Pergi is the ordinary verb “go” or “leave,” and its high frequency helps explain an important feature of Indonesian: a morphologically bare root can be the complete, neutral predicate. A goal normally follows ke, a source follows dari, and a purpose may follow untuk or appear in a compact serial construction. Bepergian broadens the event to travel or being away, while kepergian turns departure or absence into a noun.
The family is small because Indonesian does not need to build every motion meaning mechanically from pergi. Verbs such as berangkat “depart,” meninggalkan “leave something/someone,” mengirim “send,” and pulang “go home” have their own argument patterns. Unless marked otherwise, the examples below are neutral Standard Indonesian; conversational reductions are labeled (informal) and elevated euphemisms are labeled separately.
No person or tense paradigm
Pergi does not change with the subject or time. Indonesian puts time expressions and aspect or modal words around the same root.
| Frame | Form | Interpretive cue |
|---|---|---|
| first person | Saya pergi ke kantor. | saya; no first-person ending |
| third person | Dia pergi ke kantor. | dia; the same root |
| plural | Mereka pergi ke kantor. | mereka; no plural ending |
| completed departure | Dia sudah pergi. | separate sudah |
| prospective motion | Dia akan pergi. | separate akan |
| past time | Dia pergi kemarin. | kemarin |
Saya pergi ke kantor sebelum jalanan macet.
I go to the office before the roads get congested.
Dia pergi ke kantor tadi pagi untuk mengambil laptopnya.
She went to the office this morning to collect her laptop.
Mereka akan pergi ke kantor cabang besok.
They will go to the branch office tomorrow.
English uses go, goes, went, and gone. Indonesian pergi is unchanged. It is not an infinitive that needs an equivalent of English to before it; Saya pergi is already a complete clause.
Bare pergi: moving away from the current point
With no complement, pergi means leave or go away. The destination can be recoverable from context or irrelevant.
Rani baru saja pergi; mungkin dia masih di tempat parkir.
Rani has just left; she may still be in the parking lot.
Jangan pergi dulu, makanannya sebentar lagi siap.
Do not leave yet; the food will be ready soon.
Saya pergi sebentar, ya; ada yang harus saya ambil di mobil.
I'm stepping out for a moment; there is something I need to get from the car.
Dia pergi begitu saja tanpa menjelaskan masalahnya.
He just left without explaining the problem.
Because pergi presents self-directed motion, it is normally intransitive. The destination is not its direct object, and ordinary pergi has no passive counterpart. If the clause foregrounds something abandoned, use a transitive verb such as meninggalkan.
Mira meninggalkan tasnya di kursi belakang.
Mira left her bag on the back seat.
Setelah berpamitan, Mira pergi bersama kakaknya.
After saying goodbye, Mira left with her older sibling.
The English verb leave translates both sentences, but their Indonesian valency differs: tasnya is the object of meninggalkan, whereas the person moving away is the subject of pergi.
Goals with ke and sources with dari
The usual goal frame is pergi ke + place. The usual source frame is pergi dari + place/person/domain. Both may occur in one clause.
Kami pergi ke pasar pagi-pagi supaya tidak terlalu ramai.
We go to the market early so that it is not too crowded.
Nanti sore saya pergi ke rumah Dita untuk mengembalikan bukunya.
This afternoon I am going to Dita's house to return her book.
Anak-anak itu pergi dari lapangan ketika hujan mulai turun.
The children left the field when it began to rain.
Ia pergi dari Surabaya ke Malang dengan kereta pagi.
She went from Surabaya to Malang on the morning train.
Mengapa kamu pergi dari rumah tanpa membawa ponsel?
Why did you leave home without taking your phone?
The prepositions are separate words: ke pasar, dari lapangan. Do not join them to the place name. In rapid conversation, speakers sometimes omit ke before a familiar activity destination—pergi sekolah, pergi kantor—but this is informal and varies regionally. Broad Standard Indonesian uses pergi ke sekolah and pergi ke kantor. The guide to ke gives the complete spatial pattern.
Purpose: pergi untuk and compact serial motion
Pergi untuk + verb explicitly states the purpose of going and is useful across speech and writing. The actor of the purpose verb is normally understood as the person who goes.
Sari pergi ke apotek untuk membeli obat batuk.
Sari went to the pharmacy to buy cough medicine.
Kami pergi ke balai kota untuk mengurus izin usaha.
We went to city hall to arrange a business permit.
Mereka pergi untuk mencari tempat yang lebih aman.
They left to look for a safer place.
Saya tidak pergi hanya untuk berdebat soal hal kecil.
I did not go just to argue about a minor issue.
Everyday Indonesian also permits a tighter serial sequence. A careful actor-oriented verb may follow pergi, while informal speech often uses a bare transitive root.
Saya pergi membeli sarapan untuk semua orang.
I am going to buy breakfast for everyone.
Aku pergi beli kopi sebentar.
I'm going to buy coffee for a moment. (informal)
Mereka pergi melihat lokasi rumah yang baru.
They went to see the location of the new house.
Untuk makes the purpose relation explicit; the serial pattern presents going and the next activity as a compact event sequence. Neither construction supplies tense to pergi.
Aspect, negation, and the state of being away
Separate markers locate the departure relative to a reference point.
Pak Arif sudah pergi sebelum kurir tiba.
Mr. Arif had already left before the courier arrived.
Petugasnya belum pergi; beliau masih di ruang depan.
The officer has not left yet; he is still in the front room.
Kami baru pergi setelah semua pintu diperiksa.
We left only after all the doors had been checked.
Minggu depan mereka akan pergi ke luar negeri.
Next week they will go abroad.
Bu Lela sedang pergi dan baru kembali setelah makan siang.
Ms. Lela is out and will not return until after lunch.
