The root kilala covers several related ideas: being known, knowing who someone is, recognizing or acknowledging someone, becoming acquainted, and introducing one person to another. English distributes these meanings among know, recognize, meet, and introduce. Filipino instead builds a root-centered network whose members have different aspect and participant frames.
The unmarked forms below belong to neutral contemporary Filipino. Bare kilala is a property or knowledge predicate, not an aspect-bearing verb. Kilalanin is patient voice, makilala commonly presents achieved or possible recognition/acquaintance, magpakilala selects the introducer, and ipakilala selects the person or thing being introduced. When magpakilala has no separate introduced participant, it commonly means “introduce oneself.”
Core forms and functions
| Family and pivot | Basic | Completed | Incompleted | Contemplated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| known state or relation | kilala | |||
| recognized or acknowledged patient | kilalanin | kinilala | kinikilala | kikilalanin |
| achieved or possible acquaintance/recognition | makilala | nakilala | nakikilala | makikilala |
| introducer, actor voice | magpakilala | nagpakilala | nagpapakilala | magpapakilala |
| introduced person or thing | ipakilala | ipinakilala | ipinakikilala | ipakikilala |
The table is deliberately not an English-style conjugation of one verb. Bare kilala has no completed or contemplated cell because a property predicate does not carry verbal aspect. The other rows are distinct constructions, and their English translations shift with context. See how to read a verb paradigm for the aspect labels.
Bare kilala: known, familiar, or famous
As a predicate, kilala can describe a relation between a knower and a known person or thing. The known participant takes an ang/si form, while the knower takes an ng/ni form. English expresses the knower as a subject, but Filipino does not copy that arrangement.
Kilala ko ang boses ng tagapagbalita kahit hindi ko siya nakikita.
I know the announcer's voice even when I cannot see them. (neutral)
Hindi namin kilala ang lalaking naghihintay sa labas ng opisina.
We do not know the man waiting outside the office. (neutral negative)
With no expressed knower, kilala often means “well known” or “famous.” A sa phrase identifies the community, place, or field in which the reputation holds; an ng phrase instead identifies people who know the referent.
Kilala si Leona sa lalawigan dahil sa kaniyang mga kuwentong pambata.
Leona is well known in the province because of her children's stories. (neutral)
Thus kilala ng mga guro means “known by the teachers,” while kilala sa mga guro can mean “known among teachers.” Those readings may overlap in a suitable context, but the markers are not interchangeable articles or cases.
Intensive kilalang-kilala means “very well known” or “know very well.” The first copy carries the vowel-final linker -ng; the hyphen joins the repeated lexical material.
Kilalanin: recognize, acknowledge, or treat as
Patient-voice kilalanin selects the person, contribution, status, or fact recognized. The recognizer takes an ng/ni form. Its meaning can range from visual identification to official acknowledgment; a bilang phrase states the status assigned.
Kinilala ni Farah ang dating kaklase sa kaniyang tawa.
Farah recognized her former classmate by her laugh. (completed patient voice)
Kinikilala ng samahan ang ambag ng mga boluntaryo sa taunang pagtitipon.
The association recognizes the volunteers' contribution at its annual gathering. (habitual patient voice; neutral-formal context)
Kikilalanin ng konseho si Arturo bilang kinatawan ng mga mangingisda.
The council will recognize Arturo as the fishers' representative. (contemplated patient voice; formal institutional context)
Completed kinilala presents a bounded act of recognition. Incompleted kinikilala can describe recognition now in progress, a repeated institutional practice, or a standing acknowledgment construed dynamically. Contemplated kikilalanin presents the act as unbegun; it is not merely a future-tense ending.
Makilala: meet, get to know, or be identifiable
The ma- family often packages recognition or acquaintance as an achieved, possible, or emerging result. With a person, completed nakilala commonly means “met” or “got to know,” not simply “knew.” Context determines whether the relevant achievement is acquaintance or identification.
Nakilala ko si Pilar sa pagsasanay para sa mga bagong kawani.
I met Pilar at the training for new employees. (completed acquaintance)
Makikilala mo ang tamang kahon sa asul na tali sa hawakan.
You will be able to identify the right box by the blue string on its handle. (contemplated recognition)
Kilala ko si Pilar describes an existing knowledge relation. Nakilala ko si Pilar reports the event through which acquaintance was achieved. English know versus meet is useful here, but the deeper contrast is state versus event. The page on aspect with stative predicates develops this distinction.
Introducing oneself and introducing someone
Magpakilala selects the introducer. With no separate introduced participant, it normally means that the actor presents their own identity; the addressee appears with sa/kay. It can also take an ng-marked person, product, or idea that the actor introduces. Ipakilala instead selects that introduced participant, while its introducer takes ng/ni.
