Patient Voice: Questions | Filipino Grammar

Patient-voice questions preserve the central organization of patient voice: the patient or other undergoer is the pivot, while an expressed actor takes an ng-series form. This organization is especially visible in content questions. Filipino normally chooses a voice that makes the questioned core participant the pivot, instead of leaving English word order intact and merely substituting a question word.

A Question Map

Information sought	Natural pattern	Typical voice
Whether a known event occurred	Patient-voice predicate + enclitic ba	Patient voice can remain
Patient identity	Ano/alin + ang + patient-voice clause	Patient voice
Actor identity	Sino ang + actor-voice predicate	Usually actor voice
Time, reason, manner, or endpoint	Adjunct question word + complete patient-voice clause	Patient voice can remain

This is not agreement with the question word. It is the ordinary voice system doing discourse work: the participant whose identity is requested is commonly selected as pivot.

Yes-No Questions Keep the Patient Pivot

Add the enclitic particle ba to ask whether a proposition is true. The patient remains ang-marked, and the actor remains ng-marked.

Binasa mo ba ang mensaheng ipinadala ko kagabi?

Did you read the message I sent last night?

The short actor pronoun mo precedes ba in the natural enclitic cluster mo ba. The patient ang mensahe remains the pivot.

Inayos na ba ng mekaniko ang preno bago ninyo kinuha ang sasakyan?

Had the mechanic fixed the brake before you picked up the vehicle?

Here completed inayos presents the repair as a bounded event, while enclitic na means “already.” The actor is ng mekaniko, and the patient pivot is ang preno.

Hindi ba isinama ni Cora ang huling pahina sa ulat?

Didn't Cora include the last page in the report?

Hindi ba asks a negative question, often because the speaker expected the proposition to be true. Neither negation nor interrogation changes participant marking.

💡

In neutral yes-no questions, place ba in the clause's early enclitic cluster: Binasa mo ba…?, not at the end by imitation of an English question tag.

Asking Which Patient Participated

When the missing information is the patient, patient voice aligns that unknown patient with the pivot. Ano asks “what,” while alin chooses from an understood set. Before a noun, the linker produces anong and aling.

Ano ang kinuha ni Pio mula sa maliit na kahon?

What did Pio take from the small box?

The answer replaces ano with an ang-series patient phrase: Ang ekstrang susi ang kinuha niya… The actor ni Pio is an ng-series form because the questioned patient is pivot.

Aling dokumento ang pinirmahan ng direktor bago siya umalis?

Which document did the director sign before leaving?

Anong pagkain ang niluto ninyo para sa mga bisita?

What food did you cook for the guests?

The sequence question phrase + ang + clause resembles a headless or identifying relative construction: “Which document is the one that the director signed?” That structure helps explain why the verb's voice must fit the missing participant.

Asking Who the Actor Was Usually Selects Actor Voice

Compare two questions about one delivery event:

Sino ang nagdala ng gamot sa klinika?

Who brought medicine to the clinic? (actor questioned; actor voice)

Ano ang dinala ni Carlo sa klinika?

What did Carlo bring to the clinic? (patient questioned; patient voice)

In the first question, sino is the actor pivot, so nagdala is actor voice and gamot is an ng-marked patient. In the second, ano is the patient pivot, so dinala is patient voice and ni Carlo marks the actor. English uses the same active verb pattern for both, which hides the Filipino reorganization.

It is possible to ask for a non-pivot actor in special echo, contrastive, or formal information-seeking contexts, but neutral Filipino strongly favors the actor-voice pattern above. This is a real grammatical asymmetry, not a rule that every semantic actor must always be pivot.

💡

Choose voice after identifying the missing core participant. Use actor voice for neutral “Who did it?” questions and patient voice for neutral “What/which one did the actor affect?” questions.

Asking About Time, Reason, Manner, and Other Roles

An adjunct question word does not replace the patient pivot, so the patient-voice clause can retain its original organization.

Kailan pinirmahan ni Luz ang kontrata?

When did Luz sign the contract?

Bakit hindi isinara ng guwardiya ang likod na pinto?

Why didn't the guard close the back door?

Paano nilutas ng pangkat ang problema sa iskedyul?

How did the team solve the scheduling problem?

The time, reason, and manner are questioned, but ang kontrata, ang likod na pinto, and ang problema remain patient pivots. Actors retain ng-series marking.

A recipient or destination is normally questioned with kanino or saan, reflecting the sa-series role:

Kanino dinala ni Luz ang pirmadong kontrata?

To whom did Luz take the signed contract?

The contract remains pivot. Kanino asks for the human endpoint corresponding to a phrase such as kay Ginoong Ramos.

Aspect Still Contributes Its Normal Meaning

Questions do not create a special interrogative conjugation. Select completed, incompleted, contemplated, or recent-perfective morphology according to the event view.

Ano ang binabasa ni Dina habang naghihintay siya?

What is Dina reading while she waits?

Ano ang babasahin ni Dina sa pulong bukas?

What will Dina read at the meeting tomorrow?

The first asks about an ongoing activity; the second asks about a contemplated one. The time adverb bukas supports a future interpretation, but the verb form itself expresses contemplated aspect rather than English future tense.

A Short Exchange

—Dinala mo na ba ang mga susi sa opisina? —Hindi pa. Aling susi ang kailangan mo muna? —Iyong susi sa imbakan.

—Have you taken the keys to the office yet? —Not yet. Which key do you need first? —The one for the storeroom.

The first turn is a patient-voice yes-no question with mo na ba in the enclitic cluster. The second question asks the identity of the needed pivot with aling susi. The answer uses iyong to identify the intended member of the set.

Common Mistakes

Keeping patient voice when asking neutrally for the actor

❌ Sino ang binuksan ang pinto bago mag-alas-sais?

Incorrect — sino is intended as the actor, but binuksan selects the door as pivot and the marking is incompatible.

✅ Sino ang nagbukas ng pinto bago mag-alas-sais?

Who opened the door before six o'clock?

Using actor marking inside a patient question

❌ Ano ang kinuha si Carlo mula sa kabinet?

Incorrect — the expressed actor of this patient-voice verb cannot be si Carlo.

✅ Ano ang kinuha ni Carlo mula sa kabinet?

What did Carlo take from the cabinet?

Omitting the linker before a questioned noun

❌ Alin dokumento ang pinirmahan ng direktor?

Incorrect — alin needs the linker -g before the noun dokumento.

✅ Aling dokumento ang pinirmahan ng direktor?

Which document did the director sign?

Moving ba to the end like an English tag

❌ Binasa mo ang mensahe ba?

Nonstandard neutral placement — ba belongs in the early enclitic cluster.

✅ Binasa mo ba ang mensahe?

Did you read the message?

Key Takeaways

A yes-no question can preserve patient voice: patient pivot, ng-series actor, and early ba.
A neutral question about the patient normally uses patient voice; a neutral question about the actor normally uses actor voice.
Ano, alin, and noun-containing forms such as anong and aling must fit the role selected by the verb.
Time, reason, manner, recipient, and location questions can leave the patient pivot unchanged.
Aspect morphology continues to distinguish completed, ongoing, contemplated, and recent-result views inside questions. See yes-no questions with ba for particle placement and patient-voice participant marking for the marker system.

Now practice Filipino

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Filipino →