The tanya family lets a clause choose which participant in a question is grammatically central. Bertanya centers the questioner and expresses the addressee with kepada. Menanyakan selects the information requested as its object. Menanyai selects the person questioned, often in a sustained or investigative exchange. Passive ditanya/ditanyai foregrounds that person, while ditanyakan foregrounds the requested information. Pertanyaan packages the question as a noun.
English ask can place both a person and a question after one verb, so English word order hides contrasts that Indonesian marks through affixes and prepositions. Do not choose a derivative by translation alone; identify questioner, addressee, and information first. General affix and voice rules remain on their dedicated pages. Unmarked examples are neutral Standard Indonesian; informal and formal uses are labeled.
No person or tense paradigm
No verb in this family changes for subject or time. Separate expressions locate the questioning event.
| Frame | Form | Interpretive cue |
|---|---|---|
| first person | Saya bertanya kepada guru. | saya; no agreement ending |
| third person | Dia bertanya kepada guru. | dia; the same verb |
| plural | Mereka bertanya kepada guru. | mereka; no plural ending |
| past question | Kemarin saya menanyakannya. | kemarin |
| ongoing questioning | Petugas sedang menanyainya. | separate sedang |
| completed inquiry | Saya sudah menanyakannya. | separate sudah |
| future inquiry | Besok saya akan menanyakannya. | separate besok and akan |
Tadi saya bertanya kepada guru tentang jadwal ujian.
Earlier I asked the teacher about the exam schedule.
Petugas sedang menanyakan alamat lengkap pemohon.
The officer is asking for the applicant's full address.
Besok penyidik akan menanyai saksi kedua.
Tomorrow the investigator will question the second witness.
English changes ask to asked; Indonesian forms remain unchanged. Bare tanya is a complete base in particular constructions, not an infinitive that must receive tense or agreement.
Bare tanya: commands and conversational economy
Bare tanya is natural in direct commands and widespread in informal actor-first speech. The questioned person may follow directly in compact conversation or be expressed with kepada.
Tanya saja petugas di meja depan.
Just ask the officer at the front desk. (everyday)
Kalau masih bingung, tanya kepada pemandu sebelum masuk.
If you are still confused, ask the guide before going in.
Aku sudah tanya pemilik toko, tetapi dia belum menjawab.
I already asked the shop owner, but he has not answered. (informal)
Jangan tanya soal itu di depan anak-anak.
Do not ask about that in front of the children. (informal)
For careful actor-oriented clauses, choose bertanya, menanyakan, or menanyai according to the participant structure. In an object-oriented clause, the base or suffixed stem follows a pronominal actor:
Hal itu sudah saya tanyakan kepada bagian administrasi.
I have already asked the administration about that.
Petugas yang sama akan kami tanya lagi besok.
We will ask the same officer again tomorrow.
Bertanya: the questioner performs an inquiry
Bertanya is intransitive. It can stand alone when the addressee and information are recoverable.
Kalau tidak memahami aturannya, silakan bertanya.
If you do not understand the rules, please ask.
Tidak ada peserta yang bertanya setelah presentasi selesai.
No participant asked a question after the presentation ended.
Anak itu terus bertanya karena penasaran.
The child kept asking questions out of curiosity.
The addressee normally follows kepada; the topic follows tentang, soal, or mengenai. Soal is common across speech and writing, though mengenai can sound more formal.
Rani bertanya kepada apoteker tentang aturan minum obat.
Rani asked the pharmacist about the dosage instructions.
Wartawan bertanya kepada menteri mengenai sumber anggaran.
Journalists asked the minister about the source of the budget. (formal)
Saya ingin bertanya soal biaya tambahan pada tagihan ini.
I would like to ask about the additional charge on this bill.
An embedded interrogative can state what the question seeks:
Ia bertanya apakah rapat itu terbuka untuk umum.
She asked whether the meeting was open to the public.
