While other word categories in Ilocano are not as diverse in forms, verbs are morphologically complex inflecting chiefly for aspect.
Reduplication in verbal paradigms consists of repeating the first /(C1)V(C2).../ sequence of phonemes of the root as required by the form resulting in a bimoraic or heavy syllable.
Due to having Austronesian alignment, Ilocano verbs chiefly inflect for aspect, and not for tense.
According to Galvino (2000), the affixes in the Agent focus are Intransitive, because the verb form does not require another noun phrase to complete its meaning.
Verbs cast in this focus throw emphasis on the noun phrase with the agent or experiencer role in the sentence.
If the verb can take a direct object, it is marked by the oblique forms of the articles, deictives and pronouns, for example, Nangan iti saba He ate a banana.
Patient role noun phrases (direct objects) of verbs are introduced by the oblique forms.
[4] However, with -um-, ngumisit, the meaning becomes more of a possibility or conjecture, Ngumisngisitkansa iti tengnat' aldaw, You might get darker at midday.
Some of these are maturog ( Agents (or actors) for verbs cast in the true passive voice can be omitted. The English sentence The car was repaired yesterday is grammatical without the agent of the verb. Patient focus verbs require both the agent and the object argument for grammaticality. What can be considered the patient of an English verb, may be cast in a different theta role in Ilocano. is/are conversingwith someone has/have conversed with someone The focused noun phrases of directional verbs are treated as places or destinations. When a person is the focus, a notion of direction (either to or from) or an affected party is implied, for example, suratan to write to someone, takawan to rob from someone (compare with tawaken to steal something). It is possible to use -en with these roots, but notice in the following sentences how the affix alters the focus and meaning: (with -an) Dinalusak ti sala. Examples of roots that commonly take this form: is/are saying something im- ing- has/have said something imCVC- ingCVC- used to say something would say something The focused noun phrases of the benefactive verbs are usually persons. Morphologically, the benefactive focused form is a combination of the prefix 'i-' and the suffix '-an'. Again, the actor is marked with the core forms or ergative, with pronouns (i.e., -ko), and the instrument, with core forms, and absolutive with pronouns, for example, Pagdalusan ni tatang ti drapo Father uses the rag to clean with. Pag-, behaves more like a verbal noun than a verb and sometimes translates as the implement, the reason or the theme of the root instead. The potentive mood of verbs denotes the following regarding the speaker's attitude regarding the event: The prefixes Maka-, Makapag- and Makai- corresponds to the following actor focus prefixes in the indicative mood. It denotes the innateness of actor, or other factors such as health or knowledge, that affect one's ability to perform the action. Similar to ag-, makapag- denotes internal motivation as a reason, so circumstance and context affect the ability to perform the action. But, with makapag-, one's ability to bathe will be determined by the availability of water, of the bathroom, of soap, of time, etc. Causatives are the verb forms where the agent causes or forces the patient to perform a given action or to become a given state. As a result, all causative verbs forms are transitive, requiring both agent and patient.