Verb Reference: tawid | Filipino Grammar

The root tawid concerns movement from one side to another. Tumawid selects the person or vehicle crossing, tawirin selects the road, river, bridge, boundary, or stretch crossed, and itawid selects a person or thing conveyed across. Matawid and makatawid distinguish an achievable crossed route from a crosser who succeeds in reaching the other side.

English often uses cross transitively—“cross the street”—whether the discourse follows the traveler or the street. Filipino voice makes that choice overt. A useful reference therefore records the whole root-centered network and its markers, not just one translation followed by a tense chart.

Core forms and functions

All unmarked forms are (neutral). The aspect labels are Filipino event perspectives, not direct equivalents of English tense.

Family	Basic	Completed	Incompleted	Contemplated	Typical pivot
actor voice	tumawid	tumawid	tumatawid	tatawid	crosser; route or crossing place commonly follows sa or, in some frames, ng
patient/route voice	tawirin	tinawid	tinatawid	tatawirin	selected road, river, bridge, boundary, or distance crossed
conveyance i- voice	itawid	itinawid	itinatawid	itatawid	selected person, animal, vehicle, or object brought across
potential/result route voice	matawid	natawid	natatawid	matatawid	selected route, obstacle, or distance successfully or possibly crossed
actor ability/result	makatawid	nakatawid	nakakatawid / nakatatawid	makakatawid / makatatawid	crosser who can or manages to reach the other side
causative actor voice	magpatawid	nagpatawid	nagpapatawid	magpapatawid	person arranging, enabling, or supervising a crossing
causative patient voice	patawirin	pinatawid	pinatatawid / pinapatawid	patatawirin	selected person or vehicle made or allowed to cross

Ka-copy nakakatawid/makakatawid is widespread in conversation and ordinary writing. Root-copy nakatatawid/makatatawid is frequent in careful and (formal) prose. The variation does not change the crosser-pivot frame.

Tumawid and tawirin: crosser versus crossed route

Actor-voice tumawid selects the crosser with ang/si. The route or crossing point very commonly follows sa. Patient/route-voice tawirin selects an identifiable route, barrier, or span with ang; the crosser takes an ng-series form.

Tumawid si Mila sa mababaw na sapa bago lumakas ang agos.

Mila crossed the shallow creek before the current grew stronger. (completed actor voice; neutral)

Tinawid ni Mila ang mababaw na sapa bago lumakas ang agos.

Mila crossed the shallow creek before the current grew stronger. (completed route voice; neutral)

The event can be identical. The first follows si Mila and treats the creek as her crossing path; the second follows ang mababaw na sapa as the selected span. The realignment si ... sa to ni ... ang cannot be reproduced by merely moving English noun phrases.

Tumatawid sa riles ang ilang manggagawa kapag sarado ang lagusan.

Some workers cross the tracks when the underpass is closed. (habitual incompleted actor voice; neutral)

Tatawirin ba ninyo ang ilog kahit mataas pa ang tubig?

Will you cross the river even though the water is still high? (interrogative contemplated route voice; neutral)

Actor-voice tumawid ng kalsada/ilog also occurs, especially when the phrase measures the traversed span; tumawid sa kalsada/ilog is extremely common and readily presents the crossing place or path. This accepted variation does not turn an ang-marked route into an actor-voice object. Use tawirin ang kalsada when the particular road is the selected pivot.

💡

Use tumawid ... sa/ng route when the crosser is pivot and tawirin ... ang route when the road, river, bridge, boundary, or distance crossed is pivot.

Itawid: select what someone brings across

Itawid adds a caused-motion frame. Its ang phrase is not the road but the person, animal, vehicle, or object that an actor guides, carries, ferries, or moves to the other side. The path normally follows sa.

Itinawid ni Mila sa abalang lansangan ang matandang may tungkod.

Mila guided the elderly person with a cane across the busy street. (completed conveyance voice; neutral)

Itatawid ng bangkero ang mga kahon kapag humupa na ang hangin.

The boat operator will take the boxes across when the wind has eased. (contemplated conveyance voice; neutral)

The first example does not mean that the elderly person crossed Mila. Ni Mila is the actor, sa abalang lansangan the path, and ang matandang may tungkod the selected conveyed participant. This role pattern is a practical instance of instrumental and conveyance voice.

Magpatawid and patawirin: arrange or allow a crossing

Causative actor-voice magpatawid selects someone who arranges, enables, or supervises a crossing: Nagpatawid ng mga pasahero ang bangkero “The boat operator ferried passengers across.” Patient-voice patawirin instead selects the person or vehicle made or allowed to cross.

