Patient Voice: Participant Marking | Filipino Grammar

Patient voice selects the affected or delimited patient as pivot. Correct participant marking follows from that alignment: the patient uses the ang series, the actor uses the ng series, and locations, sources, goals, or recipients normally use the sa series. English word order and active/passive labels cannot supply those markers for you.

This page develops the compact map introduced in patient voice, including personal names, pronouns, phrase order, and additional participants.

The Three-Series Map

Role in a patient-voice clause	Common/nonpersonal	Personal name	Personal pronoun
patient pivot	ang	si/sina	ako, ikaw/ka, siya, tayo, kami, kayo, sila
actor non-pivot	ng	ni/nina	ko, mo, niya, natin, namin, ninyo, nila
location/goal/source/recipient	sa	kay/kina	sa akin, sa iyo, sa kaniya, sa atin, sa amin, sa inyo, sa kanila

The English subject of the natural translation is often the Filipino ng-series actor. That fact is normal, not evidence that ng means by.

Common-Noun Patient and Actor

Sinuri ng parmasyutiko ang reseta bago ibigay ang gamot.

The pharmacist checked the prescription before dispensing the medicine. (patient voice)

Ang reseta is patient pivot. Ng parmasyutiko is the actor, even if the pharmacy has one known pharmacist. Marker ng signals non-pivot status here; it does not force an indefinite interpretation.

An oblique participant keeps sa:

Dinala ng katiwala ang mga susi sa bagong tanggapan pagkatapos ng pulong.

The caretaker brought the keys to the new office after the meeting. (patient pivot plus destination)

Ang mga susi is the conveyed patient pivot, ng katiwala the actor, and sa bagong tanggapan the destination. English has two postverbal noun phrases, but only one is pivot.

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In patient voice, assign markers by role: selected patient → ang series; actor → ng series; location or endpoint → sa series.

Personal Names Use Their Own Marker Series

Pinuri ni Ester si Mang Rodel pagkatapos ng pagtatanghal.

Ester praised Mang Rodel after the performance. (personal patient pivot)

Here si Mang Rodel is the selected personal-name patient. The corresponding actor is ni Ester, not si Ester, because Mang Rodel is the clause's pivot.

Plural personal pivots take sina:

Sinundo nina Cora at Luis sina Nena at Joel sa istasyon.

Cora and Luis picked Nena and Joel up at the station. (plural named actor and patient groups)

Nina Cora at Luis marks the named actor group; sina Nena at Joel marks the named patient group. Do not stack common and personal markers as ng nina or ang sina.

Pronouns Reveal the Alignment Clearly

Tinawag niya ako mula sa kabilang silid.

He or she called me from the other room. (first-person patient pivot)

Niya is the third-person actor; ako is the first-person patient pivot. English reverses their surface order and makes the actor its subject, but Filipino marker series remain decisive.

When both participants are short pronouns, their enclitic order is constrained:

Pinili niya ako bilang bagong tagapangasiwa bago nagsimula ang pagpupulong.

He or she chose me as the new supervisor before the meeting began. (actor niya; pivot ako)

The clitic cluster niya ako follows the predicate. The chosen person is pivot; bilang bagong tagapangasiwa states the role. Do not rearrange the pronouns to copy English SVO order.

A Controlled Comparison with Actor Voice

Bumuhat si Kardo ng mabigat na kahon papunta sa bodega.

Kardo carried a heavy box toward the warehouse. (actor voice)

Binuhat ni Kardo ang mabigat na kahon papunta sa bodega.

Kardo carried the heavy box toward the warehouse. (patient voice)

The actor changes from pivot si Kardo to non-pivot ni Kardo. The box changes from ng mabigat na kahon to pivot ang mabigat na kahon. The destination expression remains outside that two-part remapping.

Voice must change as a package. Binuhat si Kardo ng kahon does not mean the same thing with “passive word order”; it makes Kardo the selected patient and the box a semantically implausible actor.

Aspect Does Not Change the Marker Map

Binibilang ng ingat-yaman ang mga sobre ngayon.

The treasurer is counting the envelopes now. (incompleted patient voice)

Bibilangin niya ang natitirang mga sobre bukas.

He or she will count the remaining envelopes tomorrow. (contemplated patient voice)

Incompleted binibilang and contemplated bibilangin present different event contours. In both, the actor is ng-series and the envelopes are ang-series pivots. Ngayon and bukas establish time.

The inflected verb is not a person form: changing ng ingat-yaman to niya does not change the predicate.

Word Order Is Flexible but Marking Is Not

Full postverbal phrases often place the actor before the patient, but length, rhythm, and information structure can affect order.

Sinundo si Lorna nina Mang Pilo at Aling Nena sa terminal.

Mang Pilo and Aling Nena picked Lorna up at the terminal. (patient before a longer actor phrase)

Si Lorna is still the patient pivot and nina Mang Pilo at Aling Nena the actor. The personal marker series keeps the roles explicit even though the patient precedes the longer actor phrase. Position alone does not assign roles. With pronouns, enclitic placement is less flexible than with full noun phrases.

Patient voice can omit a generic or contextually recoverable actor:

Nililinis muna ang mga bote bago ilagay sa kahon.

The bottles are cleaned first before being placed in a box. (generic actor omitted)

Omission produces a natural English passive translation. It does not turn an expressed ng-series actor into an optional English by-phrase in other patient-voice clauses.

Questions and Negation Preserve Marking

—Inayos ba ng tekniko ang makinang panahi? —Hindi pa niya inayos; hinihintay pa ang piyesa.

—Did the technician repair the sewing machine? —He or she has not repaired it yet; they are still waiting for the part. (patient voice exchange)

Question particle ba follows the first suitable host. In the negative answer, niya remains actor and the machine is omitted because it is recoverable. Hindi pa denies completion; it does not remap participants.

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Participant omission follows discourse recoverability. When a participant is expressed again, restore the marker required by its current voice role.

Common Mistakes

Keeping the actor in the ang series

❌ Sinuri ang parmasyutiko ang reseta bago magtanghali.

Incorrect for ‘The pharmacist checked the prescription’—patient voice cannot assign pivot marking to both participants.

✅ Sinuri ng parmasyutiko ang reseta bago magtanghali.

The pharmacist checked the prescription before noon. (patient voice)

Leaving the patient under ng

❌ Binuhat ni Kardo ng malaking baul papunta sa silid.

Incorrect—the selected patient of binuhat requires the ang series.

✅ Binuhat ni Kardo ang malaking baul papunta sa silid.

Kardo carried the large trunk toward the room. (patient voice)

Mixing common and personal-name markers

❌ Sinundo ng Cora ang Nena sa istasyon.

Incorrect—personal names use ni for the actor and si for the patient pivot.

✅ Sinundo ni Cora si Nena sa istasyon.

Cora picked Nena up at the station. (patient voice)

Marking a destination like a patient

❌ Dinala ng katiwala ang mga susi ang bagong tanggapan.

Incorrect—the office is a destination, not a second pivot.

✅ Dinala ng katiwala ang mga susi sa bagong tanggapan.

The caretaker brought the keys to the new office. (sa-marked destination)

Key Takeaways

Patient pivots use the ang series; actors use the ng series; ordinary locations and endpoints use the sa series.
Personal names select si/sina, ni/nina, and kay/kina rather than stacking common markers.
Pronoun form and clitic order reveal the same alignment as full noun phrases.
Aspect and polarity do not alter the core marker map.
Patient voice can omit a recoverable actor, but an expressed actor remains a core ng-series participant.

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