Boleh says that an action is permitted or an option is socially acceptable. Kamu boleh pulang means that no relevant rule, authority, or speaker blocks your leaving; it does not say whether you have the physical ability to leave.
This page covers granting permission, polite requests, concession, tidak boleh, and fixed boleh jadi. The wider distinction between permission and ability is mapped on the bisa page; voice formation and individual verb meanings remain outside this page.
Granting permission
Place boleh as a separate word before an unchanged predicate.
Boleh masuk.
You may come in.
Kamu boleh pulang lebih awal hari ini.
You may go home early today.
Pengunjung boleh mengambil foto tanpa lampu kilat.
Visitors may take photos without a flash.
Anak-anak boleh bermain di halaman setelah belajar.
The children may play in the yard after studying.
The source of permission can be a speaker, house rule, institution, law, or social convention. It need not be named.
Menurut peraturan gedung, tamu boleh menggunakan lift sebelah kanan.
According to the building rules, guests may use the elevator on the right.
Ibu bilang saya boleh menginap di rumah Rina.
Mom said that I may stay overnight at Rina's house.
Indonesian does not change boleh for person, number, or time. A past reporting clause can place the permission in the past.
Kemarin dokter mengatakan bahwa saya sudah boleh berolahraga ringan.
Yesterday the doctor said that I was now allowed to do light exercise.
Asking permission politely
A question with boleh asks the listener to authorize or accept an action. The subject can precede boleh, follow it, or be omitted when obvious.
Boleh saya bertanya?
May I ask a question?
Saya boleh duduk di sini?
May I sit here? (conversational)
Boleh pinjam payungmu sebentar?
May I borrow your umbrella for a moment? (informal; subject omitted)
Bolehkah kami masuk sekarang?
May we enter now? (neutral/formal)
The interrogative clitic -kah attaches: bolehkah, one word. Without -kah, intonation marks the question.
Common responses include:
Boleh, silakan duduk.
Yes, you may; please sit down.
Tentu boleh.
Of course you may.
Maaf, tidak boleh karena ruangannya sedang dibersihkan.
Sorry, you may not because the room is being cleaned.
Boleh, tetapi jangan terlalu lama.
You may, but not for too long.
Silakan invites someone to proceed; boleh evaluates the action as permitted. They often occur together but contribute different interpersonal meanings.
Permission is not physical ability
English can often asks permission, so English speakers may overuse Indonesian bisa or give boleh an ability meaning. Indonesian normally keeps the contrast clearer.
Saya bisa berenang, tetapi tidak boleh berenang di kolam ini.
I can swim, but I am not allowed to swim in this pool.
Raka belum bisa mengemudi, jadi tentu saja dia tidak boleh membawa mobil sendiri.
Raka cannot drive yet, so of course he is not allowed to take the car himself.
Apakah lift ini boleh digunakan oleh pengunjung?
May visitors use this elevator?
Apakah lift ini bisa digunakan saat listrik padam?
Can this elevator operate during a power outage?
The first elevator question asks about a rule; the second asks about practical possibility. Context can blur the distinction, but the semantic starting point remains permission versus capacity.
Tidak boleh: prohibition, not lack of ability
Tidak boleh + predicate means that the action is prohibited or unacceptable. Its force ranges from a gentle household rule to a legal ban.
Kamu tidak boleh membuka hadiah itu sebelum besok.
You must not open that gift before tomorrow.
Penumpang tidak boleh merokok di dalam kereta.
Passengers may not smoke on the train.
Data pelanggan tidak boleh dibagikan tanpa persetujuan.
Customer data must not be shared without consent. (formal)
Obat ini tidak boleh diminum saat perut kosong.
This medicine must not be taken on an empty stomach.
English may not is ambiguous between “perhaps does not” and “is not allowed to.” Indonesian tidak boleh selects the prohibition reading. For probability, use mungkin tidak.
Dia mungkin tidak datang karena sedang demam.
He/She may not come because of a fever.
Dia tidak boleh datang tanpa surat undangan.
He/She is not allowed to come without an invitation letter.
Boleh tidak: permission for non-action
When boleh takes scope over a negative predicate, the meaning is “it is permitted not to.” This is the opposite of prohibition.
Bagian ini boleh tidak diisi jika tidak sesuai dengan keadaan Anda.
This section may be left blank if it does not apply to you. (formal)
Peserta boleh tidak menyalakan kamera selama sesi berlangsung.
Participants may leave their cameras off during the session.
Compare:
Peserta tidak boleh meninggalkan ruangan.
Participants are not allowed to leave the room.
Peserta boleh tidak mengikuti sesi terakhir.
Participants are allowed not to attend the final session.
This scope contrast is easy to miss because English may not can express both. In a full clause such as Peserta boleh tidak mengikuti sesi terakhir, the following predicate helps reveal the intended scope. A conversational boleh tidak? can instead ask “is it allowed or not?”, so prosody and context still matter in speech.
