-kan: Formation and Allomorphy | Indonesian Grammar

The suffix -kan creates a transitive stem by attaching directly after a base: baca + -kan → bacakan and bersih + -kan → bersihkan. It is written solidly in every ordinary word, and it has no sound-conditioned allomorphs. This page concentrates on that formation and spelling; its meaning network and broader valency and register choices are treated separately.

The canonical template

The basic morphological template is base + -kan → transitive verb stem. The base may describe an event, motion, state, property, or entity. -Kan often licenses an additional participant, but the base determines whether that participant is caused to act, caused to change state, moved somewhere, or benefited by someone else's action.

Analysis	Surface stem	Basic frame
duduk + -kan	dudukkan	cause someone to sit / seat
baca + -kan	bacakan	read something for/to someone
masuk + -kan	masukkan	cause something to enter / put in
bersih + -kan	bersihkan	cause something to become clean
tenang + -kan	tenangkan	cause someone/something to become calm
beku + -kan	bekukan	cause something to freeze

The hyphen appears only in the abstract suffix label -kan and in analyses such as baca + -kan. It disappears in the finished word.

Dudukkan anak itu di kursi dekat jendela.

Seat the child in the chair near the window.

Tolong bacakan pesan ini untuk Nenek.

Please read this message aloud for Grandma.

Masukkan kartu dengan sisi bergambar menghadap ke atas.

Insert the card with the illustrated side facing up.

Bersihkan meja setelah selesai makan.

Clean the table after you finish eating.

Tenangkan dirimu sebelum mulai berbicara.

Calm yourself before you begin speaking.

Bekukan sisa kaldu dalam wadah kecil.

Freeze the leftover stock in small containers.

💡

Think of dudukkan, bacakan, masukkan, and bersihkan as complete stems. Voice marking may be added outside them, but -kan stays at the right edge of the lexical stem.

-kan is invariant

Standard -kan does not change its form to match the final sound of the base. It causes no nasal substitution and deletes no root consonant. A vowel-final base simply meets k: baca + -kan → bacakan, beku + -kan → bekukan. A consonant-final base retains that consonant: bersih + -kan → bersihkan, tenang + -kan → tenangkan.

Dokumen itu akan dibacakan pada awal rapat.

The document will be read aloud at the start of the meeting.

Daging yang sudah dicairkan tidak boleh dibekukan kembali.

Meat that has been thawed must not be refrozen.

Ruangan ini dibersihkan setiap sore.

This room is cleaned every afternoon.

Anak itu akhirnya berhasil ditenangkan oleh ibunya.

The child was finally calmed by his mother.

The absence of allomorphy is important because Indonesian learners often meet nasal alternations under meN- first. Those alternations belong to the prefix. They do not spread to the suffix or authorize arbitrary deletion within the base.

The visible k + k boundary

When a base already ends in k, both the base-final k and suffix-initial k appear in spelling. Thus duduk + -kan → dudukkan and masuk + -kan → masukkan. This is a morpheme boundary written as kk, not an optional doubled letter.

Base	Suffix	Correct verb stem	Different single-k word
duduk	-kan	dudukkan	dudukan “seat, mount, support”
masuk	-kan	masukkan	masukan “input, suggestion”

Petugas mendudukkan para tamu sesuai nomor meja.

The staff member seats the guests according to their table numbers.

Dudukan ponsel itu bisa diputar.

That phone holder can be rotated.

Saya memasukkan kode yang dikirim lewat SMS.

I enter the code sent by text message.

Terima kasih atas masukan yang sangat berguna.

Thank you for the very useful feedback.

💡

With masuk and duduk, count the morphemes rather than trusting sound alone: verb masuk + -kan = masukkan, but noun masuk + -an = masukan.

Voice prefixes attach outside the -kan stem

The derived stem can appear bare in an imperative or after a pronominal actor in object voice. In a standard actor-oriented declarative, meN- attaches at the left; in a di- passive, di- attaches there instead.

Structure	baca family	kirim family
base + -kan	bacakan	kirimkan
meN- + base + -kan	membacakan	mengirimkan
di- + base + -kan	dibacakan	dikirimkan
pronoun + base + -kan	saya bacakan	saya kirimkan

Mira membacakan dongeng sebelum anak-anak tidur.

Mira reads a fairy tale aloud before the children go to sleep.

Dongeng itu dibacakan Mira dengan suara pelan.

The fairy tale is read aloud by Mira in a soft voice.

Dongeng itu akan saya bacakan setelah makan malam.

I will read that fairy tale aloud after dinner.

Kami mengirimkan tanda terima melalui surel.

We send the receipt by email.

Tanda terima sudah dikirimkan kepada pelanggan.

The receipt has been sent to the customer.

