English passives encourage a simple recipe: put the affected object first and add by + actor. Indonesian requires a finer choice. A short third-person agent can follow a di- verb directly (Laporan itu dibaca Rina), oleh clearly marks an agent that is delayed, long, or contrastive, and an ordinary first- or second-person pronominal actor normally selects object voice (Laporan itu saya baca).
The most revealing fact is that oleh is often omitted precisely when the agent is adjacent to the passive verb. It is not an obligatory translation of English by. Agent placement follows the voice construction and information structure; this practical guide diagnoses those choices without repeating the full di- passive argument system.
Build the passive frame first
A basic di- passive has this argument map:
patient subject + aspect/modal + di-verb + optional agent + other material
Rina memeriksa laporan perjalanan sebelum rapat.
Rina checks the travel report before the meeting. (actor voice)
Laporan perjalanan diperiksa Rina sebelum rapat.
The travel report is checked by Rina before the meeting. (di- passive; adjacent bare agent)
The same people and event remain, but laporan perjalanan is the passive subject and Rina is its agent. The attached prefix di- identifies the patient-oriented voice; word order alone does not.
❌ Rina diperiksa laporan perjalanan sebelum rapat.
Incorrect for the intended event—this passive makes Rina the entity examined.
✅ Laporan perjalanan diperiksa Rina sebelum rapat dimulai.
The travel report is checked by Rina before the meeting begins.
An adjacent short agent does not need oleh
Names, kin terms, and short third-person noun phrases can stand immediately after the passive verb. In this compact pattern, their adjacency already identifies them as the agent.
Pintu samping dikunci Pak Darto setiap malam.
The side door is locked by Mr. Darto every evening.
Kue ulang tahun itu dibuat Ibu pagi-pagi sekali.
The birthday cake was made by Mother very early in the morning.
Nomor peserta dipanggil petugas satu per satu.
The participant numbers are called by the officer one by one.
Adding oleh remains possible—dikunci oleh Pak Darto—but it is not required merely because English has by. The bare agent works because nothing separates it from the verb.
❌ Pintu samping dikunci oleh setiap malam Pak Darto.
Incorrect placement—oleh cannot introduce an adverb and leave its agent stranded later.
✅ Pintu samping dikunci Pak Darto setiap malam sebelum ia pulang.
The side door is locked by Mr. Darto every evening before he goes home.
A delayed agent needs oleh
When a time, manner, place, or other adjunct intervenes between passive verb and agent, a bare noun at the end can be misparsed. Oleh restores the agent relation explicitly.
❌ Surat keputusan itu ditandatangani kemarin direktur baru.
Incorrect careful order—the time adjunct separates the verb from its agent, so add oleh.
✅ Surat keputusan itu ditandatangani kemarin oleh direktur baru.
The decision letter was signed yesterday by the new director.
❌ Rumah kayu itu diperbaiki dengan sangat hati-hati tukang dari Jepara.
Incorrect delayed-agent structure—the manner phrase intervenes before the agent.
✅ Rumah kayu itu diperbaiki dengan sangat hati-hati oleh tukang dari Jepara.
The wooden house was repaired very carefully by a builder from Jepara.
❌ Lagu pembuka dinyanyikan di halaman sekolah para siswa kelas enam.
Incorrect agent placement—the locative phrase blocks a bare-agent reading.
✅ Lagu pembuka dinyanyikan di halaman sekolah oleh para siswa kelas enam.
The opening song was sung in the schoolyard by the sixth-grade students.
This is not because a long phrase is forbidden after the verb. Rather, oleh makes the boundary and role unmistakable once adjacency has been broken or the agent itself is structurally heavy.
Long, coordinated, and contrastive agents favor oleh
Even beside the verb, oleh is useful when the agent contains coordination, a long modifier, or explicit contrast. It packages the entire phrase as one agent constituent.
Dokumen akhir diperiksa oleh kepala bagian hukum dan dua penasihat luar.
The final document was reviewed by the legal division head and two external advisers. (formal; coordinated agent)
Usul itu diajukan oleh warga yang tinggal di sekitar lokasi proyek.
The proposal was submitted by residents living around the project site. (formal; modified agent)
Keputusan ini dibuat oleh direksi, bukan oleh tim pemasaran.
This decision was made by the board, not by the marketing team. (contrastive agents)
Do not conclude that an adjacent short agent with oleh is wrong. The choice is often one of explicitness and discourse weight: dibaca Rina is compact; dibaca oleh Rina, bukan Deni makes contrast prominent.
Omit the agent when it is unknown or irrelevant
Indonesian passives do not require any agent expression. Institutional instructions, news updates, and result-focused statements often omit it because the actor is generic, unknown, obvious, or deliberately backgrounded.
Loket layanan ditutup tepat pukul empat sore.
The service counter closes at exactly four in the afternoon. (agent irrelevant)
Dompet itu ditemukan di bawah kursi paling belakang.
The wallet was found under the rearmost seat. (finder not identified)
Semua data akan disimpan selama dua tahun.
All data will be retained for two years. (formal policy; institutional actor backgrounded)
Copying an English by phrase into every passive can produce invented or redundant agents.
❌ Pendaftaran ditutup oleh mereka pada pukul lima sore.
Incorrect for this impersonal notice—the unexplained mereka adds an unanchored agent.
✅ Pendaftaran ditutup pada pukul lima sore sesuai jadwal.
Registration closes at five in the afternoon as scheduled.
The wrong sentence is grammatically interpretable in a context where mereka has an established referent. It fails as the intended stand-alone notice because English's implicit institutional “they” need not be translated.
