A causative construction packages two linked events: a causer initiates, permits, requests, or arranges an event, and a causee performs or undergoes that event. Filipino voice then selects one licensed participant as the pivot. The choice is therefore not merely between English active and passive: a causative may be organized around the causer, the causee, the caused theme, or an affected endpoint.
This page compares those alignments. The magpa- actor-voice guide and adjacent affix pages give full paradigms; here the central question is what each voice makes structurally available for tracking, questioning, and contrast.
Four Ways to Organize a Caused Event
| Construction | Typical pivot | Other expressed roles | Discourse use |
|---|---|---|---|
| magpa- actor voice | causer with ang/si | theme with ng; causee often with sa/kay | track who arranged or permitted the event |
| causee-selecting pa-...-in family | causee or caused patient with ang/si | causer with ng/ni | identify who was made, allowed, or induced to act or change |
| ipa- causative patient voice | caused theme with ang | causer with ng/ni; causee with sa/kay | track the item acted on |
| pa-...-an locative family | affected endpoint with ang/si | causer with ng/ni; theme with ng | track a place, recipient, or beneficiary |
These are construction families, not a license to attach any pattern to any root. Lexical convention determines which voices exist and whether a form has developed a specialized meaning.
The Causer as Pivot
Actor-voice magpa- presents the causer as the pivot even though that person may never perform the root action.
Nagpatahi si Liza ng mga kurtina kay Belen para sa bagong opisina.
Liza had Belen sew curtains for the new office. (causer pivot)
Si Liza is the person arranging the work, kay Belen is the sewer, and ng mga kurtina is the caused theme. Calling Liza the actor pivot describes voice alignment, not direct sewing.
Nagpalabas ang tagapagsanay ng mga manlalaro upang makapagpahinga sila.
The coach let the players go out so they could rest.
Here the causee is also the mover. Magpa- does not itself distinguish an order from permission; the situation and words such as pinilit, hinayaan, or pinakiusapan make social force explicit.
The Caused Theme as Pivot
When the discourse is about the item to be made, repaired, read, or cooked, ipa- commonly selects that theme as pivot.
Ipinaluto ni Liza kay Belen ang pansit na dadalhin sa pulong.
Liza had Belen cook the noodles that will be taken to the meeting. (caused-theme pivot)
The caused cooking event has three overt participants: causer ni Liza, causee kay Belen, and pivot ang pansit. The causer is not an optional English by-phrase; it is an ordinary core participant in this voice frame.
Compare the same arrangement while holding the participants constant:
Nagpaluto si Liza ng pansit kay Belen para sa pulong.
Liza had Belen cook noodles for the meeting. (causer pivot)
Ipinaluto ni Liza kay Belen ang pansit para sa pulong.
Liza had Belen cook the noodles for the meeting. (caused-theme pivot)
The first supports a continuation about Liza's preparations. The second supports one about the noodles—their ingredients, delivery, or condition. English can translate both with the same active causative, so English syntax cannot choose the Filipino voice.
The Causee or Affected Endpoint as Pivot
A causee-selecting construction can make the person induced to act the pivot:
Pinakanta ng direktor ang bagong miyembro ng dalawang awit sa ensayo.
The director had the new member sing two songs at rehearsal. (causee pivot)
Ang bagong miyembro is both causee and singer. Ng direktor is the causer, while ng dalawang awit is the content performed. With an intransitive base, the caused participant may instead undergo a change: Pinatulog ng ama ang sanggol “The father put the baby to sleep.”
An affected site or endpoint can also be selected:
Pinalagyan ni Liza kay Berto ng makapal na kurtina ang silid-pulong.
Liza had Berto put thick curtains in the meeting room. (affected-location pivot)
The meeting room is not the item installed; it is the affected location. This distinction explains why ng makapal na kurtina and ang silid-pulong cannot simply exchange markers.
Referentiality Helps, but Lexical Licensing Comes First
Caused-theme and endpoint pivots are often identifiable because the speaker is reporting what happened to a known item or place. That tendency does not make ang an article meaning the, and a specific causee can remain kay-marked when another role is pivot.
Ipinagawa ni Noel kay Mang Carding ang aparador na minana ni Noel sa kaniyang lola.
Noel had Mang Carding repair the wardrobe he inherited from his grandmother.
