The -in family commonly selects a participant radically affected, consumed, created, completed, chosen, or targeted by an event. Yet the suffix does not itself mean “direct object.” Some -in verbs select an endpoint or human target, while many English objects require Filipino -an, i-, or another lexical family.
Valency asks which participants a verb licenses and how they are marked. Voice asks which one is pivot. In an ordinary -in patient-voice clause, the selected patient takes ang/si, while the actor takes ng/ni or an ng-form pronoun. The broader valency and participant structure page explains these dimensions across verb families.
Common valency patterns
| Semantic relation of pivot | Typical frame | Example family | Lexical contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consumed patient | ni/ng actor + ang food | kainin, inumin | patient is consumed |
| Created or transformed patient | ni/ng actor + ang result | gawin, lutuin | patient comes into being or changes |
| Bounded task or selected item | ni/ng actor + ang patient | tapusin, piliin | patient delimits the event |
| Human target | ni/ng actor + si/ang target | dalawin, sundin | target need not undergo physical change |
| Directional goal | ni/ng actor + ang endpoint | pasukin | endpoint is selected as pivot |
The page uses patient voice as the main learner label, but endpoint-selecting verbs such as pasukin are sometimes analyzed more narrowly as directional or goal voice in detailed Tagalog descriptions. This is a real semantic extension, not evidence that every ang phrase is a physically affected object.
Kinain ni Rosa ang manggang inilagay ko sa paminggalan.
Rosa ate the mango that I put in the cupboard.
Ginawa ng panday ang rehas ayon sa sukat ng bintana.
The metalworker made the grille according to the window's measurements.
Dinalaw namin si Tiya Nena sa ospital noong Linggo.
We visited Aunt Nena at the hospital on Sunday.
The first patient is consumed, the second created, and the third is an animate target of visiting. The morphology and marker alignment unite these constructions; physical affectedness does not.
The actor and patient form one alignment package
Tatapusin ng pangkat ang tulay bago magsimula ang tag-ulan.
The team will finish the bridge before the rainy season begins.
Ang tulay is patient pivot; ng pangkat is actor. Although English places “the team” in subject position, Filipino marker choice follows voice rather than English word order.
A named or pronominal actor uses its non-pivot form:
Pinili ni Ramon ang silid na may pinakamalaking bintana.
Ramon chose the room with the largest window.
Aayusin ko ang talaan pagkatapos ng tanghalian.
I will organize the register after lunch.
Ni Ramon and ko are actors. Neither can be replaced by pivot forms si Ramon and ako while the selected patient retains ang.
Patient pivots are often identifiable and discourse-prominent, but definiteness is not an inflectional requirement. A generic kind can be pivot:
Kinakain sa baybaying barangay ang damong-dagat bilang pang-araw-araw na pagkain.
Seaweed is eaten as an everyday food in the coastal community.
The actor is general and omitted, while ang damong-dagat denotes a kind. Voice and referentiality interact without becoming the same category.
Affected patient versus directional target
Some -in families select the place or person toward which action is directed.
Pinasok ng mga bumbero ang gusaling puno ng usok.
The firefighters entered the smoke-filled building.
The building is an endpoint rather than an object transformed by entering. Pasukin conventionally licenses that goal as pivot. By contrast, actor-voice pumasok selects the entering participant and marks the building with sa: Pumasok ang mga bumbero sa gusali.
Sinunod ng drayber ang rutang iminungkahi ng tagapag-ayos.
The driver followed the route suggested by the coordinator.
The route is a target or standard being followed. Any theory that defines -in solely as physical change cannot account for this ordinary example.
Competing families divide the semantic work
The root sulat demonstrates three patient- or endpoint-selecting families:
Sulatin mo ang maikling pambungad para sa liham.
Compose the short introduction for the letter.
Isulat mo ang numero ng telepono sa kuwaderno.
Write the telephone number in the notebook.
Sulatan mo ang tanggapan tungkol sa nawawalang dokumento.
Write to the office about the missing document.
Sulatin selects the text being composed. Isulat selects content put into written form and allows a sa destination. Sulatan selects an endpoint or addressee. These tendencies overlap at the margins, and speaker/collocational preferences matter; they are not freely interchangeable synonyms.
Other roots lexicalize a different family entirely. Standard buksan and hugasan use -an for the selected thing, while ibigay and itapon use i- for a conveyed or moved theme. Forms such as buksin, hugasin, bigayin, and tapunin are not neutral substitutes.
