The Filipino incompleted aspect, also called imperfective, presents an event from inside its development or as a pattern that recurs. Depending on context, nagluluto can mean “is cooking,” “was cooking,” or “cooks regularly.” It does not correspond to one English tense.
Its characteristic morphology combines a “begun” marker with partial reduplication. The details belong to the lexical voice family: -um- is retained in sumusulat, mag- becomes nag- in nagluluto, and patient-voice binabasa uses internal -in- without the citation suffix of basahin.
Form and function across common families
| Citation form | Completed | Incompleted | Formation insight |
|---|---|---|---|
| sumulat | sumulat | sumusulat | -um- retained + root su- copied |
| magluto | nagluto | nagluluto | mag- → nag-
|
| matulog | natulog | natutulog | ma- → na-
|
| basahin | binasa | binabasa | internal -in- + copied ba-; final citation suffix absent |
| puntahan | pinuntahan | pinupuntahan | internal -in- + copied pu-; -an retained |
| ibigay | ibinigay | ibinibigay | i- family with internal -in- and copied bi- |
Partial reduplication normally copies the first consonant and vowel of the relevant base, not the whole first written syllable in every imaginable analysis. It is written solidly: sumusulat, not sumu-sulat. Vowel-initial roots and complex affixes require their own patterns, developed on Reduplication in Verb Formation.
Sumusulat si Inez ng liham sa balkonahe habang tahimik pa ang bahay.
Inez is writing a letter on the balcony while the house is still quiet. (neutral ongoing event)
Binabasa ni Arturo ang kontrata bago siya pumirma.
Arturo is reading the contract before he signs. (patient voice; neutral)
The first clause is actor voice, with si Inez as pivot. The second is patient voice, with ang kontrata as pivot and ni Arturo as actor. Incompleted aspect does not erase voice or valency.
Ongoing now and ongoing then
An event unfolding at speech time naturally takes the incompleted form.
Nag-aayos pa ng bisikleta si Leo sa garahe, kaya mamaya na kayo umalis.
Leo is still fixing the bicycle in the garage, so leave later. (neutral)
The hyphen in nag-aayos is required because the affix meets a vowel-initial base. Particle pa keeps the repair within an unfinished phase.
The same aspect can occur in a past frame:
Naghahapunan kami nang biglang nawalan ng kuryente sa buong kalye.
We were having dinner when the whole street suddenly lost power. (neutral past background)
Nang introduces the event that occurred while the dinner was underway. English uses “were having,” but the past interpretation comes from the surrounding completed event and discourse, not from a Filipino past tense attached to naghahapunan.
Habitual and repeated readings
The incompleted aspect also presents a recurring event as an open pattern rather than one bounded occurrence.
Tuwing Biyernes, nagdadala si Miko ng prutas para sa lahat sa opisina.
Every Friday, Miko brings fruit for everyone at the office. (neutral habitual event)
Kapag tag-ulan, umaapaw ang kanal sa kanto pagkatapos ng malakas na buhos.
During the rainy season, the drain at the corner overflows after a heavy downpour. (neutral recurrent event)
Tuwing Biyernes and kapag tag-ulan create habitual frames. English uses a simple present, but Filipino uses the same incompleted morphology found in an event unfolding now. There is no separate habitual tense.
Short, naturally punctual events can take incompleted aspect when they recur:
Kumikislap ang ilaw sa pasilyo tuwing bumababa ang boltahe.
The hallway light flickers whenever the voltage drops. (neutral repeated event)
One flash is brief; kumikislap presents repeated flashes. Lexical event type affects the likely reading, but it does not ban incompleted morphology.
Controlled contrast with completed aspect
Naghugas si Bea ng mga pinggan pagkatapos ng almusal.
Bea washed the dishes after breakfast. (completed whole event)
Naghuhugas si Bea ng mga pinggan nang dumating ang tubero.
Bea was washing the dishes when the plumber arrived. (incompleted background event)
The actor voice and root hugas remain stable. Naghugas packages the washing as complete; naghuhugas places the viewpoint inside it. This is aspect, not a change from one English lexical verb to another.
