The datang family lets Indonesian present one arrival from several perspectives. Bare datang foregrounds the mover: a guest comes. Mendatangi turns the destination or person approached into an object, while didatangi foregrounds that host or destination. Mendatangkan adds a causer who brings someone or something in. Kedatangan, pendatang, and berdatangan package the arrival as an event, identify a newcomer, or distribute arrivals across many movers.
That alternation is more useful than memorizing a list of English translations. Affixes shift prominence among mover, destination, affected host, and outside causer. This page explains the established lexical family; general -i, -kan, voice, and nominalization rules remain on their dedicated pages. Unmarked examples are neutral Standard Indonesian; special formal, informal, or euphemistic uses are labeled.
No person or tense paradigm
Datang does not conjugate. Subject choice, time expressions, and separate preverbal markers determine person and temporal viewpoint.
| Frame | Form | Interpretive cue |
|---|---|---|
| first person | Saya datang pukul delapan. | saya; no agreement ending |
| third person | Dia datang pukul delapan. | dia; the same root |
| plural | Mereka datang pukul delapan. | mereka; no plural ending |
| completed arrival | Tamu sudah datang. | separate sudah |
| arrival not yet complete | Tamu belum datang. | separate belum |
| future arrival | Tamu akan datang. | separate akan |
Tamu datang lebih awal daripada yang kami perkirakan.
The guests arrived earlier than we expected.
Saya datang pukul delapan tadi pagi.
I arrived at eight this morning.
Mereka akan datang setelah makan siang.
They will come after lunch.
English distinguishes come, comes, and came. Indonesian keeps datang unchanged. The root is a complete predicate, not an infinitive requiring a separate equivalent of to.
Bare datang: the mover arrives
Bare datang is intransitive. Its subject is the person, vehicle, message, season, or event that reaches the relevant reference point.
Kereta terakhir datang terlambat hampir setengah jam.
The last train arrived almost half an hour late.
Dokternya baru datang dan sedang menyiapkan ruang periksa.
The doctor has just arrived and is preparing the examination room.
Musim hujan datang lebih cepat tahun ini.
The rainy season came earlier this year.
Kabar baik itu datang ketika kami hampir menyerah.
The good news came when we had almost given up.
The endpoint is conceptually built into “arrival,” but a named destination still appears in a prepositional phrase rather than as a direct object.
Source, destination, time, and purpose
Use dari for the source and ke for a destination. A clock time can follow directly, and untuk + verb states purpose.
Lina datang dari Semarang dengan bus malam.
Lina came from Semarang by overnight bus.
Besok saya datang ke kantor setelah mengantar anak.
Tomorrow I will come to the office after dropping off my child.
Para peserta datang dari berbagai daerah di Indonesia.
The participants come from various regions of Indonesia.
Petugas datang ke rumah kami untuk memeriksa meteran air.
An officer came to our house to inspect the water meter.
Tolong datang tepat waktu karena pintu ditutup pukul sembilan.
Please arrive on time because the doors close at nine.
In ordinary Standard Indonesian, say datang ke kantor, not datang kantor. The latter occurs in some casual and regional speech but should not be generalized. Because kantor is a goal complement rather than an object, bare datang itself has no passive.
Aspect and the boundary of arrival
Arrival has a natural endpoint, so aspect words often describe whether that boundary has been reached.
Paketnya sudah datang, tetapi belum saya buka.
The package has arrived, but I have not opened it yet.
Teknisi belum datang, jadi mesinnya belum bisa diperiksa.
The technician has not arrived yet, so the machine cannot be inspected yet.
Kurir baru datang ketika toko hampir tutup.
The courier arrived only when the shop was about to close.
Minggu yang akan datang, layanan ini tutup selama dua hari.
This service will be closed for two days in the coming week.
Sudah datang locates the mover at or beyond the arrival point. Belum datang says that endpoint remains expected. Yang akan datang is an established modifier meaning “coming/upcoming,” common in announcements and careful prose.
For motion still under way, speakers often avoid forcing a completed arrival into sedang datang and instead say sedang dalam perjalanan or sedang menuju. Sedang datang is possible when something is visibly approaching, but is not the automatic progressive of every English is coming.
