The lari family begins with self-propelled running and extends to escape, carrying someone away, and urgent transport. Bare lari and berlari are intransitive; melarikan diri is the established neutral expression “flee/escape”; dilarikan conventionally reports that a patient or victim was rushed somewhere. The nouns pelari and pelarian look similar but mean “runner” and “escape/fugitive.”
No family member inflects for person or tense. Lari is a usable base predicate, not an infinitive “to run,” and it never receives English -s or -ed. General affix and voice rules belong elsewhere; this page focuses on each word's valency, complements, collocations, and register.
No person or tense paradigm
| Frame | Form | Interpretive cue |
|---|---|---|
| first person | Saya berlari di taman. | subject pronoun |
| third person | Dia berlari di taman. | same predicate |
| plural | Mereka berlari di taman. | no agreement ending |
| past | Kemarin kami berlari di taman. | kemarin |
| ongoing | Kami sedang berlari di taman. | sedang |
| experience | Kami pernah berlari di taman. | pernah |
| future | Besok kami berlari di taman. | besok |
Saya berlari di taman sebelum matahari terbit.
I run in the park before sunrise.
Kemarin mereka berlari sejauh lima kilometer.
Yesterday they ran five kilometers.
Besok kami berlari bersama klub sekolah.
Tomorrow we will run with the school club.
English varies run, ran, and will run. Indonesian keeps berlari, while time and aspect words stay separate.
Lari and berlari: intransitive running
Both lari and berlari are standard and common. Berlari explicitly presents the activity and is frequent in narrative and careful prose; bare lari is especially common in sports compounds, commands, and ordinary conversation.
Anak-anak berlari menuju lapangan ketika bel berbunyi.
The children ran toward the field when the bell rang.
Dia berlari dari halte ke kantor karena hampir terlambat.
He/She ran from the bus stop to the office because he/she was almost late.
Jangan berlari di sekitar kolam renang.
Do not run around the swimming pool.
Ayo lari satu putaran lagi!
Let's run one more lap!
Saya rutin lari pagi setiap akhir pekan.
I regularly go for a morning run every weekend.
Ia mengikuti lomba lari sepuluh kilometer bulan lalu.
He/She entered a ten-kilometer race last month.
Direction uses ke, menuju, dari, or another path phrase. Neither lari nor berlari takes the destination as a direct object.
Pelari itu berlari ke garis finis sambil mengangkat tangan.
The runner ran toward the finish line with hands raised.
Figurative lari: evade or diverge
The path away from a point supports several established figurative combinations.
Ia tidak pernah lari dari tanggung jawab.
He/She never runs away from responsibility.
Pembicaraan mulai lari dari topik utama.
The conversation began to drift away from the main topic. (informal)
The responsibility expression is neutral; the topic extension is conversational. More formal prose may choose menyimpang dari topik for “deviate from the topic” (formal).
Melarikan diri: flee or escape
Melarikan diri is an established construction in which diri supplies the affected participant corresponding to the subject. It means flee, escape, abscond, or run away, depending on context. Its causative structure is related to the broader -kan meaning network, but the modern phrase must be learned as a conventional unit.
Para penghuni melarikan diri ketika asap memenuhi gedung.
The occupants fled when smoke filled the building.
Tersangka melarikan diri melalui pintu belakang.
The suspect escaped through the back door.
Keluarga itu terpaksa melarikan diri dari daerah konflik.
The family was forced to flee the conflict area.
Anjing kami sempat melarikan diri saat gerbang terbuka.
Our dog briefly got away when the gate opened.
The expression is neutral and suitable for news and formal reports. Kabur is a common conversational alternative (informal), but can sound less formal or imply absconding.
Pencurinya kabur sebelum polisi tiba.
The thief took off before the police arrived. (informal)
Do not add another sendiri merely because English says “himself/herself.” Diri already participates in the conventional reflexive construction.
Melarikan something: carry away, abduct, or remove
Outside melarikan diri, transitive melarikan places the entity carried or taken away as its object. These readings are more lexical and context-sensitive.
Bendahara itu dituduh melarikan uang koperasi ke luar negeri.
The treasurer was accused of absconding abroad with the cooperative's money.
Pelaku dituduh melarikan anak di bawah umur ke luar kota.
The perpetrator was accused of abducting a minor to another city. (formal)
Everyday speakers often choose more specific verbs such as membawa kabur, mencuri, or menculik. Learn melarikan through attested collocations rather than treating it as a freely interchangeable causative “make run.”
Dilarikan: rushed or taken urgently
The passive dilarikan is common in emergency descriptions across registers and especially frequent in news reports. The patient, victim, or endangered person is the subject and the urgent destination follows with ke.
Pasien dilarikan ke rumah sakit setelah mengalami sesak napas.
