Skip to content

maestro

maéstro with stress marks

male teacher

noun ma-ES-tro Spanish origin Less Common

Usage Note

Maestro is from Spanish maestro and refers to a male school teacher. In contemporary Filipino it has been largely supplanted by guro, though maestro survives in provincial speech and among older generations who associate it with deep respect for the teaching profession — a sentiment shared with its feminine counterpart, maestra.

Examples

Beginner

" Mabait ang aming maestro. "

Natural Translation

Our male teacher is kind.

Literal Translation

Kind the our male-teacher.

Intermediate

" Mahigpit ang maestro sa kanyang mga estudyante. "

Natural Translation

The male teacher is strict with his students.

Literal Translation

Strict the teacher to his students.

Advanced

" Bagaman matanda na ang maestro, hindi pa rin siya tumitigil sa pagtuturo dahil mahal niya ang kanyang mga estudyante. "

Natural Translation

Although the male teacher is already old, he still has not stopped teaching because he loves his students.

Literal Translation

Although old already the male-teacher, not yet also he stops in teaching because loves he the his students.

Free · iOS & Android

Take Tagalog with you

The full course, a 12,500-word dictionary, and flashcards that make every word stick — free to start on iOS and Android.

Tagalog builds thousands of words from a few hundred roots.

How Tagalog words work

Explore Tagalog by topic

Free guides on grammar, vocabulary, and culture to take you past single-word lookups.