Weak concession: boleh saja and boleh juga
Boleh saja can grant permission while conceding that the permitted choice may have consequences: “you may, but...” It often sounds less enthusiastic than plain boleh.
Kamu boleh saja menolak tawaran itu, tetapi pikirkan dulu akibatnya.
You may refuse that offer, but first consider the consequences.
Boleh saja kita menunggu, hanya saja tokonya tutup satu jam lagi.
We can certainly wait, but the shop closes in an hour.
Dia boleh saja berbeda pendapat; kita tetap perlu mendengarkan alasannya.
He/She may disagree; we still need to hear the reasons.
Boleh juga evaluates an idea as acceptable or surprisingly good.
Kita naik kereta pagi? Boleh juga, jalanan pasti macet.
Shall we take the morning train? That could work; the roads will surely be congested.
Rasa kuenya boleh juga.
The cake tastes pretty good. (informal evaluation)
The last use is colloquial and evaluates quality, not permission. It shows that frequent discourse formulas can extend beyond the core modal meaning.
Boleh jadi: perhaps
The fixed expression boleh jadi means “perhaps/it may be that.” It evaluates the possibility of a proposition rather than someone's permission to act.
Boleh jadi dia lupa mencatat tanggal rapat.
Perhaps he/she forgot to note the meeting date.
Boleh jadi hasil akhirnya berbeda dari perkiraan awal.
The final result may differ from the initial estimate. (formal)
Boleh jadi mereka sudah berangkat sebelum pesan kita diterima.
They may have left before our message was received.
Boleh jadi often appears at the beginning of a clause and is common in careful prose. It behaves like a possibility expression; do not insert a person seeking permission after boleh.
Impersonal rules and acceptable options
A rule can be stated without naming the authority or the person granting permission.
Pembayaran boleh dilakukan melalui transfer bank.
Payment may be made by bank transfer. (formal)
Untuk pertanyaan singkat, jawaban boleh ditulis dengan pensil.
For short questions, answers may be written in pencil.
The subject is the permitted action or affected item, not necessarily a person who possesses permission. This impersonal pattern is frequent in notices and instructions.
Common Mistakes
1. Using boleh for physical ability
❌ Setelah latihan, adik sudah boleh berenang sejauh satu kilometer.
Wrong for acquired physical ability—boleh says permission, not capability.
✅ Setelah latihan, adik sudah bisa berenang sejauh satu kilometer.
After training, my younger sibling can swim for one kilometer.
2. Putting the marker after the verb
❌ Saya bertanya boleh sebentar?
Incorrect neutral order for asking permission—boleh precedes the proposed action.
✅ Boleh saya bertanya sebentar?
May I ask a quick question?
3. Joining boleh to an ordinary verb
❌ Pengunjung bolehmengambil foto di halaman.
Incorrect spelling—boleh is a separate modal word.
✅ Pengunjung boleh mengambil foto di halaman.
Visitors may take photos in the courtyard.
4. Confusing prohibition with absence of obligation
❌ Kamu tidak boleh membawa payung berarti payung tidak diperlukan.
Incorrect interpretation—tidak boleh is a ban, not merely ‘need not.’
✅ Kamu tidak perlu membawa payung karena mobil berhenti di depan pintu.
You do not need to bring an umbrella because the car stops at the door.
5. Reading boleh jadi as granted permission
❌ Boleh jadi Rina terlambat berarti Rina diberi izin untuk terlambat.
Incorrect interpretation—boleh jadi marks possibility.
✅ Boleh jadi Rina terlambat karena keretanya tertahan.
Rina may be late because her train is delayed.
Key Takeaways
- Boleh evaluates social, institutional, or normative permission, not physical ability.
- Use Boleh saya ...? or attached Bolehkah ...? for permission requests; Boleh and Silakan are common positive responses.
- Tidak boleh prohibits an action; boleh tidak + predicate permits non-action.
- Boleh saja often grants a choice with weak concession, while boleh juga can accept or positively evaluate an option.
- Fixed boleh jadi means “perhaps” and belongs to epistemic possibility, not permission.
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Start learning Indonesian →Related Topics
- bisa: Ability and PossibilityA1 — Use bisa for learned ability, situational feasibility, possibility, and pragmatic permission while recognizing its noun homonym meaning venom.
- dapat: Can, Obtain, and Formal PossibilityA2 — Distinguish formal modal dapat before predicates from lexical dapat or mendapat meaning receive and obtain.
- mungkin: Possibility and Epistemic StanceA2 — Use mungkin to assess a proposition as possible, distinguish maybe-not from impossibility, and soften proposals without adding tense inflection.
- Ordering Aspect and Modal MarkersB2 — Build and interpret Indonesian marker chains by reading each word's scope over what follows, especially around negation, prospect, ability, and aspect.
- Negation Scope with Aspect, Modals, and FocusB2 — Use word order and focus constructions to control whether Indonesian negation targets necessity, probability, frequency, completion, or one constituent.
- -kah and Focused QuestionsB1 — Attach -kah to a question word or predicate to focus the questioned constituent, especially in formal, rhetorical, and literary styles.