In mengirimkan, the initial k of kirim is absent because meN- triggers nasal substitution: meN- + kirim + -kan → mengirimkan. Passive dikirimkan restores the visible k because di- does not trigger that process. The suffix remains -kan in both. Do not derive one voice form by simply swapping the visible prefix; recover the full base first.

Which bases take -kan?

Event and motion bases

Intransitive duduk “sit” and masuk “enter” become transitive dudukkan and masukkan. A transitive base such as baca can gain a beneficiary-centered pattern. Not every event base has an equally common derivative, however.

Perawat mendudukkan pasien perlahan-lahan.

The nurse seats the patient slowly.

Petugas memasukkan koper ke mesin pemindai.

The officer puts the suitcase into the scanner.

Ayah membacakan adik cerita sebelum tidur.

Dad reads my younger sibling a story before bed.

Property and noun bases

Property bases readily form caused-result verbs: bersih → bersihkan, tenang → tenangkan, beku → bekukan. Some nouns also have conventional -kan families: sekolah → sekolahkan “send to school,” pasar → pasarkan “market,” and buku → bukukan “put into book form.” These are productive patterns constrained by lexical convention, not permission to suffix every noun imaginable.

Mereka menyekolahkan anaknya di dekat rumah.

They send their child to school near their home.

Perusahaan kecil itu memasarkan produknya melalui media sosial.

That small company markets its products through social media.

Kumpulan wawancara tersebut kemudian dibukukan.

That collection of interviews was later published in book form.

Some bases occur predominantly inside a larger established word. Melakukan means “do/carry out,” and menggunakan means “use”; their present meanings cannot be generated by translating laku or guna plus a universal suffix meaning. Dictionaries commonly group these derivatives under the base, but they must also be learned as whole lexical items.

Beneficiary or caused participant?

The same visible formation can organize participants differently. In Ibu membacakan anaknya cerita, the mother performs the reading and anaknya benefits from it. In Ibu mendudukkan anaknya di kursi, the child is caused to enter the sitting state. -Kan has not changed spelling; the event type supplied by baca or duduk selects the role pattern.

Ibu membacakan anaknya surat dari sekolah.

The mother reads her child the letter from school.

Ibu mendudukkan anaknya di samping jendela.

The mother seats her child beside the window.

English often uses for for the first relationship and make, have, get, or a lexical verb such as seat for the second. Do not choose the Indonesian stem by copying that English function word. Learn the complete frame with the derivative.

Recovering the base in a dictionary

Strip the voice prefix first, then recognize the final -kan: membersihkan → bersihkan → bersih, dimasukkan → masukkan → masuk, saya bacakan → bacakan → baca. A final sequence kan is not automatically this suffix—makan “eat” and ikan “fish” contain the same letters lexically. Meaning and dictionary grouping must confirm the analysis.

Dia membersihkan layar laptop dengan kain lembut.

She cleans the laptop screen with a soft cloth.

Kartu itu saya masukkan ke saku jaket.

I put that card into my jacket pocket.

Kami makan lebih awal sebelum berangkat.

We eat early before leaving.

Common Mistakes

Separating the suffix

❌ Tolong baca kan pengumuman ini.

Incorrect — suffix -kan attaches directly to the base.

✅ Tolong bacakan pengumuman ini.

Please read this announcement aloud.

Leaving the analytical hyphen in an ordinary word

❌ Bersih-kan meja sebelum tamu datang.

Incorrect — the hyphen belongs only in morphological notation.

✅ Bersihkan meja sebelum tamu datang.

Clean the table before the guests arrive.

Dropping one k at a k + -kan boundary

❌ Masukan kartu ke mesin.

Incorrect for the command — masukan with one k is the noun ‘input/suggestion.’

✅ Masukkan kartu ke mesin.

Insert the card into the machine.

❌ Dudukan bayi itu di kursinya.

Incorrect for the command — dudukan with one k is a noun.

✅ Dudukkan bayi itu di kursinya.

Seat the baby in the baby chair.

Confusing the suffix with the conversational particle kan

❌ Kamu baca-kan pesannya, kan?

Incorrect spelling — the suffix in bacakan is solid; the confirming particle kan is separate.

✅ Kamu bacakan pesannya, kan?

You'll read the message aloud, right?

Removing a root consonant because meN- removes it elsewhere

❌ Surat itu diirimkan kemarin.

Incorrect — passive di- preserves the initial k of the base kirim.

✅ Surat itu dikirimkan kemarin.

The letter was sent yesterday.

Key Takeaways

Attach invariant -kan solidly to the full base; the suffix itself triggers no consonant deletion.
Preserve both letters at a k + -kan boundary: dudukkan, masukkan.
Voice morphology surrounds the same derived stem: membacakan, dibacakan, saya bacakan.
Recover the base before consulting a dictionary, but confirm the analysis lexically because not every final kan is a suffix.
Formation alone does not tell you whether an added participant is a beneficiary or a caused participant; the base's event structure does.

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