The -an/-han family is defined by a voice-and-valency relationship, not by one English meaning. A selected place, surface, goal, addressee, source, or lexical patient-like entity becomes the ang/si pivot. The actor takes ng/ni, and a theme placed on that location may also take ng.
This creates frames that English often reorganizes completely: Nilagyan ni Pio ng kandila ang mesa literally selects the table, but natural English says “Pio put a candle on the table.” The construction is not an English passive and -an is not a preposition. All unlabelled examples below are neutral contemporary Filipino.
Role patterns inside the family
| Selected role | Example family | Pivot | Other participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| receiving surface/container | lagyan | table, jar, wall | actor + placed theme |
| affected ground/site | taniman | field, plot, embankment | actor + planted theme |
| destination | puntahan | place or person approached | traveler/actor |
| addressee/contacted goal | sulatan, tawagan | person or office contacted | writer/caller; optional content |
| inhabited location | tirhan | house or area inhabited | inhabitant/actor |
| affected patient | buksan, hugasan | thing opened or washed | actor |
| source/target | kunan | source or photographed target | actor + thing taken |
The roles are conventional. Knowing that a noun denotes a place does not prove that any verb can select it with -an. The broader concepts are explained on valency and participant structure.
Three-participant locative frames
Lagyan and taniman commonly license an actor, a theme, and a receiving location.
Nilagyan ni Faye ng sariwang bulaklak ang bawat mesa.
Faye put fresh flowers on every table.
Actor ni Faye and placed theme ng sariwang bulaklak are both non-pivots. Receiving surfaces ang bawat mesa form the pivot phrase. The two ng-series participants are distinguished by verb meaning and phrase type, not by English word order.
Tinataniman ng mga mag-aaral ng pechay ang dating tambakan.
The students are planting bok choy on the former dumping ground.
The affected ground is pivot. Incompleted tinataniman presents the planting as underway or repeated; aspect does not change the role frame.
Actor voice and locative voice package one event differently
Naglagay si Faye ng kandila sa mahabang mesa.
Faye put a candle on the long table.
Nilagyan ni Faye ng kandila ang mahabang mesa.
Faye put a candle on the long table.
The controlled pair describes a comparable event. Actor-voice naglagay selects si Faye and leaves the table as sa location. Locative nilagyan selects ang mahabang mesa, changes Faye to ni Faye, and retains the candle as ng theme. English can translate both identically.
Voice choice is influenced by affectedness and discourse prominence, but there is no rule that every definite English location must become an ang pivot. A place that merely situates an unrelated event normally remains a sa phrase.
Personal goals and marker choice
An addressee or contacted person can be construed as a goal-like pivot.
Sinulatan ni Rosa si Benigno tungkol sa iskedyul ng pag-aani.
Rosa wrote to Benigno about the harvest schedule.
Tinatawagan ni Rosa ang kooperatiba tuwing may pagbabago sa iskedyul.
Rosa calls the cooperative whenever the schedule changes.
The personal-name pivot uses si Benigno; the common-noun institutional pivot uses ang kooperatiba. The writer/caller is ni Rosa in both.
Compare actor voice:
Sumulat si Rosa kay Benigno tungkol sa iskedyul ng pag-aani.
Rosa wrote to Benigno about the harvest schedule.
Actor-voice sumulat selects Rosa and marks the personal endpoint with kay. English learners often retain to mentally and write kay Benigno after sinulatan; that mixes two voice frames.
Destination, source, and patient-like uses
Pinuntahan ng nars ang matandang pasyente sa kaniyang bahay.
The nurse went to see the elderly patient at their home.
The approached person ang matandang pasyente is pivot; sa kaniyang bahay is a separate physical setting. One clause can therefore contain a selected goal and another ordinary oblique location.
Kinunan ni Liza ng kaunting tubig ang malaking banga.
Liza took a little water from the large jar.
Here ang malaking banga is a source pivot and ng kaunting tubig the removed theme. This differs lexically from the photographic reading of kinunan, though the marker frame is similar.
Binubuksan ng kawani ang mga bintana tuwing umaga.
The employee opens the windows every morning.
The windows are patient-like pivots. They need not be literal locations. The habitual interpretation comes from incompleted aspect plus tuwing umaga.
Animacy, specificity, and omission
Locative pivots are often inanimate because places and surfaces usually are, but addressees and destinations can be people. Animacy does not determine the marker by itself: a personal name takes si, while a common description such as ang nars takes ang.
