Verb Reference: alis

The root alis connects two everyday ideas: moving away from a place and causing something to cease being in a place. English often translates both with different verbs—“leave,” “remove,” “take off,” or “delete”—but Filipino organizes them as a root-centered network. The chosen verb family determines both the event and the markers on its participants.

The core family

The forms below are (neutral) in conversation and ordinary writing. The columns describe aspect, not English tense: completed forms present a bounded event, incompleted forms present an event as ongoing or recurring, and contemplated forms present it as not yet begun.

The same-looking umalis serves as both basic and completed actor-voice form. Context and particles distinguish a command-like basic use from a completed report. Filipino does not add a past-tense ending to it.

Here si Marga and exclusive kami are traveler pivots. A place left behind is normally marked by sa or mula sa, not by an English-derived direct-object pattern. The actor-voice overview explains this pivot alignment more broadly.

Leaving and removing are different valency frames

With umalis, the actor moves. With mag-alis or alisin, an actor causes another entity to be absent. This is a lexical contrast inside the root family, not merely a choice between two translations of one English verb.

These sentences can describe the same activity. The first keeps si Pina as pivot and presents the notices with ng; the second selects ang mga lumang paskil and marks the actor with ni Pina. The difference is discourse prominence, not active versus passive in the English sense. See the fuller patient-voice guide.

Selecting the source with alisan

Alisan makes a source, surface, or container the pivot. The removed material remains an ng phrase. It is especially natural when the source is already identifiable and the instruction is about changing its contents or surface.

The container is selected by ang, while ng takip names what is removed. English reverses the apparent object relation in “remove the lid from the container,” so this frame takes deliberate practice. Alisin mo ang takip sa lalagyan is also standard, but it selects the lid rather than the container.

Result and possibility with maalis

Ma- forms commonly foreground whether removal succeeds, happens without a deliberate agent, or is possible. Their meaning is not always predictable from an English modal verb.

The affected item is pivot in both examples. A deliberate remover may be absent because the result matters more than agency. Hindi maalis does not simply equal English future “will not”; it says that the removal cannot be achieved in the relevant conditions.

Negation, questions, and commands

Use hindi to negate a statement and huwag for a negative command. Clitic pronouns follow the first suitable host: Hindi pa siya umaalis, Huwag mo munang alisin.

Here nang maaga is an adverbial expression. By contrast, ng mga lumang paskil above marks the non-pivot patient of nag-alis. The distinction is covered in when to write ng and nang.

The particle na presents departure as now relevant; pa denies that transition for the moment. The second aalis is contemplated because the departure has not begun.

Common collocations and register

Pag-alis means “departure” or “removal,” depending on its complement: pag-alis sa Maynila is departure from Manila, while pag-alis ng bara is removal of a blockage. Alis! is a blunt bare command meaning “Go away!” (informal; potentially rude). Umalis ka muna is a complete, less abrupt instruction, and a polite request can add po and an appropriate explanation.

Two common pa- expressions extend the network. Paalis na ako means “I am about to leave” or “I am on my way out,” whereas Paalisin mo siya means “Ask or order that person to leave.” Imminent paalis is not simply contemplated aalis, and causative paalisin adds a person who brings about the departure.

In digital contexts, alisin sa listahan, alisin sa grupo, and alisin ang talaksan are standard. Do not mechanically extend every family to every meaning: for taking off clothing, hubarin is often more specific than alisin, although alisin ang sapatos is fully natural.

Common Mistakes

Using departure morphology for deliberate removal

Changing umalis to inalis also changes the frame: Niko becomes a non-pivot actor and the padlock becomes pivot.

Keeping English subject markers after choosing patient voice

Dropping the required hyphen before a vowel-initial root

The same visible boundary appears in mag-alis, nag-alis, nag-aalis, and mag-aalis. Review hyphenation with affixes.

Key Takeaways

• Learn alis as linked voice families, not as one English-style conjugation.
• Use umalis for a departing actor; use mag-alis/alisin for deliberate removal.
• Choose alisan when the source or container is pivot, and maalis when result or removability is central.
• Keep markers and aspect inside the chosen family: nag-aalis si ... ng ... versus inaalis ni ... ang ....