In the last example, sedang pergi often means “currently away/out,” not necessarily that the listener is watching motion unfold. With a clear route, it can describe an ongoing journey, but sedang dalam perjalanan is more explicit.
Saat saya menelepon, mereka sedang dalam perjalanan ke bandara.
When I called, they were on their way to the airport.
Tidak pergi denies the event; belum pergi says departure has not happened yet; sudah pergi normally implies the person is no longer at the reference place.
Bepergian: travel or spend time away
Bepergian is an established intransitive verb meaning travel, go about, or be away on a trip. It often presents a journey as an extended activity rather than one bounded movement to a single goal. The standard spelling is bepergian, not berpergian.
Saya jarang bepergian sendirian pada malam hari.
I rarely travel alone at night.
Bulan depan kami akan bepergian selama dua minggu.
Next month we will travel for two weeks.
Dia sedang bepergian ke luar kota dan sulit dihubungi.
She is traveling out of town and is difficult to reach.
Sebelum bepergian, simpan salinan paspor di tempat yang aman.
Before traveling, keep a copy of your passport in a safe place.
Orang yang sering bepergian biasanya memilih koper yang ringan.
People who travel often usually choose lightweight suitcases.
A single commute to a named office ordinarily uses pergi ke kantor, while a period involving travel favors bepergian. This is a lexical tendency, not a tense contrast.
Kepergian: departure, absence, and loss
Kepergian is a noun. It can be the subject or object of another predicate and can take a possessor with attached -nya.
Kepergian direktur itu diumumkan dalam rapat pagi.
The director's departure was announced at the morning meeting.
Kami menunda pembicaraan sampai setelah kepergian para tamu.
We postponed the discussion until after the guests' departure.
Kepergiannya ke luar negeri membuat rumah itu terasa sepi.
Her departure abroad made the house feel empty.
Anak-anak masih sedih karena kepergian kucing kesayangan mereka.
The children are still sad about the loss of their beloved cat.
Depending on context, kepergian can delicately refer to someone's death (euphemistic; careful or literary). The word itself does not force that reading: schedules, luggage, and destinations usually make an ordinary departure clear.
Commands and recurring collocations
Direct commands use the bare root. Attached -lah can make a written directive or dramatic dismissal sound more elevated; tone and context still determine politeness.
Pergi ke meja informasi dan tunjukkan nomor pemesanan ini.
Go to the information desk and show this booking number.
Pergilah lebih dulu; saya akan menyusul setelah rapat.
Go on ahead; I will follow after the meeting. (careful or literary)
Kalau harus pergi jauh, beri kabar sebelum berangkat.
If you have to go far away, let us know before leaving.
Dia pergi tanpa pamit dan baru mengirim pesan malamnya.
He left without saying goodbye and only sent a message that night.
Kami pergi dinas ke Makassar selama tiga hari.
We are going to Makassar on a three-day business trip.
Pergi jauh, pergi tanpa pamit, and pergi dinas are frequent collocations. Their complements specify distance, manner, or institutional purpose; they do not create new conjugated forms.
Common Mistakes
Adding agreement to the bare predicate
❌ Adik saya pergis ke sekolah setiap pagi.
Incorrect — pergi never takes a third-person ending.
✅ Adik saya pergi ke sekolah setiap pagi.
My younger sibling goes to school every morning.
Dropping ke in careful Standard Indonesian
❌ Besok kami pergi kantor cabang di Bekasi.
Incorrect in careful Standard Indonesian — the destination requires ke.
✅ Besok kami pergi ke kantor cabang di Bekasi.
Tomorrow we are going to the branch office in Bekasi.
Treating the destination as a passive subject
❌ Kantor itu dipergi oleh semua pegawai setiap Senin.
Incorrect — pergi is intransitive and does not passivize a destination.
✅ Semua pegawai pergi ke kantor itu setiap Senin.
All employees go to that office every Monday.
Misspelling bepergian
❌ Kami akan berpergian selama liburan sekolah.
Incorrect spelling — the established form is bepergian.
✅ Kami akan bepergian selama liburan sekolah.
We will travel during the school holiday.
Using the noun kepergian as an ongoing verb
❌ Mereka sedang kepergian ke Flores minggu ini.
Incorrect — kepergian is a noun, not the predicate 'are traveling.'
✅ Mereka sedang bepergian di Flores minggu ini.
They are traveling in Flores this week.
Key Takeaways
- Bare pergi is the full, uninflected motion predicate; it is neither an infinitive nor a shortened formal verb.
- Mark a goal with ke, a source with dari, and an explicit purpose with untuk; compact serial purpose clauses are common in speech.
- Sudah pergi usually implies departure is complete, while sedang pergi can describe being away.
- Bepergian presents travel as an extended or recurring activity; kepergian is a noun for departure, absence, or contextually a loss.
- Because pergi is intransitive, use another lexical verb when an object must be left, sent, or otherwise affected.
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Start learning Indonesian →Related Topics
- Bare Verbal Roots: Overview and FormationA1 — Recognize Indonesian verbal roots as complete predicates in unaffixed, imperative, conversational, serial, and object-oriented constructions.
- ke: Direction and DestinationA1 — Use free ke for movement toward destinations and endpoints, contrasting it with static di and attached ordinal or derivational ke-.
- dari: Source, Origin, Material, and ComparisonA1 — Use dari to express where something begins, comes from, is made from, or serves as a point of comparison.
- Serial-Verb SentencesB1 — Link motion, posture, onset, and activity predicates directly when one participant anchors a tightly integrated event sequence.
- Time, Aspect, and Mood Without ConjugationA1 — Build past, present, future, habitual, possible, and desired meanings around an unchanged Indonesian predicate.
- 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.