Both Noel and Mang Carding are identifiable, yet the wardrobe is pivot because ipinagawa organizes the clause around the affected item. Animacy likewise does not automatically promote the human causee.
Some begun ipa- forms lose initial i- in (informal) speech: pinagawa may occur where careful written Filipino has ipinagawa. Because pina- can also belong to a causee-selecting family, the shorter form may be structurally ambiguous. The unreduced ipa-/ipina- series is clearest in neutral instructional prose.
Questions, Negation, and Context
Polarity and clause type do not change the selected role by themselves.
Hindi ipinahatid ni Rosa sa drayber ang mga kahong may lamang babasagin papunta sa bodega dahil madulas ang daan.
Rosa did not have the driver deliver the boxes containing breakable items to the warehouse because the road was slippery. (caused-theme pivot)
Kanino ninyo ipapagawa ang sirang hagdan bago magsimula ang tag-ulan?
Who will you have repair the damaged stairs before the rainy season begins?
Kanino asks for the causee while ang sirang hagdan remains the caused-theme pivot. Questioned and pivot are therefore not always the same participant; a kanino phrase can request an oblique causee.
—Sino ang nagpaayos ng lumang entablado? —Si Celso, pero ang mga ilaw lang ang ipinagawa niya kahapon.
—Who had the old stage repaired? —Celso, but he only had the lights worked on yesterday.
The question uses actor voice to identify the causer. The reply then switches to ipinagawa because ang mga ilaw lang is contrastively selected. Voice follows the changing information need.
Common Mistakes
Treating the causer as the direct performer
❌ Nagpatahi si Liza ng mga kurtina, kaya siya mismo ang gumamit ng makinang panahi.
Wrong inference — nagpatahi says that Liza arranged the sewing, not that she necessarily sewed the curtains herself.
✅ Nagtahi si Liza ng mga kurtina, kaya siya mismo ang gumamit ng makinang panahi.
Liza sewed curtains, so she herself used the sewing machine.
Keeping actor-pivot marking after choosing ipa-
❌ Ipinatahi si Liza kay Belen ang mga kurtina ng bulwagan.
Incorrect — ipinatahi selects the curtains, so Liza must be a ni-marked causer.
✅ Ipinatahi ni Liza kay Belen ang mga kurtina ng bulwagan.
Liza had Belen sew the curtains for the hall.
Giving the causee a second pivot
❌ Ipinagawa ni Noel si Mang Carding ang lumang aparador.
Incorrect — the caused item is pivot; the named causee requires kay.
✅ Ipinagawa ni Noel kay Mang Carding ang lumang aparador.
Noel had Mang Carding repair the old wardrobe.
Treating non-actor voice as optional passive styling
❌ Nagpalagay ni Liza ng kurtina ang silid-pulong.
Incorrect alignment — swapping English active for 'passive' does not permit mixed magpa- morphology, a ni causer, and an ang location.
✅ Pinalagyan ni Liza ng kurtina ang silid-pulong bago dumating ang mga panauhin.
Liza had curtains put in the meeting room before the guests arrived.
Key Takeaways
- A causative contains a causing event and an embedded caused event.
- Magpa- typically selects the causer; causee-selecting families select the induced actor or undergoer; ipa- selects a caused theme; pa-...-an selects an endpoint.
- Voice changes morphology, markers, syntactic accessibility, and discourse tracking together.
- Referentiality and animacy influence natural choice but do not override lexical valency.
- Contemporary reduction of ipina- to pina- is real (informal) variation and can create ambiguity.
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- Causer, Causee, and Pivot ChoiceC1 — Distinguish the person who initiates a caused event from the person who performs it, and choose the voice that selects the intended discourse pivot.
- Voice Choice and Discourse ProminenceB2 — Choose Filipino voice by coordinating lexical valency, pivot role, referentiality, questions, and the participant being tracked in discourse.
- 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 ipa- causative patient voice: Function and DistributionB1 — Use ipa- to select the theme of a caused action while distinguishing the causer, causee, and affected patient.
- The pa-...-an causative locative voice: Function and DistributionB1 — Learn how pa-...-an presents an affected place, destination, recipient, or beneficiary as the pivot of a caused event.
- Affix Stacking and Semantic ScopeC1 — Analyze layered Filipino verb morphology by separating derivation, causation, voice, and aspect, and by reading affix order as semantic structure.