Apa asks for a nonhuman entity, a category or label, the content of speech, or—inside buat apa/untuk apa—a purpose. Indonesian normally places it where the answer belongs: Kamu beli apa? “What did you buy?” It is not an auxiliary placed before every question and must be distinguished from the yes-no marker apakah.
Apa in the object slot
When the unknown is the object of a verb, apa usually stays after the verb. The predicate does not invert or receive a question form.
Kamu beli apa di toko alat tulis tadi?
What did you buy at the stationery shop earlier?
Mereka sedang membahas apa di ruang rapat?
What are they discussing in the meeting room?
Petugas menemukan apa di dalam tas itu?
What did the officer find inside that bag?
Anda membutuhkan apa untuk melengkapi permohonan ini?
What do you need to complete this application?
The answer-slot relationship is direct:
| Statement | Content question |
|---|---|
| Dita membeli amplop. | Dita membeli apa? |
| Mereka membahas anggaran. | Mereka membahas apa? |
| Petugas menemukan kunci. | Petugas menemukan apa? |
English moves what to the front and adds do/did. Indonesian needs neither operation.
Apa as a predicate: asking for identity or category
Indonesian noun predicates need no copula. Ini apa? directly asks what category or thing the subject belongs to.
Ini apa, dan bagaimana cara memakainya?
What is this, and how do you use it?
Nama alat kecil ini apa?
What is this small tool called?
Pekerjaan utama Anda apa sekarang?
What is your main job now?
Tujuan pertemuan sore ini apa?
What is the purpose of this afternoon's meeting?
Fronted Apa ini? is also possible. It can be a neutral request for identification, but intonation often makes it sound more immediate, surprised, or evaluative.
Apa ini? Saya tidak merasa memesan makanan tambahan.
What is this? I don't think I ordered extra food.
Apa masalahnya sampai semua orang diminta keluar?
What was the problem that caused everyone to be asked to leave?
The difference is information structure, not a fixed grammatical opposition. Final apa fits the ordinary answer slot; initial apa makes the unknown category or issue prominent from the outset.
Apa yang: identify a thing through a description
Apa yang + predicate asks what thing satisfies a description. With a subject-like unknown, the predicate follows yang directly.
Apa yang rusak di mesin sebelah kiri?
What is broken in the machine on the left?
Apa yang menyebabkan bau tajam dari gudang?
What is causing the sharp smell from the warehouse?
Apa yang berubah sejak sistem baru dipasang?
What has changed since the new system was installed?
For a fronted object focus, a definite agent precedes a bare verb after yang.
Apa yang kamu cari di laci paling bawah?
What are you looking for in the bottom drawer?
Apa yang mereka putuskan setelah istirahat?
What did they decide after the break?
This focused structure differs from neutral in-situ Kamu mencari apa? It foregrounds “the thing that” and may connect more strongly to an existing topic. Full relative-clause syntax belongs to its own guides.
Asking for an attribute, name, or type
Apa can combine with a noun that specifies the information category: apa nama, apa warna, apa alasan, apa jenis. In conversation, many of these also appear with the noun first and apa as predicate.
Apa nama aplikasi yang Anda gunakan untuk memesan tiket?
What is the name of the application you use to book tickets?
Apa warna kabel yang terhubung ke layar?
What color is the cable connected to the screen?
Apa alasan penundaan penerbangan pagi ini?
What is the reason for this morning's flight delay?
Jenis kamar yang tersedia malam ini apa saja?
What types of rooms are available tonight?
The last question uses apa saja to invite multiple possibilities. The particle's wider distributive pragmatics are beyond this page; the important point is that apa still asks for entities or categories.
Buat apa and untuk apa: asking purpose
Buat apa? means what for? or for what purpose? Buat is common and neutral in conversation but can sound (informal) in careful institutional prose. Untuk apa? is the broadly neutral and more formal alternative.
Buat apa kamu membawa dua payung kalau cuacanya cerah?
What did you bring two umbrellas for if the weather is clear?
Kabel tambahan ini buat apa?
What is this extra cable for?
Untuk apa data pribadi tersebut akan digunakan?
For what purpose will that personal data be used? (formal)
Dana cadangan itu disiapkan untuk apa?
What was that reserve fund set aside for?
Buat can also be a verb meaning make. Structure and context separate the readings:
Kamu buat apa untuk makan malam?
What are you making for dinner? (informal)
Kamu menyimpan kotak itu buat apa?
What are you keeping that box for? (informal)
In the first, buat is the predicate and apa its object. In the second, buat apa asks the purpose of keeping. Word order and surrounding arguments disambiguate them.
