di-: Valency, Lexicalization, and Register | Indonesian Grammar

Using di- well requires more than forming a correct word. The prefix reorganizes a verb's arguments, competes with active meN-, object voice, and ter-, and belongs to lexical families whose members are not always freely predictable. This page explains those choices and shows how the same system works in careful writing and everyday conversation.

What di- does to argument structure

A transitive active clause normally places the agent before an meN- verb and the patient after it. A di- passive promotes that patient to subject or topic position. The agent becomes optional and, when present, generally follows the verb.

Viewpoint	Pattern	Example
Active	agent + meN- verb + patient	Rina membaca laporan
di- passive	patient + di- verb + (agent)	Laporan dibaca Rina

Rina membaca laporan itu sebelum rapat.

Rina reads the report before the meeting.

Laporan itu dibaca Rina sebelum rapat.

The report is read by Rina before the meeting.

Sekretaris menulis surat tersebut kemarin.

The secretary wrote that letter yesterday. (formal)

Surat tersebut ditulis oleh sekretaris kemarin.

That letter was written by the secretary yesterday. (formal)

Kurir mengambil paketnya pukul dua.

The courier picked up the package at two.

Paketnya diambil kurir pukul dua.

The package was picked up by the courier at two.

Kantor pusat mengirim kartu baru minggu lalu.

Head office sent the new card last week.

Kartu baru dikirim oleh kantor pusat minggu lalu.

The new card was sent by head office last week.

The passive is not merely an active sentence with the words rearranged. It makes the patient the continuing discourse topic. That is why Indonesian often uses it when a text is already discussing laporan, paket, or kartu, even when the agent is perfectly known.

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Choose voice by asking what the next sentence is about. If it continues the story of the affected object, di- often preserves the topic more naturally than switching back to the agent.

Agent choice: di- passive versus object voice

With a third-person agent, di- is the ordinary patient-oriented form: Buku itu dibaca Rina or Buku itu dibaca olehnya. First- and second-person agents usually favor a different construction called object voice: patient + agent pronoun + bare verb. Thus “I read that book” with the book as topic is Buku itu saya baca, not normally Buku itu dibaca saya.

Buku itu dibaca Dimas dalam dua hari.

Dimas read that book in two days.

Buku itu saya baca dalam dua hari.

I read that book in two days.

Pesan ini harus kamu baca sekarang.

You must read this message now.

Pesan ini sudah dibaca mereka semua.

This message has been read by all of them.

An oleh phrase can make first- or second-person agency grammatically explicit—ditulis oleh saya—but it is heavier and often contrastive or (formal). It is useful when the agent phrase itself is long or coordinated. For the normal pronoun patterns, see the object-voice overview.

Pernyataan ini ditandatangani oleh saya sendiri sebagai ketua panitia.

This statement was signed by me personally as committee chair. (formal, emphatic)

Bagian pertama saya tulis, lalu bagian terakhir kamu periksa.

I'll write the first part, then you check the last part.

Restricting and describing nouns

Di- clauses frequently occur after yang, where they identify a noun through what happened to it: surat yang ditulis Rina “the letter that Rina wrote.” English normally uses an active relative clause here, but Indonesian keeps the patient before the verb and does not add an English-style relative pronoun as the object.

Ini surat yang ditulis Rina tadi malam.

This is the letter that Rina wrote last night.

Barang yang diambil tadi sudah dikembalikan.

The item that was taken earlier has been returned.

Saya belum menerima pesan yang dikirim kantor pusat.

I haven't received the message sent by head office.

Buku yang sedang dibaca Tono ternyata milik saya.

The book Tono is reading turns out to be mine.

This pattern is especially valuable because Indonesian has no participle inflection comparable to English written or sent. The yang + di- clause can remain fully verbal, carry aspect, and retain an agent.

Competition with neighboring constructions

Active meN- and object voice

Use meN- when the agent is the natural topic: Maya menulis laporan. Use di- when the patient is central and the agent is third person or omitted: Laporan ditulis Maya. With a first- or second-person agent, object voice is normally the most idiomatic patient-first choice: Laporan itu saya tulis.

Maya menulis laporan bulanan.

Maya writes the monthly report.

Laporan bulanan ditulis Maya.

The monthly report is written by Maya.

Laporan bulanan itu akan saya tulis besok.

I will write that monthly report tomorrow.

Deliberate di- versus resultative or accidental ter-

Di- presents an action involving an external agent, whether or not that agent is named. Ter- can instead present an achieved state, an accidental event, or an uncontrolled event. Pintu dibuka petugas depicts the officer's action; Pintu terbuka depicts the door's open state. The contrast is real, although some lexical ter- verbs have meanings that must be learned separately.

