The ipa- family adds causation and normally selects the theme or patient of the caused action as the ang/si pivot. In Ipabasa mo kay Nestor ang liham, you are the causer, Nestor is the caused reader or causee, and the letter is the selected patient. Natural English may say “Have Nestor read the letter,” “Ask Nestor to read the letter,” or “Get the letter read by Nestor,” depending on context.
Morphologically, ipa- contains the causative element pa- inside an i- voice construction. Some linguistic descriptions therefore call it causative conveyance or circumstantial voice. This sequence follows the manifest’s label causative patient voice because the caused theme is normally the pivot. It is an ordinary Filipino voice pattern, not an English passive. All unlabelled forms and examples below are neutral contemporary Filipino.
The broader principles of added participants are introduced in valency and participant structure.
The core participant frame
| Basic form | Caused event | Selected pivot | Typical causee |
|---|---|---|---|
| ipabasa | someone reads something | reading material | reader with sa/kay |
| ipakain | someone eats something | food | eater with sa/kay |
| ipalinis | someone cleans something | thing or place cleaned | cleaner with sa/kay |
| ipagawa | someone does, makes, or repairs something | task or affected item | worker with sa/kay |
| ipatahi | someone sews something | item sewn | sewer with sa/kay |
| ipabili | someone buys something | item bought | buyer with sa/kay |
The causer takes an ng/ni form or an ng-form pronoun. The caused theme is the pivot, and an expressed causee normally takes sa for a common noun or kay/kina for personal names. This extra participant is why causative valency is richer than the corresponding noncausative frame.
Ipabasa mo kay Nestor ang liham bago siya pumirma.
Have Nestor read the letter before he signs.
Here mo is the causer, kay Nestor the causee, and ang liham the reading-material pivot. English word order places Nestor before the letter, but Filipino markers identify the roles.
Ipakain mo sa bata ang lugaw habang mainit pa.
Feed the child the rice porridge while it is still warm.
The child is both causee and eater. English feed packages this as one lexical verb; Filipino ipakain transparently relates the feeding to a caused eating event.
The causee can be named or left implicit
Ipakuha natin kay Mila ang ekstrang susi sa opisina.
Let's have Mila get the spare key from the office.
Inclusive natin makes speaker and addressee joint causers. Kay Mila names the person asked to act, while ang ekstrang susi is the selected theme.
In service and repair contexts, the worker is often unimportant or recoverable, so the causee can be omitted.
Ipagawa mo ang sirang gripo bago lumala ang tagas.
Have the broken faucet repaired before the leak gets worse.
The sentence does not claim that the addressee will repair it personally. It instructs the addressee to arrange the repair. The omitted repairer remains conceptually part of the causative event.
A root belongs to several voice constructions
Compare two completed causatives built from linis:
Nagpalinis si Mara kay Joel ng mga bintana bago ang inspeksiyon.
Mara had Joel clean some windows before the inspection.
Ipinalinis ni Mara kay Joel ang mga bintanang may mantsa.
Mara had Joel clean the stained windows.
Actor-voice nagpalinis selects causer si Mara; the windows remain ng-marked. Causative patient-voice ipinalinis selects ang mga bintanang may mantsa, changes Mara to ni Mara, and keeps causee kay Joel. English uses an active causative for both and hides the Filipino pivot contrast.
A root is therefore a family of constructions. One citation form such as ipagawa does not reveal actor-voice magpagawa, causee-selecting forms, or every lexicalized derivative.
Aspect remains separate from voice
| Basic | Completed | Incompleted | Contemplated |
|---|---|---|---|
| ipagawa | ipinagawa | ipinapagawa / ipinagagawa | ipapagawa / ipagagawa |
| ipabasa | ipinabasa | ipinapabasa / ipinababasa | ipapabasa / ipababasa |
The two incompleted and contemplated patterns are accepted contemporary variants: one repeats material associated with pa-, while the other repeats the root’s first consonant–vowel sequence. Speaker preference and teaching tradition vary. Do not combine both strategies inside one form.
Questions, negation, and connected use
Hindi ipinabili ni Rosa kay Nilo ang pinakamahal na modelo.