The patient was rushed to the hospital after experiencing shortness of breath.
Dua korban segera dilarikan ke klinik terdekat.
Two victims were immediately rushed to the nearest clinic.
Pengemudi yang terluka dilarikan ke pusat kesehatan setempat.
The injured driver was rushed to the local health center.
Warga melarikan korban ke tempat aman sebelum petugas tiba.
Residents rushed the victim to safety before officers arrived.
This conventional emergency-transport reading is the family's distinguishing lexical development. It is stronger and more urgent than neutral dibawa ke rumah sakit “was taken to the hospital.”
Pasien dibawa ke ruang pemeriksaan untuk menjalani tes rutin.
The patient was taken to the examination room for routine tests.
Passive dilarikan is written solid. Locative di rumah sakit remains separate, though destinations after motion normally use ke rumah sakit.
Pelari versus pelarian
Pelari is a person who runs, especially an athlete. Pelarian names escape/flight, an escapee or fugitive, or something used as an escape from reality.
Pelari muda itu memecahkan rekor sekolah.
The young runner broke the school record.
Polisi menangkap seorang pelarian di terminal bus.
The police arrested a fugitive at the bus terminal.
Pelariannya berakhir setelah tiga hari bersembunyi di hutan.
His/Her flight ended after three days of hiding in the forest.
Membaca menjadi pelarian sementara dari tekanan pekerjaan.
Reading became a temporary escape from work pressure.
The extra -an changes the lexical category and meaning. A marathon participant is pelari, not pelarian.
Aspect and bounded events
Dia sedang berlari ketika hujan mulai turun.
He/She was running when it started to rain.
Tersangka sudah melarikan diri sebelum petugas tiba.
The suspect had escaped before the officers arrived.
Korban baru saja dilarikan ke rumah sakit.
The victim has just been rushed to the hospital.
Sedang, sudah, and baru saja remain separate. They locate the event; they do not alter the family form.
Common Mistakes
Using transitive melarikan for exercise
❌ Saya melarikan di taman setiap sore.
Incorrect — melarikan is transitive and does not mean run for exercise.
✅ Saya berlari di taman setiap sore setelah bekerja.
I run in the park every afternoon after work.
Omitting diri from the escape construction
❌ Tersangka melarikan melalui jendela.
Incorrect for intransitive 'escaped' — neutral Standard Indonesian uses melarikan diri.
✅ Tersangka melarikan diri melalui jendela kamar mandi.
The suspect escaped through the bathroom window.
Confusing pelari with pelarian
❌ Pelarian itu memenangkan lomba maraton.
Wrong for the intended athlete — pelarian means fugitive/escape.
✅ Pelari itu memenangkan lomba maraton pertamanya.
The runner won his/her first marathon.
Using the base in emergency passive
❌ Pasien dilari ke rumah sakit setelah pingsan.
Incorrect family form — the conventional emergency passive is dilarikan.
✅ Pasien dilarikan ke rumah sakit setelah pingsan.
The patient was rushed to the hospital after fainting.
Separating passive di-
❌ Korban di larikan kerumah sakit terdekat.
Incorrect spacing — dilarikan is solid and ke rumah sakit is separate.
✅ Korban dilarikan ke rumah sakit terdekat oleh warga.
The victim was rushed to the nearest hospital by residents.
Key Takeaways
- Lari and berlari are unchanged intransitive running predicates; direction appears in a path phrase.
- Melarikan diri is the established neutral expression for fleeing or escaping.
- Transitive melarikan takes what is carried or taken away, while emergency passive dilarikan means “be rushed/taken urgently.”
- Pelari means runner; pelarian means escape, fugitive, or figurative escape.
- Aspect words stay separate, passive di- stays attached, and motion destination ke stays separate.
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
- jalan, berjalan, and menjalankan: Verb Family and UsageB1 — Follow the jalan family from roads and walking to processes that run, experiences undergone, duties carried out, and journeys.
- ber-: Meanings and Derivational NetworkA2 — Understand how ber- relates activities to having, wearing, using, self-directed action, and groups without assigning the prefix one fixed English translation.
- -kan: Meanings and Derivational NetworkC1 — Understand how -kan adds or promotes participants in causative, caused-result, benefactive, transfer, and lexicalized verb families.
- -kan Valency Patterns: Overview and FormationA2 — Recognize how -kan builds causative, benefactive, caused-motion, and resultative stems across Indonesian voice constructions.
- di- Passive: Overview and FormationA1 — Recognize and form the Indonesian di- passive, where an affected patient is subject and a third-person agent may follow or remain unspoken.
- ke: Direction and DestinationA1 — Use free ke for movement toward destinations and endpoints, contrasting it with static di and attached ordinal or derivational ke-.