magkano

The first word you'll need in any palengke. It means how much — and it opens a conversation that is never only about the price.

Ang Wika

The language

One word does the work of a whole English phrase. Magkano already contains "how much is" — you don't build a sentence around it, you just point and ask.

Magkano po ito?How much is this?
Magkano ang isang kilo?How much for one kilo?
Tig-magkano ang mangga?How much each for the mangoes?
Wala po akong barya.I don't have small change.

The answer comes in Spanish. Tagalog has its own numbers — dalawa, lima, sampu — but money and time almost always use the Spanish-derived set. A vendor will say singkwenta, not limampu. Learn these six and you'll survive most stalls.

diyes: ₱10
beinte: ₱20
singkwenta: ₱50
siyento: ₱100
dos siyentos: ₱200
kinyentos: ₱500

Your change is sukli, coins are barya, and the peso itself is piso.

Watch out

Magkano asks the price of a thing. To ask what something is worth in a broader sense, or how much of something there is, you want gaano karami instead. And magkano never takes a plural — there's no "magkanos".

Ang Kultura

The culture

In the palengke the first price is rarely the last one. Asking for tawad — a discount — isn't rude. Not asking marks you as someone who doesn't know how this works.

Ask the price, then pause. The pause itself is part of the negotiation.
Ask softly, with a smile: Pwede po bang tawaran? — "may I ask for a discount?"
Or go straight for a little extra instead: Dagdagan mo naman. — "throw in a bit more."
Settle, pay, and thank them. Never walk away over ten pesos.

Where it applies. Tawad belongs in the wet market, at sidewalk stalls, in ukay-ukay thrift shops and with tricycle fares. It does not belong in a supermarket, a mall, or a restaurant — asking there is the awkward move, not the clever one.

And then there's suki. Go back to the same vendor enough times and you become their suki — and they become yours. The word runs in both directions, which tells you what kind of relationship it is. A suki gets the better price without asking, the fish set aside before the crowd arrives, sometimes credit written in a notebook. Filipinos will walk past four stalls selling the same tomatoes to reach the one where they're known.

Palengke: The wet market — produce, fish, meat
Tawad: A discount, and the asking for it
Suki: Regular customer — and regular vendor
Ukay-ukay: Secondhand clothing stalls

Subukan mo ngayon

Try it today

Point at something, ask the price, and let the pause do its work.

Magkano po ito?

Practice this in TagTalk