First- and second-person actors usually choose object voice
For an ordinary first- or second-person pronoun actor, use patient-first object voice:
patient + aspect/modal + saya/kami/kamu/Anda + bare stem
❌ Berkas ini sudah saya dibaca tadi malam.
Incorrect person–voice mixture—saya must precede the bare stem baca.
✅ Berkas ini sudah saya baca tadi malam.
I read this file last night.
❌ Formulir itu harus oleh kamu diisi sebelum wawancara.
Incorrect agent placement—use the second-person object-voice order kamu isi.
✅ Formulir itu harus kamu isi sebelum wawancara.
You must complete that form before the interview.
❌ Tiket elektronik perlu diperiksa Anda sebelum keberangkatan.
Incorrect person–voice pairing here—the polite pronoun belongs before bare periksa.
✅ Tiket elektronik perlu Anda periksa sebelum keberangkatan.
You need to check the electronic ticket before departure. (formal/polite)
Oleh saya and oleh Anda are grammatically available under strong contrast or in some highly explicit official styles: Surat itu ditandatangani oleh saya, bukan oleh sekretaris. Do not erase that possibility. The repair above targets neutral, uncontrasted clauses.
Third-person pronouns and -nya
A contrastive full third-person pronoun can follow oleh: oleh dia, oleh mereka. The enclitic -nya can attach to the passive verb in compact written or narrative style.
Buku harian itu dibacanya sampai halaman terakhir.
He/She read the diary through the final page. (written narrative; agent -nya)
Kunci cadangan diambilnya tanpa membangunkan siapa pun.
He/She took the spare key without waking anyone. (written narrative)
❌ Surat singkat itu ditulis nya sebelum subuh.
Incorrect spelling—the agent enclitic -nya attaches to the passive verb.
✅ Surat singkat itu ditulisnya sebelum subuh.
He/She wrote the short letter before dawn. (written narrative)
Conversational third-person dia + bare verb also occurs (Buku itu dia baca) (informal/neutral spoken). The central beginner contrast still holds: di- + postverbal third-person agent and preverbal pronominal object voice are different constructions, not freely shuffled words.
Do not attach oleh to the verb
Oleh is a separate preposition before a full noun phrase: oleh panitia, oleh Rina, oleh mereka. The bound pronominal form -nya, however, attaches to oleh: olehnya.
❌ Laporan tersebut diperiksa olehpanitia sebelum diterbitkan.
Incorrect boundary—oleh is separate from the full noun panitia.
✅ Laporan tersebut diperiksa oleh panitia sebelum diterbitkan.
The report was reviewed by the committee before publication.
Common Mistakes
1. Putting the actor before a di- passive
❌ Deni dibawa paket itu ke ruang penyimpanan.
Incorrect for ‘Deni carried the parcel’—the di- clause makes Deni the patient.
✅ Paket itu dibawa Deni ke ruang penyimpanan.
The parcel was carried by Deni to the storage room.
2. Delaying a bare agent past an adjunct
❌ Berita itu dibacakan dengan tenang penyiar senior.
Incorrect delayed agent—the manner phrase intervenes before the announcer.
✅ Berita itu dibacakan dengan tenang oleh penyiar senior.
The news was read calmly by the senior announcer.
3. Translating every English by as oleh
❌ Aplikasi itu digunakan oleh orang untuk memesan tiket.
Incorrect generic-agent calque—the intended general function needs no orang agent.
✅ Aplikasi itu digunakan untuk memesan tiket kereta.
The application is used to book train tickets.
4. Forcing a first-person oleh phrase
❌ Jadwal baru itu sudah disusun kami pagi ini.
Incorrect person–voice pairing—the first-person pronoun must precede the bare stem.
✅ Jadwal baru itu sudah kami susun pagi ini.
We prepared the new schedule this morning.
5. Separating agent -nya
❌ Pintu gudang ditutup nya perlahan agar tidak berisik.
Incorrect spelling—the compact third-person agent -nya attaches to ditutup.
✅ Pintu gudang ditutupnya perlahan agar tidak berisik.
He/She closed the warehouse door slowly to avoid making noise. (written narrative)
Key Takeaways
- A short third-person agent may immediately follow a di- verb without oleh.
- Use oleh when an adjunct delays the agent and to clarify long, coordinated, or contrastive agents.
- Omit an irrelevant or unknown agent instead of inventing an English-style by phrase.
- Ordinary first- and second-person pronominal actors favor object voice.
- Keep oleh + full noun separate, but attach the agent enclitic -nya.
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Start learning Indonesian →Related Topics
- di- Passive: Subjects, Objects, and Argument OrderA2 — Track patient subjects, demoted agents, remaining complements, pronouns, and word-order changes in Indonesian di- passive clauses.
- di- Passive: Overview and FormationA1 — Recognize and form the Indonesian di- passive, where an affected patient is subject and a third-person agent may follow or remain unspoken.
- Object Voice with a Bare Verb: Overview and FormationA2 — Recognize the patient-first Indonesian construction in which a pronominal actor stands directly before an unprefixed verb.
- oleh: Passive Agent and CauseA2 — Use oleh for passive agents, selected affected causes, and the formal connective oleh karena itu.
- Word Order Across Actor, di-, and Object VoiceA2 — Track actor, patient, and verb order across meN- actor voice, di- passive, and patient-first object voice.
- Object Relatives and Voice SwitchingB2 — Relativize a transitive patient by switching to object voice or a di-passive instead of retaining actor-voice meN-.