Verb Reference: hintay | Filipino Grammar

The root hintay describes remaining available until an expected person, event, or condition arrives. Its two central frames are maghintay, which selects the waiting person as actor pivot, and hintayin, which selects what or whom that person is waiting for.

English normally keeps the waiter as its grammatical subject and adds for. Filipino can reorganize the same scene through voice, so the markers change along with the verb. The family also includes causative paghintayin “make someone wait” and reciprocal maghintayan “wait for one another.” The actor-voice overview supplies the larger marker system used by maghintay.

Core forms and functions

Family	Basic	Completed	Incompleted	Contemplated	Typical pivot
actor voice	maghintay	naghintay	naghihintay	maghihintay	waiting person or group
patient voice	hintayin	hinintay	hinihintay	hihintayin	expected person, thing, or event
actor-voice ability	makapaghintay	nakapaghintay	nakapaghihintay	makapaghihintay	be able or have an opportunity to wait
causative patient voice	paghintayin	pinaghintay	pinaghihintay	paghihintayin	person made to wait
reciprocal actor voice	maghintayan	naghintayan	naghihintayan	maghihintayan	people waiting for one another

The actor forms show reduplicated hi- in incompleted and contemplated aspect: naghihintay, maghihintay. Patient voice similarly contrasts hinintay, hinihintay, hihintayin. These are aspect patterns, not past, present, and future endings tied to clock time.

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For ordinary “wait for,” decide which participant is the pivot. Use maghintay + waiter pivot or hintayin + expected participant pivot; do not keep the same markers when switching forms.

Maghintay: the waiter is the pivot

With maghintay, the waiting person takes ang/si. A location or circumstance usually takes sa, while a nonpersonal thing expected may take ng. A personal name commonly appears with kay.

Naghihintay si Lea sa tapat ng klinika.

Lea is waiting in front of the clinic.

Naghintay kami ng huling biyahe nang mahigit isang oras.

We waited for the last trip for more than an hour.

Maghihintay ako kay Nilo sa may pasukan.

I will wait for Nilo near the entrance.

In the second sentence, ng huling biyahe is the expected vehicle or service, while nang mahigit isang oras measures duration. This is a useful real-world contrast between the phrase marker ng and adverbial nang.

The basic form is common in instructions, often with muna for a temporary pause.

Maghintay muna kayo rito habang kinukuha ko ang susi.

Please wait here for now while I get the key.

Hintayin: the expected participant is the pivot

Patient-voice hintayin selects the person, thing, or event being awaited. The waiter appears in an ng/ni form.

Hinihintay ni Mara ang resulta ng pagsusuri.

Mara is waiting for the test result.

Hinintay ng drayber si Aling Nena kahit malakas ang ulan.

The driver waited for Aling Nena even though the rain was heavy.

Hihintayin natin ang susunod na abiso bago bumiyahe.

We will wait for the next advisory before traveling.

The expected participant need not be animate. It can be a result, message, event, or change of condition. Hintayin also takes a linked clause describing the event whose completion is awaited.

Hintayin mong humupa ang ulan bago ka tumawid.

Wait for the rain to ease before you cross.

The -ng attached to mo links hintayin mo to the following predicate humupa. It is not the spelling nang.

Controlled voice comparison

Naghintay si Pilar kay Tomas sa labas ng munisipyo.

Pilar waited for Tomas outside the municipal hall. (actor voice)

Hinintay ni Pilar si Tomas sa labas ng munisipyo.

Pilar waited for Tomas outside the municipal hall. (patient voice)

The first sentence selects Pilar as actor pivot and marks the personal expected participant with kay Tomas. The second selects Tomas as patient pivot and changes Pilar to ni Pilar. English gives both the same active translation; Filipino voice changes the clause’s structural center, not merely its word order.

The patient-voice version is especially natural when Tomas is already prominent or contrastively identified. This discourse preference is strong but not a mechanical definiteness rule.

Paghintayin: cause someone to wait

Paghintayin adds a causer and selects the delayed person as pivot. It often carries a negative social implication because someone’s action or inaction imposes the wait.

Pinaghintay ng tanggapan ang mga aplikante sa labas nang dalawang oras.

The office made the applicants wait outside for two hours.

