The suffix -an forms many Indonesian nouns: tulisan “a piece of writing,” makanan “food,” mainan “a toy,” and bacaan “reading material.” Its spelling is simpler than that of the nasal prefixes: attach -an solidly to a licensed base and normally keep every letter of that base. This page covers formation, sound boundaries, and base recovery; the meanings and usage choices belong to the next two pages.
The canonical template
The broad pattern is base + -an → noun. The hyphen is useful only when naming or analyzing the suffix. In a finished Indonesian word, there is no space or hyphen.
| Base | Analysis | Surface noun | Typical sense |
|---|---|---|---|
| tulis | tulis + -an | tulisan | writing, text, inscription |
| makan | makan + -an | makanan | food, dish |
| main | main + -an | mainan | toy, plaything |
| parkir | parkir + -an | parkiran | parking area (informal) |
| baca | baca + -an | bacaan | reading material |
| kirim | kirim + -an | kiriman | something sent, shipment |
Tulisan di papan itu sudah mulai pudar.
The writing on the sign has begun to fade.
Makanan untuk rapat sudah tiba.
The food for the meeting has arrived.
Mainan kecil itu terselip di bawah sofa.
That small toy is stuck under the sofa.
Parkiran di belakang gedung sudah penuh.
The parking area behind the building is already full. (informal)
Dosen mengunggah bacaan untuk minggu depan.
The lecturer uploaded next week's reading.
Ada kiriman untukmu di meja depan.
There is a delivery for you at the front desk.
The last two rows are natural additional formations, not invented classroom forms. Bacaan and kiriman have conventional meanings that speakers know. Formation tells you how they are built; it cannot by itself predict their complete dictionary senses.
-an is invariant
The suffix itself does not change to match the final sound of the base. After a consonant, simply add an: tulis → tulisan, kirim → kiriman, pilih → pilihan, masak → masakan. The base-final consonant remains.
Pilihan pertama lebih murah, tetapi perjalanan jadi lebih lama.
The first choice is cheaper, but the trip becomes longer.
Masakan nenek selalu mengingatkan saya pada kampung halaman.
Grandmother's cooking always reminds me of home.
Kiriman terakhir baru sampai menjelang malam.
The last shipment did not arrive until evening.
There is no nasal substitution here. The consonant deletion familiar from meN- + tulis → menulis happens at a nasal-prefix boundary, not at the -an boundary. In tulisan, initial t stays because there is no meN- prefix. Likewise, pilihan keeps p, sapuan keeps s, and kiriman keeps k.
Tulisan tangannya kecil tetapi mudah dibaca.
Her handwriting is small but easy to read.
Sapuan kuas terakhir membuat warnanya lebih lembut.
The last brushstroke makes the color softer.
If a larger word also contains a nasal prefix, analyze each boundary separately. Mengirimkan has actor-oriented meN- and a different suffix, while kiriman has only -an. Do not copy the loss of k in mengirim into iriman; the noun is kiriman.
Vowel-final bases preserve the boundary in spelling
When the base ends in a vowel, suffixal a follows it directly. Standard spelling normally preserves both vowels even when they form a sequence across the morpheme boundary.
| Analysis | Standard form | Useful syllable division |
|---|---|---|
| baca + -an | bacaan | ba-ca-an |
| sewa + -an | sewaan | se-wa-an |
| tari + -an | tarian | ta-ri-an |
| cuci + -an | cucian | cu-ci-an |
| tiru + -an | tiruan | ti-ru-an |
The two a letters in bacaan and sewaan are both necessary: one ends the base, and one begins the suffix. Do not compress bacaan to bacan. With tarian, cucian, and tiruan, the different adjacent vowels are also written continuously.
Mobil sewaan kami mogok di tengah jalan.
Our rental car broke down in the middle of the road.
Tarian pembuka berlangsung sekitar sepuluh menit.
The opening dance lasts about ten minutes.
Cucian yang di balkon belum kering.
The laundry on the balcony is not dry yet.
Jam tangan itu ternyata barang tiruan.
That watch turned out to be an imitation.
Saya membawa dua bacaan ringan untuk perjalanan.
I brought two light reads for the trip.
The syllable hyphens in the table are teaching notation only. For the wider spelling principle, see vowel sequences and hiatus.
Which bases can take -an?
The most transparent formations use event bases and name a conventional result, product, or associated object: tulis → tulisan, baca → bacaan, kirim → kiriman, main → mainan. But -an also occurs with other base categories in established families.
| Base type | Examples | Typical output |
|---|---|---|
| event/verb-like | tulisan, kiriman, mainan | concrete noun: product or associated object |
| property | manisan, bulatan | concrete noun: thing with a property or shape |
| noun/time unit | sayuran, bulanan | category noun or time-based modifier |
| number | ratusan, ribuan | approximate numeral |
Ibu membeli manisan mangga sebagai oleh-oleh.
Mother bought candied mango as a gift.
Tagihan bulanan dikirim pada tanggal yang sama.
The monthly bill is sent on the same date.
Ratusan penonton menunggu di luar stadion.
