The buka family makes a three-way contrast that English often hides inside open. Membuka pintu presents an actor carrying out an opening action; pintu dibuka presents the door as undergoing that event; pintu terbuka presents the resulting open state or an opening that occurs without a foregrounded actor. Choosing among them means choosing an event perspective, not merely changing word order.
Bare buka, process noun pembukaan, and benefactive bukakan add further established patterns. This page concentrates on this lexical family; general meN-, di-, ter-, and -kan formation belongs on the Word Formation and Voice pages.
No person or tense paradigm
Actor-voice membuka is invariant. Subjects, aspect markers, and time expressions—not verb endings—supply person and time.
| Frame | Indonesian | Interpretive cue |
|---|---|---|
| first person | Saya membuka jendela. | saya; no agreement ending |
| third person | Dia membuka jendela. | dia; same verb |
| plural | Mereka membuka jendela. | mereka; same verb |
| completed | Saya sudah membuka jendela. | separate sudah |
| ongoing | Dia sedang membuka jendela. | separate sedang |
| future | Kami akan membuka jendela. | separate akan |
Saya membuka jendela dapur setiap selesai memasak.
I open the kitchen window whenever I finish cooking.
Tadi petugas membuka gerbang beberapa menit lebih awal.
Earlier the attendant opened the gate a few minutes early.
Besok panitia akan membuka pendaftaran gelombang kedua.
Tomorrow the committee will open second-round registration.
Indonesian never adds equivalents of English opens or opened. Bare buka is not an infinitive substituted everywhere for to open; it is selected in commands, informal predicates, and fixed expressions.
Membuka: a deliberate opening event
Membuka is transitive actor voice. The direct object can be a physical barrier or container, but the same event schema extends to files, accounts, businesses, meetings, access, and opportunities.
Ayu membuka tirai agar cahaya pagi masuk.
Ayu opens the curtains so that the morning light can come in.
Petugas loket membuka amplop itu di hadapan peserta.
The counter officer opened the envelope in front of the participants.
Saya membuka berkas yang dikirim lewat surel.
I opened the file sent by email.
Mereka membuka rekening khusus untuk biaya pendidikan anak.
They opened a special account for their child's education.
Keluarga itu membuka warung kecil di samping rumah.
The family opened a small food stall beside their house.
The object need not literally have a lid. Membuka akses removes a barrier, membuka rapat initiates an institutional event, and membuka jalan can create a route or enable a later development.
Ketua kelompok membuka diskusi dengan satu pertanyaan sederhana.
The group leader opened the discussion with one simple question.
Perbaikan jembatan itu membuka akses ke tiga desa terpencil.
The bridge repair opened access to three remote villages.
Temuan awal ini membuka jalan bagi penelitian lanjutan.
This preliminary finding opens the way for further research. (academic)
These extensions are conventional. English open a bottle, open a bank account, and open a meeting happen to align well with Indonesian, but that does not make membuka a universal translation of every English use.
Dibuka: the patient undergoes an event
Dibuka is passive and reports an opening event. The actor may follow directly, appear after oleh, or remain unexpressed. A time phrase can locate when the action happens.
Kotak suara dibuka panitia setelah pemungutan selesai.
The ballot box was opened by the committee after voting ended.
Jalur pendakian itu dibuka kembali oleh pengelola bulan ini.
That hiking route was reopened by the management this month.
Pendaftaran dibuka pukul delapan tepat.
Registration opens at exactly eight o'clock.
Jendela belakang sedang dibuka teknisi untuk diperiksa.
The rear window is being opened by a technician for inspection.
The passive is eventive: it can answer kapan? “when?” or oleh siapa? “by whom?” Passive di- attaches in dibuka; locative di remains separate in dibuka di aula.
Terbuka: state, availability, and unbounded access
Terbuka commonly describes an open state without asserting a deliberate actor. Depending on context, it can also mean become open, available, candid, receptive, or accessible. It behaves as a predicate without an Indonesian copula.
Jendela loteng masih terbuka setelah hujan mulai turun.
The attic window is still open after the rain begins.
Pagar itu terbuka sedikit karena pengaitnya rusak.
The gate is slightly open because its latch is broken.
Lowongan tersebut terbuka bagi lulusan semua jurusan.
The vacancy is open to graduates from all fields. (formal)
Perpustakaan terbuka untuk umum sampai pukul tujuh malam.
The library is open to the public until seven in the evening.
Rani terbuka terhadap kritik selama disampaikan dengan sopan.
Rani is open to criticism as long as it is expressed politely.
Dalam wawancara itu, ia berbicara terbuka tentang kegagalannya.
In that interview, he/she spoke openly about the failure.
The last use is adverbial: secara terbuka is the more explicit formal alternative. With attitudes, terbuka terhadap + noun means receptive to something; with access, terbuka untuk/bagi + participant identifies who may enter or apply.
One door, three perspectives
The three central forms can describe stages of one scene:
Satpam membuka pintu samping ketika kurir datang.
The security guard opened the side door when the courier arrived.
Pintu samping dibuka satpam atas permintaan pengelola.
The side door was opened by the security guard at the manager's request.
Sesudah kurir masuk, pintu samping tetap terbuka.
After the courier entered, the side door remained open.
The first centers the actor, the second the affected door and event, and the third the continuing state. Terbuka does not inherently mean accidental: a deliberate action can produce a state that is then simply described as terbuka. The ter- choice guide develops this event–state contrast.