Huwag mo kaming paghintayin kung hindi ka pala makakarating.

Do not make us wait if it turns out that you cannot come.

The causer is ng tanggapan/mo, and the people made to wait are ang mga aplikante/kami. This is not simply patient-voice hintayin with an added participant; it is a lexicalized causative family.

Reciprocal waiting and conversational variants

Maghintayan presents two or more participants as mutually coordinating their waiting. Because reciprocity is built into the verb, the pivot is normally plural or understood as a group.

Maghintayan tayo sa paanan ng hagdan para sabay tayong pumasok.

Let's wait for one another at the foot of the stairs so we can go in together.

Bare hintay is common in short directives: Hintay lang and Sandali lang are both (informal) conversational formulas. Antay, mag-antay, nag-aantay, and related forms are widespread (informal) variants in speech. This guide uses hintay/maghintay as the neutral written standard; the variants are important to recognize but should not silently replace the standard forms in formal prose.

Hintay lang, kukunin ko ang payong ko.

Wait a moment; I will get my umbrella. (informal)

Duration, location, and particles

Waiting commonly combines with muna “for now/first,” pa “still,” and lang “just.” These particles occupy normal enclitic positions and can change the social force of a request.

Naghihintay pa kami sa bulwagan, pero maaari na kayong mauna.

We are still waiting in the hall, but you may go ahead.

Maghintay ka can sound direct; Maghintay ka muna frames the wait as temporary. Respectful Maghintay po muna kayo is appropriate to one respected addressee or several addressees. The verb does not inflect for their number or social status.

The ability family is common in the eager expression hindi na makapaghintay, literally being unable to wait any longer:

Hindi na ako makapaghintay na makita ang bagong silid.

I cannot wait to see the new room.

This can express genuine impatience or enthusiastic anticipation. It retains actor-voice marking: ako is the person unable to continue waiting.

A short exchange

—Hihintayin mo ba ako pagkatapos ng klase? —Oo, maghihintay ako sa may tarangkahan.

—Will you wait for me after class? —Yes, I will wait near the gate.

The question selects the expected person with patient-voice hihintayin and ang-form ako. The answer shifts to actor-voice maghihintay because the speaker now presents themself as the waiter.

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Keep three relations separate: sa often marks where someone waits, ng/kay can mark what an actor-pivot waiter awaits, and ang/si marks the selected expected participant with hintayin.

Common Mistakes

Using English “for” as para sa

❌ Naghihintay ako para sa susunod na bus.

Awkward for ordinary ‘wait for the next bus’ — para sa normally signals purpose or beneficiary.

✅ Naghihintay ako ng susunod na bus.

I am waiting for the next bus.

Keeping the waiter as si with patient voice

❌ Hinihintay si Lorna ang doktor sa pasilyo.

Incorrect — hinihintay selects the doctor, so Lorna must take the ni form.

✅ Hinihintay ni Lorna ang doktor sa pasilyo.

Lorna is waiting for the doctor in the corridor.

Confusing a location with the expected thing

❌ Naghintay kami sa bus nang kalahating oras.

Ambiguous for the intended meaning — sa bus suggests waiting at or in the bus, not necessarily waiting for it.

✅ Naghintay kami ng bus nang kalahating oras.

We waited for a bus for half an hour.

Using ordinary hintayin for “make someone wait”

❌ Hinintay ng kawani ang mga bisita nang dalawang oras.

Wrong for the intended causative meaning — this says the employee waited for the visitors.

✅ Pinaghintay ng kawani ang mga bisita nang dalawang oras.

The employee made the visitors wait for two hours.

Key Takeaways

Maghintay selects the waiter; hintayin selects the expected person, thing, event, or condition.
Switching voice changes both the verb and the marker frame: si Pilar—kay Tomas versus ni Pilar—si Tomas.
Paghintayin means cause someone to wait, while maghintayan expresses reciprocal waiting.
Makapaghintay expresses ability or opportunity to wait and occurs frequently in hindi na makapaghintay “cannot wait.”
Duration commonly uses nang, whereas the expected nonpersonal participant in actor voice may use ng.
Bare hintay and antay forms are common informally, but maghintay/hintayin remain the neutral reference forms.

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