Rombongan itu sedang dalam perjalanan dan diperkirakan tiba sore nanti.
The group is on its way and is expected to arrive later this afternoon.
Lihat, bus yang kita tunggu sedang datang dari arah terminal.
Look, the bus we are waiting for is coming from the direction of the terminal.
Mendatangi: making the target the object
Mendatangi is an actor-oriented transitive verb. Its object is the place, person, institution, or event deliberately approached or visited. Because that target is already the direct object, it does not take ke.
Warga mendatangi kantor kelurahan untuk meminta penjelasan.
Residents went to the subdistrict office to ask for an explanation.
Tim kesehatan mendatangi rumah-rumah di daerah terpencil.
The health team visits homes in remote areas.
Seorang petugas mendatangi kami saat sedang menunggu bagasi.
An officer approached us while we were waiting for our baggage.
Reporter itu mendatangi lokasi banjir sebelum matahari terbit.
The reporter went to the flood site before sunrise.
Compared with datang ke kantor, mendatangi kantor gives the destination greater grammatical prominence and often suggests purposeful contact. It does not necessarily mean a friendly social visit. The target-as-object principle is developed on the -i meaning page.
The passive didatangi foregrounds the host or destination affected by someone's arrival:
Kantor kami didatangi puluhan warga sejak pagi.
Our office has been visited by dozens of residents since this morning.
Kami didatangi petugas sensus pada hari Minggu.
We were visited by a census officer on Sunday.
Rumah itu sering didatangi pembeli yang salah alamat.
That house is often visited by buyers who have the wrong address.
The arriving party may follow directly or with oleh, depending on information structure. Didatangi is one word; di kantor remains two.
Mendatangkan: causing someone or something to come
Mendatangkan adds an outside causer. Its object is the person, item, effect, or resource brought into the situation—not the destination.
Panitia mendatangkan penerjemah bahasa isyarat untuk acara itu.
The committee brought in a sign-language interpreter for the event.
Restoran tersebut mendatangkan bahan tertentu langsung dari petani.
The restaurant brings certain ingredients directly from farmers.
Keputusan mendadak itu mendatangkan banyak kritik.
That sudden decision brought a great deal of criticism.
Dokter spesialis didatangkan dari Jakarta untuk menangani pasien tersebut.
A specialist was brought in from Jakarta to treat the patient.
Compare the role mapping: a team mendatangi desa because the team moves toward the village; an organizer mendatangkan tim because the organizer causes the team to come. -I and -kan select different objects in this family.
Kedatangan: arrival noun and affected-host predicate
Kedatangan has two important constructions. As a noun, it means arrival or coming and can be modified, possessed, awaited, or announced.
Kami menunggu kedatangan kereta dari Yogyakarta.
We are waiting for the arrival of the train from Yogyakarta.
Kedatangan tamu kehormatan itu disambut dengan tarian daerah.
The arrival of the guest of honor was welcomed with a regional dance.
Kedatangannya yang mendadak membuat semua orang terkejut.
Her sudden arrival surprised everyone.
As an affected-host predicate, X kedatangan Y means that Y arrives in X's sphere: X receives a visitor or is faced with an arrival. The arrival is often unplanned, but it need not be unwelcome.
Kami kedatangan tamu dari luar kota malam ini.
We have guests arriving from out of town tonight.
Sekolah itu kedatangan dua guru baru semester ini.
That school has two new teachers arriving this semester.
Kantor mendadak kedatangan auditor dari pusat.
The office unexpectedly had auditors arrive from headquarters.
English often uses have in this construction, but Indonesian profiles the host as affected by an arrival. Context and clause position distinguish predicate kedatangan tamu from noun phrase kedatangan tamu “the guest's arrival.”
Pendatang and berdatangan
Pendatang is a person who has come to a place, especially a newcomer or migrant. Pendatang baru is common and neutral for a newcomer. In demographic or political contexts, pendatang can create an insider–outsider contrast, so formal writing should define the category rather than use it casually.