Buka as command, schedule predicate, and root
Bare buka is normal in commands and conversational actor-first clauses (informal). It is also conventional as a business-hours predicate: toko buka pukul sembilan means the shop opens/is open at nine. Here it behaves as an established bare predicate, not an infinitive.
Buka tutup panci itu pelan-pelan agar uapnya keluar.
Open that pot lid slowly so the steam can escape.
Aku buka pesannya nanti setelah rapat.
I'll open the message later after the meeting. (informal)
Kedai kopi di ujung jalan buka sampai tengah malam.
The coffee shop at the end of the road is open until midnight.
Jam buka museum berubah selama bulan puasa.
The museum's opening hours change during the fasting month.
The fixed expression buka puasa means break the fast. It is a lexical compound, not a literal claim that “the fast is a container.”
Kami buka puasa bersama tetangga di halaman masjid.
We break the fast together with neighbors in the mosque courtyard.
Bukakan and membukakan: opening for someone
Bukakan is the bare -kan stem, especially common in imperatives. Membukakan presents an actor opening something for another person or opening a way/access on someone's behalf. The thing opened normally follows the verb; the beneficiary can follow directly in some everyday frames or appear with untuk.
Tolong bukakan pintu balkon untuk nenek.
Please open the balcony door for Grandma.
Bukakan saya botol air yang baru itu, ya.
Open that new water bottle for me, please.
Doni membukakan gerbang untuk mobil tamu.
Doni opens the gate for the guest's car.
This is not simply a more polite form of membuka. It adds a benefactive or facilitative relation. General -kan patterns are treated in the separate voice series.
Pembukaan: process, opening event, and ceremony
Pembukaan packages opening as a noun. It can denote the act or process of opening, the beginning section of a text or speech, or an official opening ceremony (formal).
Pembukaan acara ditunda sampai wali kota tiba.
The opening of the event was delayed until the mayor arrived. (formal)
Upacara pembukaan berlangsung singkat tetapi meriah.
The opening ceremony was brief but festive. (formal)
Pada bagian pembukaan, penulis menjelaskan tujuan laporan.
In the opening section, the writer explains the report's purpose. (formal)
Pembukaan kembali jalan itu disambut baik oleh warga.
The reopening of the road was welcomed by residents. (formal)
Pembukaan names an event or section, not the ongoing state of being open. For that state, use terbuka or an appropriate bare schedule predicate.
Common Mistakes
1. Using terbuka with a deliberate actor and object
❌ Petugas terbuka gerbang utama sebelum subuh.
Incorrect — terbuka cannot take the deliberate actor's object in this frame.
✅ Petugas membuka gerbang utama sebelum subuh.
The attendant opened the main gate before dawn.
2. Using dibuka for a pure continuing state
❌ Saat kami tiba, jendelanya dibuka dan tidak ada orang di sana.
Wrong for the intended state with no opening event in view.
✅ Saat kami tiba, jendelanya terbuka dan tidak ada orang di sana.
When we arrived, the window was open and nobody was there.
3. Adding an Indonesian copula before a state
❌ Pendaftaran itu adalah terbuka bagi semua warga.
Incorrect — terbuka is already the predicate.
✅ Pendaftaran itu terbuka bagi semua warga.
Registration is open to all residents. (formal)
4. Splitting passive di-
❌ Aula akan di buka setelah pemeriksaan selesai.
Incorrect spelling — passive di- attaches to buka.
✅ Aula akan dibuka setelah pemeriksaan selesai.
The hall will be opened after the inspection is complete.
5. Treating pembukaan as an open state
❌ Pintu samping harus pembukaan selama pemindahan peralatan.
Incorrect — pembukaan is a noun for an opening event or section.
✅ Pintu samping harus tetap terbuka selama pemindahan peralatan.
The side door must remain open while the equipment is being moved.
Key Takeaways
- Membuka centers a deliberate actor; dibuka centers an opening event; terbuka centers the resulting state or availability.
- Bare buka is normal in commands, informal clauses, business schedules, and fixed expressions—not as a general infinitive.
- Bukakan/membukakan add a beneficiary or facilitated participant.
- Pembukaan is an opening process, section, or ceremony, not the state “open.”
- Actual derivatives are solid, aspect words are separate, and passive di- differs from locative di.
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- tutup, menutup, and tertutup: Verb Family and UsageB1 — Distinguish deliberate closing, passive closing events, closed states, the noun tutup, and formal penutupan.
- meN- Actor Voice: Overview and FormationA1 — Recognize meN- actor voice, form its main nasal variants, and build neutral clauses with an actor subject and optional object.
- di- Passive: Choosing This ConstructionA2 — Choose di- passive when an affected patient is the clause's topic, contrasting it with actor voice and pronoun-agent object voice across genres.
- ter- Involuntary and Stative Voice: Choosing This ConstructionC1 — Choose ter- when a result, low-control undergoer, or perceptible theme matters more than an intentional actor or bounded action.
- -kan Valency Patterns: Subjects, Objects, and Argument OrderB2 — Identify actors, caused themes, affected objects, beneficiaries, and secondary themes in -kan clauses across active, passive, and object voice.
- sudah: Completed, Changed, and Now TrueA1 — Use sudah for realized events, changes of state, and newly established verbal, adjectival, nominal, and locative predicates.