Nagpakilala muna si Ruben sa mga bagong kapitbahay bago siya nag-alok ng tulong.
Ruben first introduced himself to the new neighbors before offering help. (actor voice; no separate introduced participant)
Nagpakilala si Ruben ng kaniyang kapatid na si Nena sa mga bagong kapitbahay.
Ruben introduced his sister Nena to the new neighbors. (introducer pivot)
Ipinakilala ni Ruben sa mga bagong kapitbahay ang kaniyang kapatid na si Nena.
Ruben introduced his sister Nena to the new neighbors. (introduced-person pivot)
The last two examples describe the same event but change the selected participant. With nagpakilala, si Ruben is the introducer pivot and his sister is ng-marked. With ipinakilala, Ruben becomes ni Ruben, while ang kaniyang kapatid is the introduced pivot. Ipakilala is highly lexicalized in modern usage: treating it mechanically as “cause to know” will not predict its entire argument frame.
—Magkakilala na ba kayo? —Hindi pa. Pakilala mo naman ako kay Sam pagkatapos ng pulong.
—Do you two know each other already? —Not yet. Please introduce me to Sam after the meeting. (informal conversation)
Magkakilala describes mutual acquaintance. Conversational Pakilala mo naman ako... is a common shortened directive related to ipakilala (informal); the fuller Ipakilala mo naman ako... is also neutral and explicit. This is accepted register variation, not a difference in who is being introduced.
Collocations and nominal forms
- kilala sa larangan ng... — known in the field of...
- kilala bilang... — known as...
- kilalang-kilala — very well known; known very well
- pagkilala sa ambag/karapatan — recognition of a contribution/right
- tanda ng pagkilala — token of recognition or appreciation
- magkakilala — know each other; be acquainted
Common Mistakes
Copying English subject–verb order into the stative frame
❌ Ako kilala si Celia mula sa dati naming trabaho.
Incorrect for ‘I know Celia’ — the knower is not an ang-form subject in this predicate frame.
✅ Kilala ko si Celia mula sa dati naming trabaho.
I know Celia from our former workplace.
Using the stative predicate for the event of meeting
❌ Kilala ko si Celia sa kumperensiya noong Lunes.
Wrong for the intended ‘I met Celia on Monday’ — kilala describes an existing relation.
✅ Nakilala ko si Celia sa kumperensiya noong Lunes.
I met Celia at the conference on Monday.
The first version can be understood as saying that the conference is the context in which the speaker knows Celia, not that the meeting occurred then.
Keeping the introducer as an ang-form participant with ipakilala
❌ Ipinakilala si Ruben ang bagong tagapangasiwa sa mga kawani.
Incorrect — ipinakilala selects the person introduced, so Ruben takes the ni form.
✅ Ipinakilala ni Ruben ang bagong tagapangasiwa sa mga kawani.
Ruben introduced the new administrator to the employees.
Treating kilalanin as a synonym of meet
❌ Kinilala ko si Mara sa palihan kahapon.
Wrong for the intended first meeting — kinilala normally means recognized or acknowledged.
✅ Nakilala ko si Mara sa palihan kahapon.
I met Mara at the workshop yesterday.
Key Takeaways
- Bare kilala describes an existing state or relation; it does not inflect for aspect.
- Kilalanin selects someone or something recognized, identified, or acknowledged.
- Nakilala commonly reports achieved acquaintance or recognition; it is not just the past of kilala.
- Magpakilala selects the introducer and often means “introduce oneself” when no separate theme is expressed; ipakilala selects the person or thing introduced.
- The useful learning unit is the whole kilala network plus its marker frames, not one English gloss and a list of endings.
Related Topics
- Adjectives as PredicatesA2 — Make complete Filipino clauses with property words directly as predicates, without adding an English-style copula.
- How to Build and Read a Verb ParadigmA2 — Build useful Filipino verb paradigms by crossing an attested voice family with aspect forms, surface changes, and participant-marker frames.
- The -in- patient voice: Function and DistributionB1 — Understand how the -in patient-voice family selects a patient pivot and why its forms and meanings must be learned as a lexical paradigm.
- The ipa- causative patient voice: Function and DistributionB1 — Use ipa- to select the theme of a caused action while distinguishing the causer, causee, and affected patient.
- Aspect with Stative PredicatesB1 — Distinguish aspectless property and mental-state predicates from aspect-bearing experiencer, change-of-state, and result constructions.
- Reflexive sariliA2 — Use sarili with personal possessors for reflexive and own meanings, and distinguish it from mismo for emphasis and mag-isa for acting alone.