About learning Tagalog.
Will people in the Philippines speak English?
In many places, yes. Using a few Tagalog phrases is still welcome.
I am going to Cebu or Iloilo. Is Tagalog right?
Tagalog is understood in much of the country. In Cebu and Bohol the local language is Cebuano, and in Iloilo and Bacolod it is Hiligaynon, and each has its own guide.
Does it have audio?
Phrases play with your device's Filipino voice where it has one. Some phones, iPhones included, do not, and then you read the phrase. Any lesson has a Report a mistake link.
Going somewhere else?
Say your first Tagalog phrase in a few minutes.
Create a free account, pick Tagalog, and start with the phrases for your first hour.
Try it free for 14 days.