Guessing -kan and -i from English | Indonesian Grammar

English speakers often choose Indonesian -kan or -i by looking for English to, for, into, or with. That method fails because English prepositions do not identify the direct object in Indonesian. The repair begins with argument structure: identify the moving, transferred, caused, affected, or located participants; choose which one becomes the Indonesian object; then select an established verb family.

A useful tendency is that -kan often privileges a transferred or caused theme, while -i often privileges a recipient, goal, or affected location. It is only a tendency. Benefactive -kan can select the beneficiary, and many derivatives are lexically restricted. The full -kan/-i choice guide develops the productive system; this page diagnoses transfer errors.

The repair test

Before choosing a suffix, ask:

What participants exist: actor, theme, recipient, goal, location, beneficiary, or causee?
Which participant should be the direct object immediately after the actor-voice verb?
Could that participant become the subject of a corresponding di- passive?
Does Indonesian actually have the derivative you are about to use?
Have you preserved the other participant in its licensed position or prepositional phrase?

Bagian hukum mengirimkan surat peringatan kepada pemilik gedung.

The legal department sends a warning letter to the building owner. (theme surat peringatan is the object)

Pemilik gedung dikirimi surat peringatan oleh bagian hukum.

The building owner is sent a warning letter by the legal department. (recipient pemilik gedung is selected by -i)

The passive subjects—surat peringatan versus pemilik gedung—show what each derived verb selects.

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Do not underline an English preposition. Underline the Indonesian participant that you want as direct object, then test it in a di- passive.

Common Mistakes

The error families below are organized by lexical family so that each repair preserves a coherent Indonesian argument frame.

Common Mistakes: kirim and transferred objects

1. Giving mengirimkan a recipient object

With mengirimkan, the sent theme normally follows the verb, and the recipient appears with kepada/ke.

❌ Nadia mengirimkan pelanggan baru sebuah kode akses.

Incorrect for this standard frame—mengirimkan selects the sent theme, not the recipient.

✅ Nadia mengirimkan sebuah kode akses kepada pelanggan baru.

Nadia sends an access code to the new customer.

❌ Kantor pusat mengirimkan kami tiga formulir tambahan.

Incorrect recipient placement for the intended mengirimkan frame.

✅ Kantor pusat mengirimkan tiga formulir tambahan kepada kami.

Headquarters sends three additional forms to us.

The repair test is What was sent? If the answer is kode akses or tiga formulir, that theme is the object of mengirimkan.

2. Giving mengirimi a theme object

With mengirimi, the recipient or destination follows the verb directly, and the theme follows afterward.

❌ Nadia mengirimi sebuah kode akses kepada pelanggan baru.

Incorrect object frame—mengirimi selects the recipient, not the code.

✅ Nadia mengirimi pelanggan baru sebuah kode akses.

Nadia sends the new customer an access code.

❌ Sekretariat mengirimi surat undangan kepada setiap peserta.

Incorrect for the recipient-centered -i frame—the participants should directly follow mengirimi.

✅ Sekretariat mengirimi setiap peserta surat undangan digital.

The secretariat sends every participant a digital invitation.

The recipient-centered passive confirms the choice:

Setiap peserta dikirimi surat undangan digital oleh sekretariat.

Every participant is sent a digital invitation by the secretariat.

Bare mengirim overlaps with mengirimkan in many ordinary theme-object contexts. Do not force a suffix contrast where actual usage permits the simpler verb.

Saya sudah mengirim berkas itu melalui surel.

I have sent that file by email. (ordinary theme-object mengirim)

Common Mistakes: masuk, entering, and causing entry

The masuk family distinguishes a mover, an entered place, and a causer.

masuk ke + place: the subject moves in;
memasuki + place-object: the subject enters the selected location;
memasukkan + theme + ke + place: an actor causes something to enter.

3. Using causative memasukkan for self-motion

❌ Para peserta memasukkan aula setelah pintu dibuka.

Incorrect—the participants themselves enter; they do not cause the hall to enter.

✅ Para peserta memasuki aula setelah pintu dibuka.

The participants enter the hall after the doors open.

✅ Para peserta masuk ke aula melalui pintu sebelah timur.

The participants go into the hall through the east door.

4. Using memasuki when an actor causes a theme to enter

❌ Petugas memasuki dua kursi tambahan ke ruang rapat.

Incorrect—the chairs are caused to enter, so the causative stem requires -kan.

✅ Petugas memasukkan dua kursi tambahan ke ruang rapat.

The attendant puts two additional chairs into the meeting room.

❌ Ibu memasuki kartu itu ke dalam amplop.

Incorrect causative frame—the card is the caused-moving theme.

✅ Ibu memasukkan kartu ucapan itu ke dalam amplop putih.

Mom puts the greeting card into the white envelope.

The passive test works again:

Ruang rapat dimasuki peserta secara bergiliran.

The meeting room is entered by participants in turn. (location selected by -i)

Dua kursi tambahan dimasukkan ke ruang rapat.

Two additional chairs are put into the meeting room. (caused-moving theme selected by -kan)

Common Mistakes: isi, content, and container

The root isi already ends in i. Standard mengisi is meN- + isi, not a mechanically suffixed form mengisii. Its object is commonly the container, form, field, or space being filled. Mengisikan can foreground the content entered or poured.

5. Inventing mengisii because the container is a location

❌ Silakan mengisii kolom terakhir dengan nomor telepon darurat.

Incorrect formation—the root is isi, so the standard actor-voice form is mengisi.

✅ Silakan mengisi kolom terakhir dengan nomor telepon darurat.

Please fill in the final field with an emergency phone number.

❌ Rani mengisii botol-botol itu dengan air matang.

