The accompaniment root sama forms a rich network: sumama means join or come along, samahan selects the person accompanied, isama selects someone or something taken along or included, and magsama presents people being or living together. Makisama adds social participation and accommodation.
Ordinary spelling also writes sama in the separate property family masama “bad.” Thus Sumama si Lito sa amin means Lito came along, while Sumama ang panahon means the weather worsened. This page focuses on accompaniment and inclusion; it flags the homography so learners do not force the two meanings into one valency pattern. See the maki- social-participation family for deeper treatment of makisama.
Core forms and functions
| Family | Basic | Completed | Incompleted | Contemplated | Typical pivot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| actor voice | sumama | sumama | sumasama | sasama | person joining or coming along |
| ability/opportunity actor voice | makasama | nakasama | nakakasama | makakasama | person able or given an opportunity to be with others |
| locative voice (companion) | samahan | sinamahan | sinasamahan | sasamahan | person accompanied |
| benefactive/instrumental i- voice | isama | isinama | isinasama | isasama | person or thing taken along or included |
| associative actor voice | magsama | nagsama | nagsasama | magsasama | people being, working, or living together |
| causative actor voice | magpasama | nagpasama | nagpapasama | magpapasama | person arranging for someone to accompany or come along |
| social participation | makisama | nakisama | nakikisama | makikisama | person joining or accommodating a group |
| combining causative | pagsamahin | pinagsama | pinagsasama | pagsasamahin | people or things combined |
The suffix surfaces as -han after vowel-final sama: sama + -an → samahan. Record the actual form rather than producing samaan. This is a regular morphophonemic pattern, but the companion-selecting meaning remains lexical.
Sumama: the joining person is the pivot
Actor-voice sumama selects the person who joins, accepts an invitation, or comes along. The group or person joined takes sa/kay.
Sumama si Lino sa amin sa pagkuha ng mga kagamitan.
Lino came with us to collect the equipment.
Sumasama si Aya kay Lola tuwing namamalengke si Lola.
Aya goes along with Grandmother whenever she shops at the market.
Sasama kami sa paglilibot, pero uuwi kami bago magdilim.
We will join the tour, but we will go home before dark.
Kami excludes the addressee. If the invitation and response include the person being addressed, tayo is required. The verb itself does not encode that inclusivity contrast.
Negated completed hindi sumama reports nonparticipation, while a prohibition uses huwag sumama.
Hindi sumama si Nardo dahil masama ang pakiramdam niya.
Nardo did not come along because he felt unwell.
The two occurrences belong to different lexical families: sumama is accompaniment, while masama predicates a bad physical state.
The ability/opportunity family makasama commonly presents someone who can join or has the chance to be with others.
Sana makasama ka namin sa hapunan sa Sabado.
I hope you can join us for dinner on Saturday.
This family is also homographic with a form of masama “bad”: Makasama sa katawan ang sobrang asin means “Too much salt can be harmful to the body.” The sa amin/namin companion frame versus the evaluative sa katawan frame normally makes the intended family clear.
Actor-voice magpasama selects someone who arranges to have a companion or lets another person come along.
Nagpasama si Dina sa kaniyang kapatid papunta sa klinika.
Dina asked her sibling to accompany her to the clinic.
Samahan: select the person accompanied
Samahan selects the companion or person receiving accompaniment. The accompanying person takes an ng/ni form.
Sinamahan ni Rosa ang kaniyang ama sa pagamutan.
Rosa accompanied her father to the hospital.
Sasamahan kita sa tanggapan para hindi ka maligaw.
I will accompany you to the office so you do not get lost.
In sasamahan kita, fused pronoun kita packages first-person singular actor plus second-person singular pivot. It cannot be replaced word for word by ko ka.
Isama: take along or include
Isama selects the person or thing that an actor brings into a group, trip, list, mixture, or document. The actor takes an ng-form, and the destination or containing group often takes sa.
Isinama ni Mila sa biyahe ang kaniyang nakababatang kapatid.
Mila took her younger sibling along on the trip.
Huwag mong isama sa ulat ang bilang na hindi pa kumpirmado.
Do not include the figure that has not yet been confirmed in the report.
Isasama namin kayo sa susunod na pagpupulong.
We will include you in the next meeting.
The first example involves physical accompaniment; the next two involve abstract inclusion. The selected participant remains pivot in both extensions.
Controlled comparison: join, accompany, and take along
Sumama si Tess kay Omar sa palengke.
Tess went along with Omar to the market. (Tess joins)
Sinamahan ni Tess si Omar sa palengke.
Tess accompanied Omar to the market. (Omar selected as companion)
Isinama ni Omar si Tess sa palengke.