Apa katanya?: speech content and reports
Apa katanya? asks what someone said, what a message says, or what the reported content is. The enclitic -nya in katanya can refer to the speaker or function in the conventional report expression.
Apa katanya tentang jadwal keberangkatan baru?
What did she say about the new departure schedule?
Dokternya bilang apa setelah melihat hasil tes?
What did the doctor say after seeing the test results?
Di pemberitahuan itu tertulis apa?
What does that notice say?
Apa jawaban manajer ketika kamu meminta pengembalian dana?
What was the manager's answer when you requested a refund?
These questions target linguistic content rather than a physical object. Indonesian uses the same apa because content fills a thing-like argument or predicate slot.
Echo questions and unheard material
In conversation, apa can replace material that the listener did not hear or finds surprising. It often remains exactly where the missing expression occurred.
Maaf, tadi kamu memesan apa?
Sorry, what did you order just now?
Rapatnya dipindahkan ke hari apa?
The meeting was moved to what day?
Apa? Kamu bilang biayanya berapa?
What? How much did you say it cost?
Dia mengundurkan diri karena apa?
She resigned because of what?
Final placement can signal a follow-up or echo, especially when the event is already known. The full pragmatics of surprise particles are outside this page.
Apa versus apakah
Apa leaves an entity, category, or content slot open. Clause-initial apakah most often packages a complete proposition as a yes-no question.
Dita membawa apa ke ruang kelas?
What did Dita bring to the classroom?
Apakah Dita membawa proyektor ke ruang kelas?
Did Dita bring the projector to the classroom?
The first expects an item such as proyektor. The second expects yes or no. This is the most frequent contemporary contrast, and the yes-no marker is written solid, never apa kah. See the apakah guide for register and embedded use.
Because -kah can attach to an interrogative host, apakah also occurs in marked formal content questions such as Apakah yang tersirat dalam surat itu? and Apakah alasan utama penundaan tersebut? Here it means formal “what,” not yes or no. The following structure and expected answer disambiguate this use. Learners should still not treat clause-initial bare apa as a universal interrogative auxiliary.
Common Mistakes
Using apa as an English do auxiliary
❌ Apa kamu membeli apa untuk sarapan?
Incorrect — do not add a second clause-initial apa before a content question.
✅ Kamu membeli apa untuk sarapan tadi pagi?
What did you buy for breakfast this morning?
Inverting the verb and subject
❌ Apa membeli Sari di pasar malam?
Incorrect — fronting apa does not trigger English-style inversion.
✅ Sari membeli apa di pasar malam?
What did Sari buy at the night market?
Confusing content with yes-no questions
❌ Apakah ini komputer?
Wrong for asking ‘What is this?’—this is a yes-no question meaning ‘Is this a computer?’
✅ Ini apa?
What is this?
Omitting the purpose marker
❌ Apa kamu menyimpan kuitansi lama itu?
Incorrect for ‘What are you keeping it for?’ — bare apa does not mark purpose here.
✅ Untuk apa kamu menyimpan kuitansi lama itu?
What are you keeping that old receipt for?
Separating lexicalized apakah
❌ Apa kah layanan ini tersedia pada hari Minggu?
Incorrect spelling — the yes-no marker apakah is one word.
✅ Apakah layanan ini tersedia pada hari Minggu?
Is this service available on Sundays?
Key Takeaways
- In neutral object questions, apa stays where the unknown thing would appear and does not trigger inversion.
- Predicate apa asks for identity or category; apa yang asks what satisfies a description.
- Buat apa/untuk apa asks purpose, while bare apa asks for an entity or content.
- Speech-content and echo questions use the same form: Apa katanya?, Kamu bilang apa?
- Bare apa normally expects content; clause-initial apakah most often marks yes-no, though formal apa + -kah can also ask content.
Now practice Indonesian
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Indonesian →Related Topics
- Question Words and In-Situ SyntaxA1 — Use Indonesian question words in the position where their answers belong, while recognizing when time, reason, and manner expressions are fronted.
- apakah in Neutral and Formal QuestionsA1 — Use clause-initial apakah to package a proposition as an explicit yes-no question, especially in forms, interviews, and careful writing.
- siapa: Asking About PeopleA2 — Use siapa in subject, object, possessor, and prepositional questions, and understand when focused siapa yang is appropriate.
- -kah and Focused QuestionsB1 — Attach -kah to a question word or predicate to focus the questioned constituent, especially in formal, rhetorical, and literary styles.
- Embedded QuestionsB2 — Embed whether and content questions after tahu, bertanya, memeriksa, and related predicates without English inversion or unnecessary punctuation.
- buat: Colloquial For and Lexical MakeA2 — Distinguish conversational prepositional buat meaning for from the verb root buat and its standard derived form membuat.