di- Passive: Subjects, Objects, and Argument Order | Indonesian Grammar

In a di- passive, the active object's role is promoted to subject, while the active actor is demoted to an optional agent expression. This changes grammatical relations, not the real-world event. After the basic di- overview, the safest analysis combines voice morphology, word order, relativization, and information structure instead of copying English labels onto whichever noun happens to come first or last.

The basic argument alternation

Start from an actor-voice clause with actor, verb, and object. The di- counterpart places the affected object first as patient subject, changes meN- to di-, and places the actor after the verb or omits it.

Actor voice	di- passive	Promoted patient
Rina membaca buku itu.	Buku itu dibaca Rina.	buku itu
Ali menulis surat itu.	Surat itu ditulis oleh Ali.	surat itu
Seseorang mengambil kuncinya.	Kuncinya diambil.	kuncinya

Rina membaca buku itu setelah makan malam.

Rina reads that book after dinner.

Buku itu dibaca Rina setelah makan malam.

That book is read by Rina after dinner.

Ali menulis surat itu dengan tangan.

Ali writes that letter by hand.

Surat itu ditulis oleh Ali dengan tangan.

That letter is written by Ali by hand.

Seseorang mengambil kuncinya dari meja.

Someone takes the key from the table.

Kuncinya diambil dari meja.

The key was taken from the table.

Rina remains reader and Ali remains writer, but neither is the passive subject. The di- prefix identifies the patient-oriented relation.

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Do not name roles from position alone. In Buku itu dibaca Rina, morphology tells you that buku itu is patient subject and Rina is the postverbal agent.

Patient-subject diagnostics

Clause position and topic continuity

The patient commonly stands before the predicate and becomes what subsequent clauses continue discussing.

Buku itu dibaca Rina, lalu dikembalikan ke rak.

That book is read by Rina, then returned to the shelf.

Surat itu ditulis oleh Ali dan dikirim pada hari yang sama.

That letter was written by Ali and sent on the same day.

The unexpressed subject of dikembalikan and dikirim is still the book or letter. This continuity is a central discourse property of subjecthood.

Relativization

The patient subject can correspond to the head of a yang relative clause.

Buku yang dibaca Rina itu sudah lama dicari.

The book that Rina read has long been sought.

Surat yang ditulis oleh Ali belum dikirim.

The letter written by Ali has not yet been sent.

Standard Indonesian does not ordinarily retain actor voice when that head is the object: buku yang Rina membaca is not the normal equivalent of “the book that Rina reads.” Voice makes buku the accessible patient subject inside the relative.

Number does not trigger agreement

Subject status does not produce person or number endings on the verb.

Satu surat ditulis oleh Ali.

One letter is written by Ali.

Lima surat ditulis oleh Ali.

Five letters are written by Ali.

Both use unchanged ditulis.

Agent expression and adjacency

A short third-person name or noun can immediately follow the verb without oleh.

Laporan singkat itu dibaca Nadia sebelum rapat.

That short report is read by Nadia before the meeting.

Lantainya disapu petugas kebersihan.

The floor is swept by the cleaner.

If an adjunct intervenes between verb and agent, Standard Indonesian normally uses oleh to mark the delayed agent clearly.

Surat itu ditulis kemarin oleh Ali.

That letter was written yesterday by Ali.

Rumah tua itu diperbaiki dengan hati-hati oleh tukang dari desa sebelah.

That old house is carefully repaired by builders from the neighboring village.

A long agent phrase also strongly favors oleh, particularly in formal prose.

Keputusan tersebut ditandatangani oleh seluruh anggota dewan yang hadir.

That decision was signed by all council members present. (formal)

The agent phrase is optional syntactically. Removing it leaves a complete passive if the patient is expressed or understood.

Pronouns and clitic placement

Third-person agents can appear with oleh:

Buku itu dibaca oleh dia, bukan oleh Rina.

That book is read by him/her, not by Rina. (contrastive)

Surat itu ditulis oleh mereka.

That letter is written by them.

The third-person clitic -nya attaches to the passive verb in a compact style: dibacanya, ditulisnya, diambilnya. This is common in narrative and careful written Indonesian.

Buku itu dibacanya sampai selesai.

He/She read that book to the end. (written narrative)

Surat itu ditulisnya sebelum fajar.

He/She wrote that letter before dawn. (written narrative)

Kunci itu diambilnya tanpa berkata apa-apa.

He/She took that key without saying anything. (written narrative)

The clitic is solid with the verb: diambilnya, not diambil nya. Context identifies whether -nya means his, her, or their.