Omar took Tess along to the market. (Tess selected as person taken)
The first selects si Tess as the joining actor. The second selects si Omar as the person accompanied and marks Tess with ni. The third selects Tess again, but now Omar is the actor who includes or takes her. English translations overlap, yet the social initiative and marker frames differ.
Magsama and makisama
Magsama presents two or more participants as being, working, or living together. A plural pivot is usual, whether expressed by sila, a coordinated phrase, or context.
Nagsama sa iisang bahay ang magkapatid habang inaayos ang kanilang mga silid.
The siblings stayed together in one house while their rooms were being repaired.
In relationship contexts, nagsasama can mean living together as partners. That meaning is neutral but context-sensitive; do not assume that every use implies marriage or romance.
Makisama can mean join company, cooperate socially, get along, or accommodate a group. The related noun pakikisama carries culturally important expectations, but the verb is not an untranslatable cultural label.
Madaling makisama si Joel sa mga bagong katrabaho.
Joel gets along easily with new coworkers.
Depending on context, makisama may be approving or may suggest yielding to group pressure. The surrounding evaluation must make that stance explicit.
Kasama, samahan, and other related words
Kasama is a companion noun or relational predicate: Kasama ko si Dina means “Dina is with me/my companion.” It does not require a copula. Magkasama presents two or more participants as together in a state, while verbal magsama presents their joining, working, or living together as an event or activity. Samahan can also be a noun meaning association or organization, distinct from the verb samahan “accompany.”
Kasama namin si Dina, pero hindi siya kasapi ng samahan.
Dina is with us, but she is not a member of the association.
Magkasama sina Lira at Ben sa proyekto, pero hindi sila magkasama sa bahay.
Lira and Ben are together on the project, but they are not together at home.
Pagsamahin means combine selected people or things. It is not merely the plural of sumama.
Pagsamahin natin ang dalawang maliit na pangkat para mapuno ang bulwagan.
Let us combine the two small groups so the hall will be filled.
A short exchange
—Sasama ka ba sa amin bukas? —Oo, pero samahan mo akong umuwi bago mag-alas-sais.
—Will you come with us tomorrow? —Yes, but accompany me home before six o'clock.
The invitation uses actor-voice sasama with addressee pivot ka. The request shifts to samahan, where ako is selected through linked akong and the addressee is the understood actor marked by mo.
Common Mistakes
Copying “come with me” into the wrong marker frame
❌ Sumama mo ako sa palengke.
Incorrect — sumama selects the joining person and cannot take mo plus an ako patient.
✅ Sumama ka sa akin sa palengke.
Come with me to the market.
Keeping the accompanier as pivot with samahan
❌ Sinamahan si Lira ang bata sa klinika.
Incorrect — sinamahan selects the child, so Lira takes the ni form.
✅ Sinamahan ni Lira ang bata sa klinika.
Lira accompanied the child to the clinic.
Omitting the selected participant with isama
❌ Isinama ni Lira si Ben ang talaan.
Incorrect — Ben is the selected participant, while the containing list requires sa.
✅ Isinama ni Lira sa talaan si Ben.
Lira included Ben on the list.
Confusing accompaniment with worsening
❌ Sumama sa amin ang panahon kahapon.
Wrong for ‘the weather worsened’ — sa amin forces an accompaniment reading that does not fit the intended event.
✅ Sumama ang panahon kahapon, kaya hindi kami tumuloy.
The weather worsened yesterday, so we did not continue.
Key Takeaways
- Sumama selects the person joining; samahan selects the person accompanied.
- Makasama adds ability or opportunity, while magkasama predicates a state of being together.
- Isama selects someone or something taken along or included.
- Magsama presents participants together; magpasama arranges accompaniment; makisama adds social participation or accommodation.
- Kasama and nominal samahan belong to the wider word family but have their own syntax.
- Identically spelled sumama can also mean “became worse”; context separates that property family from accompaniment.
Related Topics
- Multiple Possible Verbs from One RootA2 — Explore how one Filipino root can support several established verbs with different voices, participant frames, aspect paradigms, and lexical meanings.
- Allomorphy After Vowels and GlidesB2 — Understand how Filipino verbal suffixes surface after vowel- and glide-final bases, including h insertion, contraction, vowel alternation, and lexical exceptions.
- The maki- social participation: Function and DistributionB1 — Use maki- to present an actor as joining, sharing in, or requesting access to an activity associated with other participants.
- Actor VoiceB1 — Use actor voice to select an actor, experiencer, or moving participant as pivot while marking patients and obliques appropriately.
- Patient VoiceB1 — Use patient voice to select an affected or delimited participant as pivot while retaining the actor as a core ng-series phrase.
- Inclusive tayo versus Exclusive kamiA2 — Choose tayo/natin/atin when the addressee is included and kami/namin/amin when the addressee is excluded from we.