An EYD V Editing Checklist

Reliable Indonesian proofreading is easier when it is divided into passes. Many visible “spelling” errors are actually analysis errors: before deciding whether di is attached, for example, you must know whether it is a passive prefix or a location preposition. A spellchecker can recognize the characters yet miss the grammar that determines the boundary.

This page gives a six-pass EYD V checklist for contemporary Standard Indonesian. It checks capitals, word boundaries, compounds and reduplication, particles, punctuation, and loan spelling. It does not assess pronunciation, derivational meaning, argument quality, tone, or stylistic editing beyond orthography; those are separate tasks. Ordinary Indonesian uses the Latin alphabet without mandatory accents, so do not “correct” native words by adding pronunciation marks such as é.

Pass 1: capitals

First mark sentence openings and true proper names: people, places, institutions, days, months, languages, peoples, and titles used with a name or as direct address. Keep ordinary common nouns lowercase. Doing this first establishes the large visual landmarks of the text.

Do not capitalize every important-looking noun as English headings sometimes do. A generic menteri, universitas, or bahasa remains lowercase unless a specific capitalization rule applies. See the full capitalization guide.

Pass 2: analyze grammatical boundaries

Now inspect every small form whose spacing depends on grammatical function. The prepositions di and ke are separate from a following place or destination: di pasar, ke kantor. The prefixes di- and ke- are attached to their base: dijual, ketahuan. Attached pronouns also form one written word: bukuku, tasmu, laporannya.

The diagnostic is meaning, not appearance. If di locates something, it is a separate preposition. If it makes a passive verb whose patient is the subject, it is an attached prefix. A spellchecker cannot safely repair di jual or dipasar without making that distinction; both di and many adjoining strings can be legitimate in other contexts.

Pass 3: compounds and reduplication

Check compounds against the standard lexical boundary. Many compounds remain separate, including kerja sama, tanggung jawab, and orang tua. Some forms are conventionally solid, so uncertain cases require a current dictionary rather than intuition.

Genuine full reduplication takes a hyphen: buku-buku, anak-anak, rumah-rumah. Do not use a space, the numeral 2, or an English-style plural ending. A fixed compound’s reduplication normally repeats the first element, as in surat-surat kabar, not every written word.

Hyphens are not general glue. Affixes normally attach without one, clitics attach without one, and ordinary compounds do not become hyphenated merely because English uses a hyphen. Use the dedicated compound spelling and hyphen rules for less predictable cases.

Pass 4: particles

Inspect -lah, -kah, -tah, pun, and per. The particles -lah, -kah, and -tah attach to the preceding word: bacalah, siapakah, apatah. Productive pun meaning roughly “also/even/any” is normally separate: apa pun, siapa pun, di mana pun. Certain established conjunctions are solid exceptions, including meskipun, walaupun, adapun, and sekalipun. These exceptions must be learned as words.

The particle per is written separately when it means “each,” “by,” or “starting from”: per orang, satu per satu, per 1 Januari. Do not generalize one spacing rule from all short particles; their grammatical identities differ.

Pass 5: punctuation

Only after word forms are stable, inspect sentence and clause boundaries. Close statements, questions, and commands appropriately; separate list items; put a comma before tetapi, melainkan, or sedangkan between coordinate clauses; and close an initial subordinate clause with a comma. A final subordinate clause normally has no preceding comma.

Punctuation should reveal structure, not copy pauses. Review the systematic core punctuation rules separately from broader stylistic questions such as sentence rhythm.

Pass 6: loan spelling

Finish by checking words whose everyday pronunciation or a foreign source form competes with the standard Indonesian spelling. Frequent corrections include aktivitas, not aktifitas; risiko, not resiko; izin, not ijin; and kualitas, not kwalitas. An established loan follows its Indonesian form and normally is not italicized.

There is no perfectly reliable rule that converts every source-language spelling into Indonesian. Loan adaptation accumulated through several historical layers, and competing nonstandard spellings remain common. Check an authoritative current dictionary when the form matters. This is a genuine lookup task, not a failure to understand a simple rule.

One flawed paragraph corrected in six passes

The paragraph below deliberately combines one problem from every pass. Resist the temptation to fix everything simultaneously; each version makes one layer auditable.

Pass 1 — capitals: capitalize the sentence opening and the day name Minggu.

Pass 2 — grammatical boundaries: separate locative di pasar, attach passive dijual, and attach -nya in bukunya.

Pass 3 — compounds and reduplication: write kerja sama separately and hyphenate the genuine plural buku-buku.

Pass 4 — particles: productive pun is separate in siapa pun.

Pass 5 — punctuation: divide the run-on into statements, add the comma before contrastive tetapi, and capitalize the newly created sentence openings. The optional comma after the opening time phrase clarifies its boundary.

Pass 6 — loans: replace kwalitas with kualitas and aktifitas with aktivitas.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

1. Check capitals and sentence landmarks.
2. Analyze morphology before attaching di- or separating di, and attach -ku, -mu, and -nya.
3. Verify compound boundaries and hyphenate genuine reduplication.
4. Review particles individually: attached -lah/-kah/-tah, usually separate pun, and lexicalized exceptions.
5. Punctuate grammatical structure, then verify established loan spellings.
6. Treat spellcheck as evidence, never as a substitute for grammatical analysis.