Pintu ruang rapat dibuka petugas pukul delapan.

The meeting-room door is opened by the staff member at eight.

Ketika saya datang, pintunya sudah terbuka.

When I arrived, the door was already open.

Gelas itu terjatuh ketika meja tersenggol.

The glass accidentally fell when the table was bumped.

Simple di- versus di-...-kan and di-...-i

Suffixes can change which participants a root licenses. Tidur is intransitive, so ditidur is not the passive of “put to sleep”; the causative is ditidurkan. Datang is intransitive, while didatangi means “be visited/approached.” These are not ornamental longer versions of di-: -kan and -i contribute to valency and meaning.

Anak-anak ditidurkan sebelum tamu datang.

The children were put to bed before the guests arrived.

Pantai itu didatangi ribuan wisatawan setiap akhir pekan.

The beach is visited by thousands of tourists every weekend.

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A logically imaginable derivative is not automatically an Indonesian word. Check the established verb family, especially when adding -kan or -i changes who or what can become the passive subject.

Lexical families and conventional combinations

The di- schema is highly productive, but actual vocabulary is a partnership between grammar and the lexicon. Dikenal sebagai, dianggap penting, dimaksud dengan, and dibutuhkan untuk have conventional complements and translations. A dictionary-listed di- form may also reflect an established suffixed base, not a freely compositional meaning that can be copied to every similar root.

Daerah itu dikenal sebagai penghasil kopi.

The region is known as a coffee producer.

Kemampuan berkomunikasi dianggap penting dalam pekerjaan ini.

Communication skills are considered important in this job.

Apa yang dimaksud dengan identitas digital?

What is meant by digital identity?

Kartu identitas dibutuhkan untuk mengambil paket.

An identity card is needed to collect the package.

Learn these as small constructions, including their normal complement. It is more useful to know dikenal sebagai X than to memorize only “dikenal = known.”

Formal writing and casual conversation

The di- passive itself is neutral and common in both speech and writing. What changes is the material around it. Tersebut, telah, and an explicit oleh phrase are common in (formal) documents. Everyday speech often uses -nya, udah for standard sudah, drops an obvious agent, and may use sama “by” (informal) instead of oleh.

Dokumen tersebut telah dikirim oleh sekretariat.

The document has been sent by the secretariat. (formal)

Dokumennya udah dikirim belum?

Has the document been sent yet? (informal)

Motornya dipakai sama kakakku hari ini.

The motorbike is being used by my older sibling today. (informal)

Sepeda motor tersebut digunakan oleh petugas lapangan.

The motorcycle is used by field officers. (formal)

Do not insert sama as an agent marker into careful administrative prose. Conversely, a fully explicit telah ... oleh ... clause can sound unnecessarily official in a chat. The voice remains the same; register resides in the surrounding choices.

Common Mistakes

Using di- directly before a first-person agent

❌ Dokumen itu dibaca saya tadi malam.

Awkward in ordinary usage — a first-person agent normally uses object voice.

✅ Dokumen itu saya baca tadi malam.

I read that document last night.

Attaching di- to an intransitive base without changing valency

❌ Bayinya ditidur lebih awal.

Incorrect — tidur is intransitive and cannot take this simple passive.

✅ Bayinya ditidurkan lebih awal.

The baby was put to bed earlier.

Confusing deliberate action with a resulting state

❌ Saat kami tiba, pintunya dibuka, tetapi tidak ada orang di sana.

Poor choice if only the already-open state is meant — dibuka evokes an opening action.

✅ Saat kami tiba, pintunya sudah terbuka, tetapi tidak ada orang di sana.

When we arrived, the door was already open, but no one was there.

Coining a derivative from meaning alone

❌ Toko itu didatang banyak pembeli setiap hari.

Incorrect — the established transitive derivative is mendatangi, with passive didatangi.

✅ Toko itu didatangi banyak pembeli setiap hari.

That shop is visited by many customers every day.

Key Takeaways

Di- promotes the patient and demotes or omits the agent; it is therefore a discourse choice as well as a word-formation rule.
Third-person agents fit the di- passive, while first- and second-person agents normally favor object voice.
Contrast an agentive di- event with resultative or accidental ter-, and recognize that -kan and -i can change valency.
The prefix is register-neutral, but oleh, sama, aspect markers, and demonstratives can make the whole clause formal or conversational.
Productive grammar does not eliminate lexical convention: learn frequent di- forms with their normal complements.

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