Sebagai pendatang baru, saya masih sering tersesat di kawasan ini.
As a newcomer, I still often get lost in this area.
Kota itu menerima banyak pendatang pada awal musim panen.
The town receives many newcomers at the start of the harvest season.
Berdatangan presents multiple people or things arriving successively, from different directions, or in noticeable numbers. Its subject is normally plural, collective, or contextually distributed.
Para undangan mulai berdatangan sejak pukul enam sore.
The invited guests began arriving from six in the evening.
Bantuan berdatangan dari berbagai komunitas setelah banjir.
Aid came in from various communities after the flood.
Pesan keluhan terus berdatangan sepanjang hari.
Complaint messages kept coming in throughout the day.
Do not use berdatangan merely as a more formal form for one person's single arrival. Its distributive event structure is part of its lexical meaning.
A conventional euphemism
Datang bulan means menstruate or have one's period (euphemistic; everyday). It is an established expression, not a general rule that datang + noun creates bodily meanings.
Dia tidak ikut berenang karena sedang datang bulan.
She did not go swimming because she was having her period. (euphemistic, everyday)
In medical communication, sedang menstruasi is more explicit and clinically neutral (formal/medical).
Common Mistakes
Treating a destination as a direct object of datang
❌ Besok saya datang kantor sebelum pukul delapan.
Incorrect in careful Standard Indonesian — the destination follows ke.
✅ Besok saya datang ke kantor sebelum pukul delapan.
Tomorrow I will come to the office before eight.
Keeping ke after mendatangi
❌ Petugas mendatangi ke rumah kami tadi siang.
Incorrect — rumah kami is already the direct object of mendatangi.
✅ Petugas mendatangi rumah kami tadi siang.
An officer visited our house this afternoon.
Confusing mendatangi with mendatangkan
❌ Panitia mendatangi seorang dokter ke desa itu.
Incorrect for 'bring in a doctor' — mendatangi makes the doctor a target approached.
✅ Panitia mendatangkan seorang dokter ke desa itu.
The committee brought a doctor into the village.
Using singular datang where a direct affected host is foregrounded
❌ Kantor kami datang puluhan pengadu sejak pagi.
Incorrect — the office is the affected destination, not the arriving subject.
✅ Kantor kami didatangi puluhan pengadu sejak pagi.
Our office has been visited by dozens of complainants since morning.
Separating passive di-
❌ Rumah itu sering di datangi kurir yang salah alamat.
Incorrect spelling — passive di- attaches to datangi.
✅ Rumah itu sering didatangi kurir yang salah alamat.
That house is often visited by couriers who have the wrong address.
Key Takeaways
- Bare datang keeps the mover as subject; its source and destination follow dari and ke.
- Mendatangi makes the approached target an object, while didatangi foregrounds the affected host or destination.
- Mendatangkan adds a causer and selects the person, thing, or effect brought in.
- Kedatangan can be an arrival noun or an affected-host predicate; syntax and context distinguish the two.
- Pendatang identifies a newcomer, and berdatangan distributes arrival across multiple movers or successive events.
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
- pergi: Verb Family and UsageA2 — Use bare pergi for going or leaving, build source, goal, and purpose complements, and distinguish bepergian from nominal kepergian.
- pulang and memulangkan: Verb Family and UsageA2 — Use pulang for homeward return, distinguish it from general kembali, and track causative memulangkan, nominal kepulangan, and euphemistic berpulang.
- -i: Meanings and Derivational NetworkB2 — Understand how -i maps locations, goals, recipients, and repeatedly affected targets onto direct-object position across productive and lexicalized families.
- -kan: Meanings and Derivational NetworkC1 — Understand how -kan adds or promotes participants in causative, caused-result, benefactive, transfer, and lexicalized verb families.
- -i Applicative Patterns: Subjects, Objects, and Argument OrderB2 — Track actor subjects, target objects, remaining themes, passive agents, pronouns, and omitted arguments in -i applicative clauses.
- ke: Direction and DestinationA1 — Use free ke for movement toward destinations and endpoints, contrasting it with static di and attached ordinal or derivational ke-.