The pivot is usually identifiable or bounded because the construction selects it as the discourse center. That is a tendency, not an article rule. Ang marks pivot status, not simply English the. Themes can be omitted if recoverable:
—Nasaan ang mga etiketa? —Nilagyan na ni Pio ang lahat ng kahon; maaari na tayong umalis.
—Where are the labels? —Pio has already put them on all the boxes; we can leave now.
The omitted item is recoverable from context. Ang lahat ng kahon remains receiving-location pivot; omission does not convert nilagyan into a two-participant lexical verb permanently.
A short exchange
—Sino ang tatawagan mo tungkol sa sirang tubo? —Si Mang Celso, ang tuberong malapit dito.
—Who will you call about the broken pipe? —Mang Celso, the plumber nearby.
Sino asks for the personal goal pivot of contemplated tatawagan. Actor mo is non-pivot. The answer uses si with the personal name and supplies an appositive description.
Lexical restrictions and variation
Some root families allow multiple voices with overlapping translations: pumunta sa klinika and puntahan ang klinika, sumulat kay Benigno and sulatan si Benigno. They differ in pivot choice and often in discourse effect. Other roots have highly lexicalized -an meanings, and a seemingly possible derivative may be absent or mean something unexpected.
Surface selection also varies. Lagay → lagyan is conventional, while kuha has accepted reduced kunan and expanded kuhanan paradigms. Taniman and syncopated tamnan likewise continue separately: tinaniman/tinataniman/tataniman versus tinamnan/tinatamnan/tatamnan. Contemporary speakers may prefer one accepted variant, but these patterns do not license arbitrary deletion in other roots.
Common Mistakes
Treating the selected location as an oblique
❌ Nilagyan ni Faye ng plorera sa mahabang mesa.
Incorrect as a complete locative-voice clause — the selected table pivot is missing.
✅ Nilagyan ni Faye ng plorera ang mahabang mesa para sa salu-salo.
Faye put a vase on the long table for the gathering.
Giving ang to the placed theme
❌ Tinamnan ng mga bata ang pechay ang maliit na lote.
Incorrect — locative tinamnan selects the lot, not the planted vegetable, as pivot.
✅ Tinamnan ng mga bata ng pechay ang maliit na lote sa likod ng paaralan.
The children planted bok choy on the small lot behind the school.
Retaining kay after a locative-voice verb
❌ Sinulatan ni Rosa kay Benigno tungkol sa iskedyul.
Incorrect — sinulatan selects the addressee as pivot, so a personal name takes si.
✅ Sinulatan ni Rosa si Benigno tungkol sa iskedyul noong nakaraang linggo.
Rosa wrote to Benigno about the schedule last week.
Adding an English completed ending
❌ Pinuntahan-ed ng nars ang pasyente sa bahay.
Incorrect — pinuntahan already marks completed aspect.
✅ Pinuntahan ng nars ang pasyente sa bahay bago magtanghali.
The nurse went to see the patient at home before noon.
Key Takeaways
- -An/-han families select a lexically licensed location, surface, goal, addressee, source, or patient-like pivot.
- Actors and placed themes can both be ng-marked; their semantic roles distinguish them.
- Personal goal pivots take si/sina, while actor-voice counterparts often mark the same endpoint with kay/kina.
- Inanimate and animate pivots are both possible, and specificity does not reduce ang to an article.
- Learn each root as a set of voice, aspect, valency, and surface-form constructions.
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Start learning Filipino →Related Topics
- The -an locative and patient voice: Function and DistributionB1 — Understand how -an/-han verb families select places, surfaces, goals, addressees, and lexical patient-like pivots.
- The -an locative and patient voice: Completed-Aspect FormationB1 — Form completed -an/-han verbs with internal -in- morphology while preserving lexical suffix and stem alternations.
- The -an locative and patient voice: Incompleted-Aspect FormationB1 — Form incompleted -an/-han verbs with internal -in-, partial reduplication, and the family’s established stem alternations.
- The -an locative and patient voice: Contemplated-Aspect FormationB1 — Form contemplated -an/-han verbs through partial reduplication without completed -in- morphology.
- Valency and Participant StructureA2 — Map the actors, patients, recipients, locations, beneficiaries, and instruments licensed by Filipino verb constructions and their voice frames.
- Locative Voice: Participant MarkingB2 — Mark affected places, goals, actors, themes, and secondary locations correctly in Filipino locative-voice clauses.