A root is therefore a family of constructions, and a citation such as maghugas hides the aspect forms as well as the possible patient or locative families. Record actual principal parts rather than guessing from an English gloss.
Negation, questions, and phase
Hindi pa binubuksan ng tagapangasiwa ang silid dahil hinihintay niya ang pulis.
The manager is not opening the room yet because they are waiting for the police. (neutral)
Under hindi pa, the expected event has not begun in the relevant interval, yet Filipino commonly retains the incompleted form because the clause concerns the current phase of an anticipated activity. Negated aspect is not always a literal photograph of an event in progress.
— Nagtatrabaho ka pa ba sa lumang gusali? — Oo, pero lilipat ang opisina namin sa Mayo.
— Are you still working in the old building? — Yes, but our office will move in May. (neutral conversation)
The question permits an ongoing-employment reading. Pa precedes ba in the early particle cluster, and the reply uses exclusive namin because the office group need not include the addressee.
Formation has lexical limits
The broad patterns are productive, but the choice of voice affix is not supplied by aspect. Kain ordinarily uses actor-voice kumakain, while luto commonly uses nagluluto. A mechanically possible-looking form may belong to another meaning or be absent from current usage.
Morphophonemic alternations also matter. In the mang- family, nasal substitution can change the surface base before reduplication: mamili → namimili “goes shopping/is shopping.” Store the surface paradigm and its marker frame. Do not promise that “repeat the first two letters” will work universally.
Common Mistakes
1. Treating the form as present tense only
❌ Naghanda kami ng pagkain nang dumating ang mga bisita.
Wrong for the intended background meaning ‘We were preparing food when the guests arrived’; naghanda presents the preparation as complete.
✅ Naghahanda kami ng pagkain nang dumating ang mga bisita.
We were preparing food when the guests arrived. (neutral past incompleted event)
2. Copying too much of the root
❌ Naglululuto si Tessa ng sopas ngayon.
Incorrect — the ordinary incompleted form copies lu- once: nagluluto.
✅ Nagluluto si Tessa ng sopas ngayon.
Tessa is cooking soup now. (neutral)
3. Keeping the patient-voice citation suffix
❌ Binabasahin ni Lila ang panukala sa silid-pulong.
Incorrect — incompleted patient voice is binabasa, not a blend of binabasa and basahin.
✅ Binabasa ni Lila ang panukala sa silid-pulong.
Lila is reading the proposal in the meeting room. (formal-neutral)
4. Mixing patient voice with actor-pivot marking
❌ Pinupuntahan si Nardo ang klinika tuwing Martes.
Incorrect — patient/locative voice requires Nardo as a ni-marked actor and the clinic as pivot.
✅ Pinupuntahan ni Nardo ang klinika tuwing Martes.
Nardo goes to the clinic every Tuesday. (neutral habitual event)
Key Takeaways
- Incompleted aspect presents an event as unfolding, repeated, or habitual.
- It can refer to the past or present; time comes from context and temporal expressions.
- Partial reduplication combines with family-specific begun-event morphology.
- Voice and participant marking remain independent of the aspect contrast.
- Learn attested surface paradigms such as sumusulat, nagluluto, binabasa, and pinupuntahan rather than generating forms from English tense labels.
Related Topics
- Introduction to Verb AspectA1 — How Filipino verb forms present an event as completed, ongoing or habitual, contemplated, or just completed.
- Completed AspectA2 — Use completed or perfective verb forms to present an event as a bounded whole while keeping aspect distinct from past tense and voice.
- Reduplication in Verb FormationA2 — Recognize partial and full reduplication in Filipino verbs without confusing aspect marking, lexical derivation, and standard hyphenation.
- Verb Paradigms as Aspect-and-Voice FamiliesA2 — Read Filipino verb paradigms as intersecting choices of event aspect and participant voice rather than as English tense conjugations.
- Progressive Meaning in Incompleted FormsB1 — Use incompleted Filipino verb forms for events viewed from within their unfolding, while separating progressive meaning from habitual and repeated readings.
- Forming the Incompleted Aspect IncorrectlyB1 — Form Filipino incompleted verbs inside their established voice families instead of adding one universal progressive marker.