Simple first- and second-person pronominal agents normally select object voice rather than a bare agent after di-:

Buku itu sudah saya baca sampai selesai.

I have already read that book to the end.

Surat ini harus kamu tulis hari ini.

You must write this letter today.

Buku itu dibaca oleh saya is grammatically possible when the first-person agent is explicitly contrasted, but it is marked for ordinary narration. Buku itu saya baca is the neutral everyday choice.

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Keep person and voice together: short third-person noun agents fit di- naturally; first- and second-person pronoun agents usually precede a bare verb in object voice.

Omitted arguments

Omitted agent

Kuncinya diambil saat saya sedang tidur.

The key was taken while I was sleeping.

The speaker may not know or wish to name the taker.

Understood patient subject

Conversation can omit a patient that has just been mentioned.

A: Kuncinya di mana? B: Sudah diambil Rina.

A: Where is the key? B: Rina has already taken it.

The answer has no overt patient noun phrase, but kuncinya is recoverable as the understood passive subject. An omitted expression is not the same as no syntactic role.

A: Suratnya sudah selesai? B: Belum ditulis.

A: Is the letter finished? B: It hasn't been written yet.

Valency determines what can be promoted

Only an argument licensed as the active verb's object can become the ordinary di- subject. Suffixes such as -kan and -i can change that object choice.

Petugas mengirimi pelanggan kode baru.

The officer sends the customer a new code.

Pelanggan dikirimi kode baru oleh petugas.

The customer is sent a new code by the officer.

Here recipient pelanggan is the selected object of mengirimi and becomes passive subject; kode baru remains after the verb as a second core participant.

Petani menanami lahan itu dengan jagung.

The farmer plants corn across that field.

Lahan itu ditanami jagung oleh petani.

That field is planted with corn by the farmer.

The location lahan itu becomes subject because -i made it the active object. The remaining jagung is not the passive agent.

Theme-oriented -kan can instead promote a theme:

Ibu membacakan cerita kepada anak-anak.

Mother reads a story to the children.

Cerita itu dibacakan oleh ibu kepada anak-anak.

That story is read to the children by Mother.

The lexical verb and suffix determine the argument map before passive voice applies.

Information structure can alter surface order

The canonical pattern is patient + predicate + agent, but context can omit the patient or place a setting before the clause. Those changes do not make the postverbal agent an object.

Di ruang depan, surat itu ditulis oleh Ali.

In the front room, that letter is written by Ali.

Tadi pagi, kuncinya diambil Rina.

This morning, the key was taken by Rina.

Locative di ruang depan is a separate prepositional phrase. Passive ditulis remains one word.

Common Mistakes

Calling the postverbal agent an object

❌ Dalam kalimat “Buku itu dibaca Rina”, Rina adalah objek yang dibaca.

Incorrect analysis — Rina is the reader and postverbal agent.

✅ Dalam kalimat “Buku itu dibaca Rina”, buku itu adalah subjek pasien.

In the sentence Buku itu dibaca Rina, buku itu is the patient subject.

Keeping active word order with a passive verb

❌ Nadia dibaca laporan itu setiap pagi.

Incorrect for ‘Nadia reads that report’ — this makes Nadia the entity read.

✅ Laporan itu dibaca Nadia setiap pagi.

That report is read by Nadia every morning.

Using a first-person agent directly after di-

❌ Artikel itu dibaca saya tadi pagi.

Marked and unnatural in ordinary use — choose object voice for a simple first-person agent.

✅ Artikel itu saya baca tadi pagi.

I read that article this morning.

Delaying a bare agent after an adjunct

❌ Surat itu ditulis kemarin Ali.

Incorrect in careful Standard Indonesian — the delayed agent needs oleh.

✅ Surat itu ditulis tadi malam oleh Ali.

That letter was written last night by Ali.

Separating an agent clitic

❌ Kunci itu diambil nya tanpa izin.

Incorrect spelling — enclitic -nya attaches to the verb.

✅ Kunci itu diambilnya tanpa izin.

He/She took that key without permission. (written narrative)

Key Takeaways

The active object becomes patient subject; the active actor becomes an optional postverbal agent.
Voice morphology, relativization, and topic continuity jointly diagnose argument status.
A bare agent must immediately follow the verb; oleh marks a delayed or long agent clearly.
Agent -nya attaches to the verb, while first- and second-person pronouns usually select object voice.
Valency-changing suffixes decide which participant can be promoted before di- applies.

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