English can relativize an oblique with where, with whom, or the tool that I cut it with. Indonesian does not use one universal relative word for all these relations. It usually recasts the relation so that the head becomes a location selected by -i, an object of a generic verb, or a nominal head such as tempat, alat, orang, cara, or waktu.
This page compares formal, neutral, and colloquial strategies. The central skill is not translating the English relative marker; it is choosing an Indonesian clause in which the intended head has a natural grammatical role.
Why obliques need a strategy
An actor or patient can be directly aligned with Indonesian voice. A place, instrument, companion, source, or topic is normally introduced by a preposition or another relational expression.
Kami tinggal di rumah itu selama dua tahun.
We lived in that house for two years.
Saya memotong tali dengan pisau ini.
I cut the rope with this knife.
Dita pergi ke pameran bersama temannya.
Dita went to the exhibition with her friend.
If rumah, pisau, or teman becomes a relative head, simply deleting the preposition often produces an unsupported gap. Indonesian speakers normally promote, recast, or resume the relation instead.
Place strategy 1: a nominal head plus a clause
The noun tempat “place” can be followed by a clause that identifies what occurs there. This is one of the most natural and flexible locative strategies.
Itu tempat kami bertemu untuk pertama kali.
That is the place where we first met.
Saya lupa nama warung tempat mereka biasa sarapan.
I forget the name of the food stall where they usually have breakfast.
Gedung tempat seminar itu diadakan sedang direnovasi.
The building where the seminar was held is being renovated.
Desa tempat nenek saya lahir berada di kaki gunung.
The village where my grandmother was born lies at the foot of a mountain.
Here tempat explicitly supplies the locative relation. The following clause does not require di mana, and tempat need not always be followed by yang in this construction.
Other relational nouns behave similarly:
Hari ketika listrik padam itu masih saya ingat.
I still remember the day when the electricity went out.
Alasan dia menolak tawaran itu belum dijelaskan.
The reason she rejected the offer has not been explained.
Cara mereka menyelesaikan konflik patut dipelajari.
The way they resolved the conflict deserves study.
The head noun itself names the relation, allowing the following clause to remain idiomatic.
Place strategy 2: promote the location with -i
Some -i verbs select a location as their patient or target. Once promoted, that location can be relativized like an object.
Rumah yang saya tinggali selama kuliah sudah dijual.
The house I lived in during university has been sold.
Kursi yang diduduki anak itu masih basah.
The chair the child sat on is still wet.
Desa yang kami kunjungi tidak memiliki jaringan seluler.
The village we visited has no mobile coverage.
Jalan yang mereka lalui semalam ditutup karena longsor.
The road they traveled along last night was closed because of a landslide.
Compare the base locative clause saya tinggal di rumah itu with relative rumah yang saya tinggali. Suffix -i changes the verb's argument structure so that rumah is no longer merely the complement of di; it becomes the selected locative patient.
This promotion is lexical, not automatic. Not every verb accepts productive -i, and the resulting derivative may have a conventional meaning that must be learned. The -i argument guide develops those restrictions.
Restricted formal di mana
Di mana is first of all an interrogative expression meaning “where.” It also occurs as a formal relative connector after a genuinely locative head, especially in legal, technical, or institutional prose.
Dokumen itu menyebutkan wilayah di mana survei akan dilaksanakan.
The document specifies the area in which the survey will be conducted. (formal)
Laboratorium di mana sampel tersebut diuji telah memperoleh akreditasi.
The laboratory in which the sample was tested has received accreditation. (formal)
Mereka menetapkan zona di mana kendaraan berat tidak boleh masuk.
They designated a zone where heavy vehicles may not enter. (formal)
This pattern is heavier than wilayah tempat survei akan dilaksanakan or laboratorium tempat sampel diuji. Editorial preferences differ: some formal writers accept literal locative di mana, while others prefer tempat to avoid an English or Dutch-style calque.
Do not extend di mana to every abstract English where.
Keadaan yang membuat kami harus menunda perjalanan itu sudah berubah.
The circumstances that made us postpone the journey have changed.
Tahap ketika semua data diperiksa membutuhkan waktu paling lama.
The stage at which all data is checked takes the longest.
Keadaan di mana and tahap di mana are found in formal usage, but native alternatives often name the relation more precisely with yang, ketika, or a restructured predicate.
Three place rewrites
The same place relation can be packaged differently by register:
Ruang di mana perundingan tersebut berlangsung dijaga ketat.
The room in which the negotiations took place was closely guarded. (formal)
Ruang tempat perundingan itu berlangsung dijaga ketat.
The room where the negotiations took place was closely guarded. (neutral)
Ruangan yang kemarin dipakai buat berunding dijaga ketat.
The room they used for negotiations yesterday was closely guarded. (informal)
The colloquial version uses buat and recasts the place as the patient of dipakai. It is natural in speech but not the best model for an official report.
Tools: promote the instrument or state its purpose
For an instrument, Indonesian often uses alat yang digunakan untuk..., alat yang kami pakai untuk..., or a more specific tool noun with a passive/object-voice predicate.
Alat yang digunakan untuk mengukur tekanan harus dikalibrasi setiap bulan.
The instrument used to measure pressure must be calibrated every month. (formal)
Alat yang kami pakai untuk mengukur tekanan disimpan di lemari itu.
The instrument we use to measure pressure is kept in that cabinet. (neutral)
Alat yang kami pakai buat cek tekanan ada di lemari.
The tool we use to check pressure is in the cabinet. (informal)
All three avoid a stranded equivalent of English with. Alat becomes the object of digunakan/pakai, while untuk/buat introduces the activity it enables.
Specific instruments can be treated similarly:
Pisau yang saya gunakan untuk memotong roti sudah tumpul.
