English to Tagalog Word Translation & Dictionary
Look up an English word with its Tagalog equivalent, root word (salitang-ugat), affixes, part of speech, and example usage. Polysemous words return their plausible senses instead of one guessed answer.
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Unlocking Tagalog Vocabulary: Roots (Salitang-Ugat) and Affixes (Panlapi)
Tagalog is an agglutinative language. A single root word like kain (eat) can spawn dozens of distinct words depending on the affix attached: kumain (ate, actor focus), kinain (eaten, object focus), pagkain (food, noun), kainan (dining area), magpakain (to feed someone), and makikikain (to join in eating).
The 5 Types of Tagalog Affixes (Mga Uri ng Panlapi)
Placed before the root. E.g., mag-aral (study).
Inserted inside the root. E.g., s-um-ulat (wrote).
Attached at the end. E.g., basa-hin (read it).
Front and back. E.g., ka-ganda-han (beauty).
Front, middle, back. E.g., pagsumikapan.
English Words with Multiple Tagalog Meanings
Many simple English words fail in word-by-word translation because one English word corresponds to several unrelated Tagalog roots. The word workflow returns the plausible senses and the context that selects between them.
Word: "Light"3 Meanings
Illumination or lamp (e.g. Buksan mo ang ilaw).
Weight or burden (e.g. Magaan ang bag na ito).
Color shade (e.g. Mapusyaw na asul).
Word: "Right"3 Meanings
Correct or true (e.g. Tama ang sagot mo).
Direction (e.g. Kumaliwa ka bago kumanan).
Human legal entitlement (e.g. Karapatang pantao).
Word: "Date"3 Meanings
Calendar day (e.g. Anong petsa ngayon?).
Romantic appointment (e.g. May date kami mamaya).
Palm fruit (e.g. Kumain siya ng datiles).
Word: "Free"3 Meanings
Zero financial cost (e.g. Libre ang seminar).
Liberated, sovereign (e.g. Malayang bansa ang Pilipinas).
Available time (e.g. Free ka ba bukas?).