Mereka bertanya mengapa pintu samping masih terkunci.
They asked why the side door was still locked.
Bertanya apakah/mengapa... still centers the act of inquiry; the following clause supplies its content.
The addressee marking belongs to the broader system described in the kepada guide.
Menanyakan: the requested information as object
Menanyakan is transitive. Its direct object is the information, matter, condition, name, price, address, or other content requested. The person asked remains in a kepada phrase.
Saya menanyakan alamat kantor baru kepada satpam.
I asked the security guard for the address of the new office.
Ibu menelepon untuk menanyakan kabar nenek.
Mother called to ask how Grandma was doing.
Calon penyewa menanyakan harga dan masa sewa apartemen itu.
The prospective tenant asked about the apartment's price and rental period.
Kami menanyakan alasan perubahan jadwal kepada panitia.
We asked the committee for the reason for the schedule change.
Petugas menanyakan apakah saya membawa dokumen asli.
The officer asked whether I had brought the original document.
The information object may be a noun phrase or an embedded question. Because menanyakan already selects that content, careful Standard Indonesian usually avoids menanyakan tentang alamat. Use menanyakan alamat or intransitive bertanya tentang alamat.
Compare the two frames:
Dina bertanya kepada resepsionis tentang sarapan.
Dina asked the receptionist about breakfast.
Dina menanyakan waktu sarapan kepada resepsionis.
Dina asked the receptionist what time breakfast was.
The first packages the exchange as an inquiry about a topic. The second makes the specific information waktu sarapan the object.
Menanyai: the questioned person as object
Menanyai is transitive and makes the person questioned its direct object. It often suggests a series of questions, examination, or purposeful information gathering, though it need not be hostile.
Polisi menanyai pemilik kendaraan selama hampir satu jam.
The police questioned the vehicle owner for almost an hour.
Dokter menanyai pasien tentang riwayat alerginya.
The doctor questioned the patient about their allergy history.
Peneliti menanyai dua puluh pedagang mengenai perubahan harga.
The researcher interviewed twenty traders about price changes. (formal)
Guru menanyai setiap kelompok sebelum memberi nilai.
The teacher questioned each group before assigning a grade.
The object is a person or animate group; the requested topic then follows tentang/mengenai. Menanyakan pedagang would instead suggest asking about the trader as information, not questioning the trader directly.
Ditanya and ditanyai: the addressee in the foreground
Very common passive ditanya presents the person who receives a question as the clause's starting point. It has no fully symmetric everyday actor form that must be used in every context: speakers often pair guru ditanya murid with active murid bertanya kepada guru.
Guru itu ditanya oleh murid tentang tugas kelompok.
The teacher was asked by a pupil about the group assignment.
Saya sering ditanya kapan akan pindah rumah.
I am often asked when I will move house.
Ketika ditanya alasannya, ia hanya tersenyum.
When asked the reason, she only smiled.
Ditanyai more transparently corresponds to menanyai and often retains the sustained-questioning nuance:
Saksi itu ditanyai penyidik sampai lewat tengah malam.
The witness was questioned by the investigator until after midnight.
Setiap peserta ditanyai tentang pengalaman kerjanya.
Each participant was questioned about their work experience.
Both forms foreground a person. Ditanya is extremely broad and conversationally frequent; ditanyai makes the person-as-target derivation more explicit.
Ditanyakan: the information in the foreground
Ditanyakan is the passive counterpart of menanyakan. Its subject is the question, fact, detail, or proposition requested.
Nomor paspor akan ditanyakan saat proses pendaftaran.
The passport number will be asked for during registration.
Hal yang sama sudah ditanyakan oleh tiga peserta.
The same thing has already been asked by three participants.
Dalam formulir itu, tidak ditanyakan status perkawinan pemohon.
The form does not ask for the applicant's marital status. (formal)
Pertanyaan tersebut pernah ditanyakan dalam wawancara sebelumnya.
That question was asked in an earlier interview.