Hundreds of spectators are waiting outside the stadium.
Sayuran segar disimpan di rak paling bawah.
Fresh vegetables are stored on the bottom shelf.
These outputs do not all have the same syntactic category. Most core examples above are nouns, but bulanan modifies tagihan in tagihan bulanan, while ratusan is an approximate numeral before penonton. The shared fact is suffixation, not that every resulting word behaves as an ordinary count noun.
These patterns do not license attachment to every verb, adjective, noun, or number. A logically imaginable form may be absent, rare, regional, or already occupied by an unexpected sense. This arbitrariness is real: verify unfamiliar derivatives rather than inventing them from English.
A finished -an noun is not automatically an action noun
English -ing often names an activity, so learners may expect -an to do the same. That is unsafe. Tulisan is normally the text or writing produced; makanan is food; mainan is a toy; kiriman is something sent. Process nouns often use a different formation, such as penulisan “the process/manner of writing” and pengiriman “sending/delivery.”
Tulisan itu membahas biaya hidup di kota besar.
That article discusses the cost of living in a big city.
Penulisan laporan memerlukan waktu tiga hari.
Writing the report takes three days.
Kiriman obat sudah tiba di klinik.
The shipment of medicine has arrived at the clinic.
Pengiriman obat tertunda karena cuaca buruk.
The delivery of the medicine was delayed because of bad weather.
This page only establishes the contrast needed to avoid a formation error. The full result, instrument, place, and collective network belongs on the -an meaning page.
Recovering the base in a dictionary
Removing final an gives a useful first hypothesis: tulisan → tulis, kiriman → kirim, bacaan → baca. It is not a complete lookup algorithm. Some bases already end in an, and some whole words only resemble an -an derivative. Search the surface word first, then confirm the base shown by a reliable dictionary and compare related words.
Kamus menempatkan tulisan dalam keluarga kata tulis.
The dictionary places tulisan in the tulis word family. (academic)
Saya memeriksa lema baca untuk memahami bentuk bacaan.
I check the entry baca to understand the form bacaan. (academic)
Arti parkiran perlu diperiksa bersama label ragamnya.
The meaning of parkiran should be checked together with its register label. (academic)
Parkiran is widespread in conversation (informal), while tempat parkir or area parkir is safer in careful official prose (formal). Dictionary information includes register as well as spelling.
Common Mistakes
Printing the analytic hyphen
❌ Tulisan itu disebut baca-an wajib.
Incorrect — the suffix is written solidly in an actual word.
✅ Tulisan itu disebut bacaan wajib.
That text is called required reading.
Dropping one a in a vowel-final base
❌ Saya belum menyelesaikan bacan untuk besok.
Incorrect — baca + -an preserves both adjacent a letters.
✅ Saya belum menyelesaikan bacaan untuk besok.
I have not finished tomorrow's reading.
Inserting an extra consonant
❌ Makannan itu disimpan dalam kotak pendingin.
Incorrect — makanan is makan + -an, with no doubled n.
✅ Makanan itu disimpan dalam kotak pendingin.
The food is stored in a cooler.
Makanan is makan + -an: the visible boundary is n + a, not a doubled suffix-initial consonant.
Copying nasal-prefix deletion into a suffix-only noun
❌ Iriman dari kantor pusat belum sampai.
Incorrect — -an does not delete the initial k of kirim.
✅ Kiriman dari kantor pusat belum sampai.
The shipment from headquarters has not arrived.
Assuming every -an noun names an activity
❌ Makanan bersama keluarga berlangsung dua jam.
Incorrect for the intended activity — makanan means food, not the act of eating.
✅ Acara makan bersama keluarga berlangsung dua jam.
The family meal lasted two hours.
Key Takeaways
- Attach -an solidly to a licensed base: tulisan, makanan, mainan, kiriman.
- The suffix is invariant and causes no nasal substitution; base consonants remain visible.
- Preserve base-final vowels: baca + -an → bacaan, sewa + -an → sewaan.
- Several base categories occur, but productivity is lexically restricted.
- An -an noun often names a product, thing, place, or group—not automatically an action.
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Start learning Indonesian →Related Topics
- -an: Meanings and Derivational NetworkB2 — Understand how -an nouns package products, results, instruments, places, groups, and conventionalized activity readings.
- -an: Valency, Lexicalization, and RegisterB2 — Use -an nouns with clear participant phrases, competing nominalizations, lexicalized senses, and register-appropriate alternatives.
- Attaching Prefixes and SuffixesA2 — Write ordinary Indonesian affixes solid with lowercase bases and use boundary hyphens around capitalized or acronym bases.
- Vowel Sequences and HiatusB2 — Distinguish diphthongs from separate vowel syllables without adding accents, apostrophes, or routine separators.
- Nominalization: Events, Actors, Results, and QualitiesB1 — Understand how Indonesian nominalizers select actors, products, events, processes, states, and qualities from a root's meaning.
- peN-...-an: Formation and AllomorphyB2 — Form peN-...-an event nouns with the correct nasal allomorph, productive p-t-s-k substitution, outer -an, and recoverable dictionary base.