Verb Reference: inom | Filipino Grammar

The root inom covers drinking, beverages, medicine taken by mouth, social drinking, and causing another person or animal to drink. English keeps the verb “drink” largely unchanged, but Filipino chooses among uminom, inumin, mag-inom, painumin, and ipainom according to voice, event type, and the participant made prominent.

The core family

These are contemporary standard forms. The adjacent vowels in umiinom, iinom, iniinom, and iinumin are required by the morphology; they are not spelling errors.

Family and function	Basic	Completed	Incompleted	Contemplated	Typical frame
Actor voice: drink or take orally	uminom	uminom	umiinom	iinom	ang drinker + ng liquid/medicine
Patient voice: consume a selected drink or medicine	inumin	ininom	iniinom	iinumin	ng/ni drinker + ang liquid/medicine
Actor voice: drink socially, usually alcohol	mag-inom	nag-inom	nag-iinom	mag-iinom	ang participants + optional ng drink
Causative: give or make a selected drinker drink	painumin	pinainom	pinaiinom / pinapainom	paiinumin / papainumin	ng/ni causer + ang/si drinker + ng liquid
Causative patient voice: administer a selected liquid	ipainom	ipinainom	ipinaiinom / ipinapainom	ipaiinom / ipapainom	ng/ni causer + ang liquid + sa/kay drinker

For causative painumin, pinaiinom and paiinumin preserve a compact pattern often favored in careful descriptions. Pinapainom and papainumin are widespread contemporary alternatives (neutral/informal). Item-selecting ipainom has the parallel variants shown in the table. This is genuine variation; it does not change who is causer, drinker, or liquid.

Uminom: the drinker is pivot

Actor-voice uminom selects the drinker. The consumed liquid or medicine normally follows ng.

Uminom si Cora ng malamig na tubig pagkagaling sa palengke.

Cora drank cold water after returning from the market. (completed actor voice; neutral)

Umiinom ng salabat si Mang Tonyo kapag namamaos siya.

Mang Tonyo drinks ginger tea when he gets hoarse. (habitual incompleted actor voice; neutral)

Uminom can mean “take” with pills or liquid medicine because the substance is swallowed. For medication applied another way, choose a more accurate verb such as ipahid “apply” or iturok “inject.”

Iinom ako ng gamot pagkatapos kong kumain.

I will take the medicine after I eat. (contemplated actor voice; neutral)

The two initial i vowels in iinom encode reduplication of vowel-initial inom. The vowel-initial reduplication guide explains why neither vowel is deleted.

Inumin: the drink is pivot

Patient voice selects a particular drink or dose. Compare one event with the same drinker and juice:

Uminom si Pilar ng katas ng bayabas sa almusal.

Pilar drank guava juice at breakfast. (actor voice; neutral)

Ininom ni Pilar ang katas ng bayabas sa almusal.

Pilar drank the guava juice at breakfast. (patient voice; neutral)

The first clause selects si Pilar and marks the juice with ng. The second selects ang katas ng bayabas and marks the drinker with ni Pilar. Both are completed; voice does not create an English tense contrast.

Huwag mong inumin ang gatas kung maasim na ito.

Do not drink the milk if it has already gone sour. (patient-voice prohibition; neutral)

After huwag, the basic form inumin is natural. A negative statement about a projected event instead uses contemplated iinumin: Hindi ko iinumin iyon “I will not drink that.”

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Store the vowel-initial paradigms as whole series: uminom–umiinom–iinom and inumin–ininom–iniinom–iinumin. Counting letters is not a reliable formation rule.

Inumin as a noun

Inumin can also be a noun meaning “beverage.” Syntax distinguishes it from the basic patient-voice verb.

May mainit na inumin sa termos para sa mga bagong dating.

There is a hot drink in the thermos for the new arrivals. (noun use; neutral)

After existential may, inumin is a noun. In Inumin mo ang tsaa, the same written form heads a command and is a verb. Do not assume that every word ending in -in is verbal.

Mag-inom commonly means to drink socially, usually alcoholic drinks. The activity or gathering is prominent, often without specifying one drink.

Nag-iinom ang ilang bisita sa balkonahe habang tumutugtog ang banda.

Some guests are drinking alcohol on the balcony while the band plays. (social drinking; neutral)

Without an alcohol context, uminom ng tubig is the normal expression, not mag-inom ng tubig. The noun inuman commonly means a drinking session or a place/container associated with drinking; a “drinking session” sense is (informal) and strongly suggests alcohol.

Painumin and ipainom: selecting the drinker or liquid

Painumin selects the person or animal who receives the drink. The liquid remains an ng phrase.

Pinainom ng nars ng kaunting tubig ang pasyente bago ang pagsusuri.

The nurse gave the patient a little water before the examination. (completed causative; neutral)

Pinapainom ni Liza ng gatas ang kuting tuwing alas-sais.

Liza gives the kitten milk every day at six. (widespread incompleted causative variant; neutral)

English makes “the patient” or “the kitten” the object of “give,” while Filipino painumin organizes that participant as the selected drinker. To select the liquid instead, speakers may use ipainom: Ipainom mo sa bata ang gamot “Have the child take the medicine.” These are related but distinct causative frames.

Ipinainom ng nars sa bata ang gamot na inireseta ng doktor.

The nurse gave the child the medicine prescribed by the doctor. (completed causative patient voice; neutral)

Here ang gamot is the selected liquid or dose, while sa bata identifies the drinker. Compare Pinainom ng nars ng gamot ang bata, where the child rather than the medicine is selected.

Questions and conversation

—Ano ang iniinom mo tuwing umaga? —Tubig lang; hindi ako umiinom ng kape.

—What do you drink every morning? —Just water; I don't drink coffee. (neutral conversation)

The question selects the drink with patient iniinom and marks the drinker with mo. The reply switches to actor voice because the speaker becomes pivot and coffee is an ng phrase.

Common Mistakes

Giving the drink ang marking after actor voice

❌ Uminom si Paco ang malamig na tsaa.

Incorrect — uminom selects Paco as pivot, so the consumed drink takes ng.

✅ Uminom si Paco ng malamig na tsaa.

Paco drank cold tea. (actor voice; neutral)

Keeping a si-marked drinker with patient voice

❌ Ininom si Paco ang natitirang tsaa.

Incorrect — patient-voice ininom requires a ni-form drinker.

✅ Ininom ni Paco ang natitirang tsaa.

Paco drank the remaining tea. (patient voice; neutral)

Using ordinary drink morphology when someone causes another to drink

❌ Ininom ng nars ang bata ng gamot.

Incorrect for the intended causative meaning — ininom would make the nurse the drinker.

✅ Pinainom ng nars ng gamot ang bata.

The nurse gave the child medicine to drink. (completed causative; neutral)

Deleting a vowel or a required hyphen

❌ Magiinom sila sa bahay ni Rene mamaya.

Incorrect standard spelling — mag- before vowel-initial inom requires a hyphen.

✅ Mag-iinom sila sa bahay ni Rene mamaya.

They will drink alcohol at Rene's house later. (contemplated social drinking; neutral)

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English “drink” hides several constructions: ordinary drinking uminom, a selected liquid inumin, social alcohol use mag-inom, and a caused drinker painumin.

Key Takeaways

Match actor uminom ... ng drink with patient inumin ... ang drink.
Preserve adjacent vowels in umiinom, iinom, iniinom, and iinumin.
Reserve mag-inom mainly for social or alcohol-related drinking.
Use painumin for a selected drinker and ipainom for a selected liquid or dose, and label their accepted aspect variants honestly.

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