Skip to content

saling

salíng with stress marks

a very light touch; unintentional reference

verb sa-LING Native origin Rare

Usage Note

Saling refers to a glancing or incidental contact — either physical (a brush of the hand) or verbal (mentioning something in passing without intending to). It implies lightness and lack of deliberateness, and is more common in literary or careful spoken Tagalog than in casual conversation.

Examples

Beginner

" Huwag mong salingin ang sugat. "

Natural Translation

Don't touch the wound.

Literal Translation

Do-not you touch the wound.

Intermediate

" Huwag mong saling ang sugat. "

Natural Translation

Do not touch the wound.

Literal Translation

Do-not you touch the wound.

Advanced

" Hindi sinasadyang nasaling niya ang isyu sa usapan, kaya bigla na lang naging awkward ang lahat. "

Natural Translation

She unintentionally brushed against the issue in the conversation, so everything suddenly turned awkward.

Literal Translation

Not intentionally touched she the issue in conversation, so suddenly just became awkward the everything.

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

Object Focus Verbs

Explore Tagalog by topic

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