Skip to content

magtato

magtáto with stress marks

to tattoo

verb mag-TA-to AF VERB English origin Less Common

From root: tato

Conjugations

Past (Completed)

nagtato

nag-TA-to

tattooed

Present (Incomplete)

nagtatato

nag-ta-TA-to

is tattooing

Future (Contemplated)

magtatato

mag-ta-TA-to

will tattoo

Usage Note

Magtato is the actor-focus infinitive of tato, a direct English loanword. It can focus on either the tattoo artist performing the work or the person choosing to get tattooed, making context essential; pair with tatuan when the body part or person receiving the tattoo is the grammatical focus.

Examples

Beginner

" Gusto kong magtato bukas. "

Natural Translation

I want to get a tattoo tomorrow.

Literal Translation

Want I to-tattoo tomorrow.

Intermediate

" Nagpasya siyang magtato sa kanyang braso bilang alaala sa kanyang magulang. "

Natural Translation

He/She decided to get a tattoo on their arm in memory of their parents.

Literal Translation

Decided he/she to-tattoo on his/her arm as memory to his/her parents.

Advanced

" Bago siya nagtato, matagal niyang pinag-isipan kung anong disenyo ang talagang may kahulugan para sa kanya. "

Natural Translation

Before he/she got a tattoo, he/she thought long about which design would truly be meaningful to him/her.

Literal Translation

Before he/she tattooed, long he/she thought-about which design that truly has meaning for him/her.

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

Word family

tato has 1 related form built from the same root.

See all

Explore Tagalog by topic

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