Compare guru ditanya with alamat ditanyakan: the first foregrounds the person from whom an answer is sought; the second foregrounds the information sought. Passive di- attaches in both, while locative di kantor remains separate.
Pertanyaan, penanya, and tanda tanya
Pertanyaan is a question or request for information. Penanya is the person asking. The punctuation mark is the two-word compound tanda tanya, written without a hyphen.
Pertanyaan terakhir berasal dari peserta di baris belakang.
The last question came from a participant in the back row.
Silakan tulis pertanyaan Anda pada kartu yang tersedia.
Please write your question on the card provided.
Moderator meminta setiap penanya menyebutkan nama dan asal lembaganya.
The moderator asked each questioner to state their name and institution. (formal)
Kalimat tanya langsung diakhiri dengan tanda tanya.
A direct interrogative sentence ends with a question mark. (academic)
Dia mengangkat alis seolah ada tanda tanya besar di benaknya.
She raised an eyebrow as if there were a big question mark in her mind.
The compound tanda tanya can also metaphorically mean uncertainty. Its spacing is lexical, not evidence that all family members are written separately.
Tanya jawab and bertanya-tanya
Tanya jawab names a question-and-answer exchange, discussion, or interview segment. It is written as two words.
Setelah ceramah, ada sesi tanya jawab selama lima belas menit.
After the talk, there is a fifteen-minute question-and-answer session.
Acara tanya jawab itu disiarkan langsung dari studio.
The interview program was broadcast live from the studio.
Reduplicated bertanya-tanya means wonder or ask oneself, and can also describe repeated asking around.
Saya bertanya-tanya mengapa lampu kantor masih menyala.
I wonder why the office lights are still on.
Ia bertanya-tanya ke beberapa rumah untuk mencari pemilik kucing itu.
She asked around at several houses to find the cat's owner.
The hyphen marks actual reduplication. The “wonder” meaning is lexicalized and does not require an external addressee.
Common Mistakes
Adding agreement to the verb
❌ Dia bertanyas kepada petugas setiap kali datang.
Incorrect — bertanya never takes an English third-person ending.
✅ Dia bertanya kepada petugas setiap kali membutuhkan bantuan.
She asks an officer whenever she needs help.
Giving bertanya a bare addressee
❌ Saya bertanya guru tentang tugas besok.
Incorrect — the addressee of bertanya requires kepada in neutral Standard Indonesian.
✅ Saya bertanya kepada guru tentang tugas untuk besok.
I asked the teacher about tomorrow's assignment.
Adding tentang after menanyakan
❌ Kami menanyakan tentang alamat penginapan kepada sopir.
Incorrect redundancy — the information follows menanyakan directly.
✅ Kami menanyakan alamat penginapan kepada sopir bus.
We asked the bus driver for the lodging's address.
Confusing the person with the information in the passive
❌ Alamat baru itu ditanya oleh petugas pendaftaran.
Incorrect for requested information — use ditanyakan.
✅ Alamat baru itu ditanyakan oleh petugas pendaftaran.
The new address was asked for by the registration officer.
Separating passive di-
❌ Pemohon di tanyai diruang wawancara selama satu jam.
Incorrect spacing — passive ditanyai is solid, while locative di ruang is separate.
✅ Pemohon ditanyai di ruang wawancara selama satu jam.
The applicant was questioned in the interview room for an hour.
Key Takeaways
- Bare tanya appears in commands and informal speech; bertanya centers the questioner's activity and takes kepada for the addressee.
- Menanyakan selects the requested information; menanyai selects the person questioned.
- Passive ditanya/ditanyai foregrounds the addressee, while ditanyakan foregrounds the requested fact or question.
- Pertanyaan is a question, penanya a questioner, and tanda tanya the two-word name of the punctuation mark.
- Learn tanya jawab and hyphenated bertanya-tanya as established constructions, with aspect markers separate from the unchanged verb.
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