The knife I use to cut bread is blunt.
Kunci yang dipakai petugas untuk membuka gudang hilang.
The key the officer used to open the storeroom is missing.
Aplikasi yang kami gunakan untuk mencatat pengeluaran sedang bermasalah.
The application we use to record expenses is having problems.
This is a generic yang clause: the head is an ordinary object of gunakan/pakai, and a following purpose phrase recovers its instrumental function.
Companions: reverse, recast, or resume
Companion relations rarely translate word for word. Natural Standard Indonesian often makes the companion the actor of mendampingi, uses bersama in the relative predicate, or introduces an ajak construction.
Rekan yang mendampingi saya menghadiri konferensi tersebut bekerja di Bandung.
The colleague who accompanied me to that conference works in Bandung. (formal)
Teman yang datang bersama saya ke konferensi itu tinggal di Bogor.
The friend who came with me to the conference lives in Bogor. (neutral)
Teman yang bareng saya waktu ke konferensi itu tinggal di Bogor.
The friend who was with me when I went to the conference lives in Bogor. (informal)
The formal version promotes the companion as actor of mendampingi. The neutral and colloquial versions predicate accompanying relation directly with bersama or bareng.
Ajak is useful when the head is someone included in an intentional activity:
Orang yang saya ajak berbicara ternyata pemilik toko.
The person I invited to talk turned out to be the shop owner.
Tetangga yang kami ajak pergi akhirnya membatalkan rencananya.
The neighbor we invited along eventually canceled the plan.
Preposition retention inside a generic relative
An Indonesian relative may retain a prepositional relation when the head has another clear role in the clause, or when the preposition introduces a further participant rather than a stranded gap.
Rekan yang saya bekerja sama dengannya akan datang besok.
The colleague with whom I collaborate will come tomorrow. (formal)
The preposition dengan remains because its attached -nya resumes rekan. A more compact rewrite can replace the clause with a noun modifier:
Mitra kerja saya akan datang besok.
My collaborator will come tomorrow.
Perusahaan tempat Rafi bekerja membuka cabang baru.
The company where Rafi works is opening a new branch.
English-like perusahaan yang Rafi bekerja untuk is not neutral Indonesian. The language prefers tempat Rafi bekerja, perusahaan yang mempekerjakan Rafi, or another construction with an overt relation.
Resumptives in difficult oblique positions
Casual conversation may keep a pronoun or clitic inside the relative to make an oblique relation explicit. This is a resumptive strategy.
Itu teman yang dulu saya tinggal serumah dengannya.
That is the friend I used to share a house with. (careful)
Itu teman yang dulu saya tinggal bareng dia.
That's the friend I used to live with. (informal)
Masalah yang belum kami temukan solusinya dibahas lagi pagi ini.
The problem whose solution we have not found was discussed again this morning.
Attached -nya in dengannya and solusinya resumes the head indirectly. Full dia after bareng is common in casual speech but should not be copied into formal prose. Prefer a promoted or nominal-head strategy when it yields a cleaner sentence.
Punctuation and nominal heads
Restrictive oblique relatives remain adjacent to their heads without commas.
Kota tempat kami menginap mengalami banjir semalam.
The city where we stayed experienced flooding last night.
A supplementary relative about an already identified proper place can take commas:
Makassar, tempat kami menginap selama konferensi, terasa sangat ramai.
Makassar, where we stayed during the conference, felt very busy.
Write prepositions separately (di mana, dengan siapa, untuk membuka) and real affixes solid (tinggali, diduduki, gunakan). Do not copy English restrictive-relative commas.
Common Mistakes
Using di mana for an abstract relation automatically
❌ Kami menghadapi masalah di mana biayanya terus meningkat.
Awkward calque — masalah is not a literal place requiring di mana.
✅ Kami menghadapi masalah berupa biaya yang terus meningkat.
We face the problem of continually rising costs.
Stranding a preposition as in English
❌ Perusahaan yang Deni bekerja untuk sedang merekrut pegawai.
Incorrect neutral Indonesian — use tempat or recast the company as an argument.
✅ Perusahaan tempat Deni bekerja sedang merekrut pegawai.
The company Deni works for is recruiting employees.
Deleting di without promoting the location
❌ Rumah yang saya tinggal selama kuliah sudah direnovasi.
Incorrect standard pattern — use tinggal di or promoted tinggali.
✅ Rumah yang saya tinggali selama kuliah sudah direnovasi.
The house I lived in during university has been renovated.
Treating -i as freely productive
❌ Hotel yang kami tiduri selama liburan terletak dekat pantai.
Incorrect lexical choice — tiduri does not neutrally mean ‘stay at a hotel.’
✅ Hotel tempat kami menginap selama liburan terletak dekat pantai.
The hotel where we stayed during our vacation is near the beach.
Carrying a colloquial resumptive into formal prose
❌ Mitra yang kami menyusun kontrak bersama dia telah menyetujui usulan tersebut.
Incorrect formal structure — the full resumptive dia and actor-voice order are not appropriate here.
✅ Mitra yang bersama-sama dengan kami menyusun kontrak telah menyetujui usulan tersebut.
The partner who drafted the contract together with us has approved the proposal. (formal)
Key Takeaways
- Indonesian uses several oblique-relative strategies rather than one universal counterpart of English where/with whom.
- Tempat and other relational nouns often introduce the cleanest neutral clause.
- -i can promote a location when the derivative is lexically licensed: rumah yang saya tinggali.
- Formal di mana is best restricted to genuinely locative heads and may still be replaced by tempat.
- Tools and companions are often recast as direct arguments; resumptives belong mainly to difficult or colloquial structures.
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