8 Essential Ilonggo Phrases You Could Use When Traveling

“When you learn a few Ilonggo phrases or words, you will be fine. I have never met an Ilonggo who did something bad to me; everybody is family when you speak the same dialect. We are like that here in Visayas.”

That’s how my new friend, Ting, would like to put it when he and his friends were teaching me some Ilonggo words and phrases to help me with my trip to Bacolod. Fortunately, I was able to use some. But it was a hard one for me especially when I encountered some who can’t speak or understand Tagalog fully. We were lost in translation, trying to understand meaning through sign language. But thankfully we get by.

So I’m here to share with you some Ilonggo words and their direct Tagalog translation which you could hopefully use on your next trip to Visayas.

Ting said you could easily mix Tagalog and Ilonggo as some words work that way. The idea is to at least try. And everybody likes someone who tries, isn’t it?

Cheers!