Incorrect spelling and formation—use mengisi for the container-object frame.

✅ Rani mengisi botol-botol itu dengan air matang.

Rani fills those bottles with boiled water.

6. Reversing content and container

❌ Rani mengisikan botol-botol kecil dengan air matang.

Incorrect for the intended content-object frame—mengisikan should select what is put in.

✅ Rani mengisikan air matang ke botol-botol kecil.

Rani pours boiled water into the small bottles. (content as object)

✅ Rani mengisi botol-botol kecil itu dengan air matang.

Rani fills the small bottles with boiled water. (container as object)

Compare the passives:

Data pelanggan lama diisikan ke kolom catatan yang salah.

The old customer data are entered into the wrong notes field. (content selected)

Kolom terakhir diisi dengan nomor telepon kerabat.

The final field is filled with a relative’s phone number. (container selected)

Common Mistakes: datang and causation

Datang is intransitive: the subject arrives. Mendatangi selects the person or place approached or visited. Mendatangkan adds a causer who brings or causes someone/something to come.

7. Using mendatangkan for the subject’s own arrival

❌ Saya mendatangkan ke kantor cabang sebelum pukul delapan.

Incorrect—the speaker themself comes; no causer brings the speaker.

✅ Saya datang ke kantor cabang sebelum pukul delapan.

I come to the branch office before eight.

❌ Para saksi mendatangkan ke pengadilan secara bergiliran.

Incorrect self-motion frame—the witnesses arrive rather than cause themselves to come.

✅ Para saksi datang ke pengadilan secara bergiliran.

The witnesses come to court one by one.

8. Losing the causer with mendatangkan

Panitia mendatangkan dua ahli keselamatan dari Bandung.

The committee brings in two safety experts from Bandung. (causative -kan)

❌ Dua ahli keselamatan mendatangkan panitia setelah kecelakaan.

Incorrect for ‘the experts visited the committee’—this makes the experts cause the committee to come.

✅ Dua ahli keselamatan mendatangi panitia setelah kecelakaan.

Two safety experts approached/visited the committee after the accident.

✅ Panitia didatangi dua ahli keselamatan setelah kecelakaan.

The committee was visited by two safety experts after the accident. (location/target selected by -i)

The di- passive again identifies the selected target: panitia didatangi.

Common Mistakes: beri is lexically restricted

Standard Indonesian has memberi and memberikan. Do not invent memberii from a rule that every recipient takes visible -i.

9. Manufacturing memberii

❌ Perawat memberii pasien obat penurun panas.

Incorrect formation—standard memberi already selects the recipient.

✅ Perawat memberi pasien obat penurun panas sesuai resep.

The nurse gives the patient fever medicine according to the prescription.

❌ Manajer memberii staf baru kartu akses sementara.

Incorrect invented derivative—use memberi for this recipient-object frame.

✅ Manajer memberi staf baru kartu akses sementara.

The manager gives the new staff member a temporary access card.

Memberikan commonly selects the given theme and expresses the recipient with kepada:

Manajer memberikan kartu akses sementara kepada staf baru.

The manager gives a temporary access card to the new staff member.

Kartu akses sementara diberikan kepada staf baru pada hari pertama.

A temporary access card is given to the new staff member on the first day.

This family must be learned as an established lexical pattern; suffix sound alone cannot generate it.

Benefactive -kan: why “for” is not a rule

-Kan can introduce or select a beneficiary in established verbs such as membelikan. This does not mean every English for requires -kan.

Saya membeli obat untuk Ibu di apotek dekat rumah.

I buy medicine for Mom at the pharmacy near home. (ordinary verb plus untuk-beneficiary)

Saya membelikan Ibu obat alergi yang biasa dipakainya.

I buy Mom the allergy medicine she usually uses. (benefactive -kan; Ibu is selected)

❌ Karena ada kata ‘for’, semua verba Indonesia harus diberi akhiran -kan.

Incorrect transfer rule—English wording does not determine Indonesian derivation.

✅ Kami mencarikan tamu itu taksi yang dapat menampung enam orang.

We find the guest a taxi that can hold six people. (established benefactive -kan construction)

The beneficiary becomes structurally prominent, but whether a given root permits this alternation is lexical.

Location applicatives: -i can distribute an action over a place

With an established location-applicative family, -i selects an affected surface or location. Compare menanam cabai di kebun and menanami kebun dengan cabai.

Warga menanam pohon buah di lahan kosong itu.

Residents plant fruit trees on that empty plot. (theme pohon buah; location in di-phrase)

Warga menanami lahan kosong itu dengan berbagai pohon buah.

Residents plant various fruit trees throughout that empty plot. (affected location selected by -i)

Lahan kosong itu ditanami berbagai pohon buah oleh warga.

That empty plot is planted with various fruit trees by residents. (location passive)

The -i form often suggests repeated or distributed contact with the location. It is not licensed simply because English happens to use on or in.

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The theme/goal tendency helps you analyze a documented family. It does not give permission to invent a derivative for every root.

Final repair checklist

Name every participant before looking at a suffix.
Decide which participant should be the direct object.
Convert that candidate to a di- passive subject as a test.
Check the actual lexical family: memberi, not invented memberii.
Preserve kepada, ke, dengan, di, or untuk when the chosen frame requires it.
Rewrite the whole clause when English and Indonesian package the event differently.

Key Takeaways

Indonesian argument structure, not an English translated preposition, controls suffix choice.
-Kan often selects a transferred or caused theme; -i often selects a recipient, target, or affected location.
Causative memasukkan/mendatangkan adds a causer; memasuki/mendatangi selects a goal.
Mengisi is based on root isi; never create mengisii.
Benefactive and lexicalized families make dictionary verification essential.

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