tato
táto with stress marks
tattoo
Usage Note
Tato is borrowed from English and has become fully naturalized in Filipino speech. Tattooing has deep pre-colonial roots in Philippine culture — the Visayan 'pintados' were famous for their body art — and the modern loanword coexists with renewed pride in traditional Filipino tattoo traditions.
Examples
" Maganda ang tato mo. "
Natural Translation
Your tattoo is nice.
Literal Translation
Nice the tattoo your.
" May malaking tato siya sa braso. "
Natural Translation
He/she has a big tattoo on his/her arm.
Literal Translation
Has big tattoo he/she on arm.
" Bawat tato sa katawan niya ay may kuwentong nakaugnay sa mahahalagang yugto ng kanyang buhay. "
Natural Translation
Every tattoo on his/her body has a story connected to important chapters of his/her life.
Literal Translation
Each tattoo on body his/her has story connected to important stages of his/her life.
Tagalog builds thousands of words from a few hundred roots.
How Tagalog words workActor Focus Verbs
Object Focus Verbs
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