Pinatawid ng guwardiya ang mga bata nang huminto ang mga sasakyan.

The guard let the children cross when the vehicles stopped. (completed causative patient voice; neutral)

Careful paradigm descriptions often give incompleted pinatatawid, while analogical pinapatawid is also widespread in contemporary speech and writing. Neither is the same as itawid: patawirin ang mga bata selects the caused crossers, whereas itawid ang mga bata presents them as participants someone actively guides or conveys across.

Matawid and makatawid: achievable route versus successful crosser

Matawid selects the route or obstacle that can be or has been successfully crossed. Makatawid selects the crosser capable of reaching the other side.

Natawid namin ang malapad na putikan bago bumuhos ang ulan.

We managed to cross the wide muddy stretch before the rain poured down. (completed route result; neutral)

Nakatawid kami sa malapad na putikan bago bumuhos ang ulan.

We managed to get across the wide muddy stretch before the rain poured down. (completed actor result; neutral)

The first sentence selects ang malapad na putikan and encodes the crossers as namin. The second selects kami and keeps the route in a sa phrase. English translates both with “managed to cross,” so the marker contrast must be learned directly.

Hindi matatawid ng maliit na sasakyan ang bahaging lubog sa baha.

A small vehicle will not be able to cross the flooded section. (negative contemplated route potential; neutral)

💡

Use matawid ... ang route when judging whether a route or obstacle is crossable; use makatawid ang/si crosser when judging whether the traveler can get across.

Nouns, compounds, and extended meanings

Tawiran is a crossing place, as in tawiran ng mga naglalakad “pedestrian crossing.” It is primarily a noun in contemporary standard Filipino; do not substitute it mechanically for patient-voice tawirin. Pagtawid names the act of crossing, while pantawid is something that enables someone to get through a gap, distance, or difficult period.

—Saan ang pinakamalapit na tawiran? —Sa tapat ng munisipyo, katabi ng hintayan ng bus.

—Where is the nearest crossing? —Opposite the municipal hall, beside the bus stop. (neutral exchange)

The compound pantawid-gutom is (informal) for a small amount of food that staves off hunger rather than providing a full meal. Tawid-dagat appears as a modifier for something or someone coming from across the sea and can sound journalistic or literary depending on context.

English cross has unrelated meanings. “Cross out the wrong word” is guhitan or burahin ang maling salita; “cross your arms” is ihalukipkip ang mga braso; and “our paths crossed” may be nagtagpo ang aming landas. These are not productive tawid expressions.

Common Mistakes

Giving actor-voice tumawid an ang-marked route

❌ Tumawid si Mila ang mababaw na sapa.

Incorrect — tumawid selects Mila as pivot; the route normally takes sa or, in an accepted traversed-span frame, ng.

✅ Tumawid si Mila sa mababaw na sapa.

Mila crossed the shallow creek. (actor voice; neutral)

Keeping the crosser as si with tinawid

❌ Tinawid si Mila ang mababaw na sapa.

Incorrect — tinawid selects the creek, so the personal-name crosser takes ni.

✅ Tinawid ni Mila ang mababaw na sapa.

Mila crossed the shallow creek. (route voice; neutral)

Selecting the road instead of the conveyed person with itawid

❌ Itinawid ni Mila ang lansangan sa matandang may tungkod.

Incorrect for 'guided the elderly person across' — itawid selects the conveyed person, while the road is a sa-marked path.

✅ Itinawid ni Mila sa lansangan ang matandang may tungkod.

Mila guided the elderly person with a cane across the street. (conveyance voice; neutral)

Using the crossing-place noun as the route verb

❌ Tawiran mo ang tulay bago dumilim.

Incorrect for 'cross the bridge' — tawiran is normally the noun 'crossing place'; the selected-route verb is tawirin.

✅ Tawirin mo ang tulay bago dumilim.

Cross the bridge before dark. (route-voice command; neutral)

💡

The full network distinguishes crosser tumawid, selected route tawirin, conveyed participant itawid, achievable route matawid, successful crosser makatawid, and causative magpatawid/patawirin.

Key Takeaways

Tumawid selects the crosser; its route commonly follows sa, with accepted ng traversed-span uses.
Tawirin ... ang route selects the road, river, bridge, boundary, or distance crossed.
Itawid ... ang participant sa route selects someone or something taken across.
Matawid profiles a crossable route; makatawid profiles a crosser able to reach the other side.
Tawiran is a crossing place, and English expressions such as cross out or cross one's arms require other Filipino roots.

Now practice Filipino

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Filipino →