Rosa did not have Nilo buy the most expensive model.
Negation denies the completed caused purchase; it does not change the patient pivot or the roles of Rosa and Nilo.
—Kanino mo ipapatahi ang mga kurtina? —Kay Aling Nena, dahil matibay ang tahi niya.
—Who will you have sew the curtains? —Aling Nena, because her stitching is durable.
Kanino asks for the personal causee, not the pivot. The contemplated ipapatahi selects ang mga kurtina as the item to be sewn.
Lexical limits and established meanings
The pattern is productive, but not every apparent ipa- word is interpreted by adding “have someone” to a root. High-frequency ipakita “show,” ipakilala “introduce,” ipaalam “inform,” and ipaliwanag “explain” have conventional meanings and participant frames. A transparent causative paraphrase may illuminate their history without fully describing current usage.
Conversational speech may omit initial i- in some begun forms (informal), producing forms such as pinagawa where careful writing may use ipinagawa for the theme-selecting causative. Because pina- forms can also belong to a different causee-selecting paradigm, this reduction can be structurally ambiguous. Use the full ipa-/ipina- series as the neutral written standard taught here.
Common Mistakes
Marking the causee as a second pivot
❌ Ipabasa mo si Nestor ang buong liham bago siya pumirma.
Incorrect — ipa- selects the letter, while the personal causee requires kay.
✅ Ipabasa mo kay Nestor ang buong liham bago siya pumirma.
Have Nestor read the entire letter before he signs.
Mixing actor voice with patient-voice markers
❌ Dapat magpatahi ni Lea kay Aling Cora ang uniporme para sa pagtatanghal.
Incorrect alignment — magpatahi selects the causer, so it cannot take a ni causer and ang patient in this frame.
✅ Dapat ipatahi ni Lea kay Aling Cora ang uniporme para sa pagtatanghal.
Lea should have Aling Cora sew the uniform for the performance.
Adding an English tense ending
❌ Ipinagawa-ed ni Lino ang bubong noong nakaraang buwan.
Incorrect — ipinagawa already marks completed aspect and never takes English -ed.
✅ Ipinagawa ni Lino ang bubong noong nakaraang buwan.
Lino had the roof repaired last month.
Using an ipa- frame when the reader should be pivot
❌ Ipabasa mo si Lito ng buong liham bago ang pulong.
Incorrect for the intended causee-pivot frame — ipa- selects the reading material, not Lito.
✅ Pabasahin mo si Lito ng buong liham bago ang pulong.
Have Lito read the entire letter before the meeting.
Key Takeaways
- Ipa- adds a causer and normally selects the theme or patient of the caused action as pivot.
- The causer takes an ng/ni form, and an expressed causee normally takes sa/kay.
- Actor-voice magpa- selects the causer; ipa- selects the caused theme, so their marker frames differ.
- Aspect morphology changes the verb’s event phase without changing its basic causative alignment.
- Learn lexical families and accepted reduplication variants instead of assigning ipa- one English translation.
Related Topics
- The ipa- causative patient voice: Completed-Aspect FormationB1 — Form completed ipa- causatives with ipina- while keeping the caused theme as pivot and the causee in a sa/kay phrase.
- The ipa- causative patient voice: Incompleted-Aspect FormationB1 — Form ongoing and habitual ipa- causatives with begun marking and one of two accepted reduplication patterns.
- The ipa- causative patient voice: Valency, Voice, and Lexical RestrictionsB1 — Map causers, causees, and caused themes in ipa- clauses and distinguish productive causatives from lexicalized forms.
- The magpa- causative actor voice: Function and DistributionB1 — Understand how magpa- adds a causer, selects that causer as pivot, and covers causing, permitting, arranging, and obtaining services.
- The i- conveyance voice: Function and DistributionB1 — Learn how i- benefactive/instrumental voice selects a conveyed, placed, applied, or lexically specified participant as the pivot.
- Valency and Participant StructureA2 — Map the actors, patients, recipients, locations, beneficiaries, and instruments licensed by Filipino verb constructions and their voice frames.