Hip pain is a common but potentially vexing clinical problem; symptoms may be protean, referred, and poorly localized. History and physical examination can be unreliable in discriminating between intra-articular and extra-articular origins of pain. MR imaging augments clinical evaluation by providing information about the hip joint as well as the periarticular structures, which can be a source of symptoms. This article presents an anatomy-based review of common and less common tendon pathologies on MR imaging, which are considered in the differential diagnosis of hip pain.