Hugasan mo ang lalagyan bago lagyan ng bagong tubig.
Wash the container before putting fresh water in it.
The command selects the washable surface/container through established hugasan. Its English object status does not license -in.
A root is a family of constructions, and one citation form hides the derivational system. For dala, dalhin selects the carried theme, while dalhan selects the recipient or destination. For kuha, kunin selects what is taken, while kunan selects a source or something photographed in one lexical use.
Omission, questions, and recoverability
Patient voice normally presupposes a pivot role, but an already recoverable patient phrase can be omitted in conversation.
—Kinuha mo na ba ang resibo? —Oo, kinuha ko na.
—Have you taken the receipt? —Yes, I've taken it already.
The reply still has patient-voice kinuha; its omitted pivot refers back to the receipt. Omission does not turn ko into a pivot.
Patient voice is also natural when the patient is questioned:
Ano ang bibilhin ninyo para sa handaan?
What will you buy for the gathering?
Ano fills the selected patient role, so contemplated bibilhin and non-pivot actor ninyo align with the question.
Negation retains the lexical frame:
Hindi namin gagamitin ang lumang makina dahil maingay iyon.
We will not use the old machine because it is noisy.
The event is denied, but the generator remains the understood patient pivot of contemplated gagamitin.
Irregularity and accepted variation
Lexical restrictions include surface form. Bili → bilhin, kuha → kunin, and gawa → gawin have shortened basic forms, but their other aspect forms reveal more of the roots: binili/binibili/bibilhin, kinuha/kinukuha/kukunin, ginawa/ginagawa/gagawin.
Some variants coexist. Dakpin and dakipin are both used for “arrest/catch.” Their contemplated forms include dadakpin, traditional darakipin, and widespread contemporary dadakipin; the completed form is dinakip. Label such alternatives root by root. A learner cannot generalize vowel deletion or the d/r alternation to create new forms.
Common Mistakes
Marking both actor and patient as pivots
❌ Kinain si Rosa ang manggang hinog.
Incorrect alignment — patient voice cannot give both participants pivot markers.
✅ Kinain ni Rosa ang manggang hinog.
Rosa ate the ripe mango.
The actor changes to personal non-pivot marker ni.
Forcing -in onto an -an family
❌ Binuksin ni Lito ang kahon gamit ang maliit na susi.
Incorrect — bukas conventionally uses buksan for this selected patient.
✅ Binuksan ni Lito ang kahon gamit ang maliit na susi.
Lito opened the box using the small key.
This changes the lexical family, not merely the spelling of one suffix.
Selecting an endpoint with the text-patient form
❌ Sinulat ko ang tanggapan tungkol sa maling singil.
Wrong for the intended meaning ‘I wrote to the office’ — sinulat selects a text as patient.
✅ Sinulatan ko ang tanggapan tungkol sa maling singil.
I wrote to the office about the incorrect charge.
Endpoint-selecting sinulatan supplies the required valency.
Copying English passive structure
❌ Ang ulat ay tinapos sa pamamagitan ni Mina.
Unnatural word-for-word passive for the intended ordinary event.
✅ Tinapos ni Mina ang ulat bago ang takdang oras.
Mina finished the report before the deadline.
Patient voice already expresses the alignment. It does not need English-style “by” wording or mandatory ay inversion.
Key Takeaways
- -In commonly selects a highly affected patient, created result, bounded task, human target, or directional goal.
- The patient/target is pivot; the actor uses ng/ni or an ng-form pronoun.
- Specificity favors patient voice in many contexts but is not identical to it.
- Competing -an and i- families divide meanings lexically; English objecthood cannot choose the affix.
- Learn principal parts, participant frames, and accepted variants as one root-based network.
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Start learning Filipino →Related Topics
- 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.
- Valency and Participant StructureA2 — Map the actors, patients, recipients, locations, beneficiaries, and instruments licensed by Filipino verb constructions and their voice frames.
- 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.
- The -an locative and patient voice: Valency, Voice, and Lexical RestrictionsB1 — Map the actors, themes, places, addressees, and patient-like pivots licensed by established -an/-han verb families.
- The i- conveyance voice: Valency, Voice, and Lexical RestrictionsB1 — Map actors, themes, recipients, beneficiaries, and instruments in lexical i- benefactive/instrumental constructions.
- Choosing -in- versus -anB1 — Choose -in or -an families by deciding whether the pivot is an affected patient, endpoint, location, addressee, surface, or lexical patient-like target.