Skip to content

salawal

saláwal with stress marks

lower-body garment; pants/briefs/shorts

noun verb sa-LA-wal Native origin Less Common

Usage Note

Salawal broadly refers to any garment worn on the lower body — pants, shorts, briefs, or underpants. In everyday speech it more often refers to underwear or loose-fitting shorts, while 'pantalon' is used for dress pants. Children use the word freely; adults may specify 'salawaling panloob' for underwear.

Examples

Beginner

" Bumili ako ng salawal. "

Natural Translation

I bought pants.

Literal Translation

Bought I of pants.

Intermediate

" Bumili siya ng bagong salawal. "

Natural Translation

He/She bought new pants.

Literal Translation

Bought he/she of new pants.

Advanced

" Bago siya matulog, palaging nagpapalit muna siya ng malinis na salawal upang mas komportable ang kanyang pagtulog. "

Natural Translation

Before he sleeps, he always changes into clean shorts first so that his sleep is more comfortable.

Literal Translation

Before he sleep, always changing first he of clean shorts so-that more comfortable the his sleep.

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.