Malay keluar describes a person or thing moving or emerging from an interior, while mengeluarkan adds a causer who brings something out. That physical contrast extends into several important institutional meanings: withdrawing money, issuing a document, publishing a work, producing goods, and spending funds. The nouns keluaran and pengeluaran then separate an output or edition from the process of producing, withdrawing, or spending.
These forms do not merely translate each occurrence of English out, issue, or produce. Their argument structure and established collocations determine which member is natural. General rules for the suffix -kan, the suffix -i, and passive di- are covered under Word Formation.
Family and frames
| Form | Typical frame | Core meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| keluar | keluar dari + source / keluar ke + destination | go/come out, emerge, leave | neutral |
| mengeluarkan | mengeluarkan + object + dari source | take/cause out; issue, produce, spend | neutral/formal |
| dikeluarkan | object + dikeluarkan | be taken out, issued, removed, produced | neutral/formal |
| keluaran | keluaran + producer/date/type | product, output, edition, release | neutral |
| pengeluaran | pengeluaran + product/funds | production, output, withdrawal, expenditure | formal/technical |
| mengeluari | mengeluari + enemy/opponent | go out to confront or repel | archaic/literary |
No form changes for person or tense:
| Subject/time | Malay | Time marker |
|---|---|---|
| I, past | semalam saya keluar awal | semalam |
| she, ongoing | dia sedang mengeluarkan barang itu | sedang |
| they, future | mereka akan mengeluarkan kenyataan | akan |
Mengeluarkan is a causative-transitive form, not an infinitive or a tense. Time and aspect remain separate.
Keluar: the mover or emerging entity is the subject
Keluar is intransitive: its subject itself moves, appears, is released, or ceases to belong. A source is typically introduced with dari/daripada, and a destination with ke.
Saya keluar dari rumah sebelum matahari terbit untuk mengelakkan kesesakan.
I left the house before sunrise to avoid the traffic.
Asap tebal keluar dari bahagian belakang kedai itu.
Thick smoke came out from the back of the shop.
Dia keluar daripada persatuan itu selepas berpindah ke negeri lain.
She left the association after moving to another state.
Colloquial Malaysian speech often omits dari in familiar combinations such as keluar rumah. In careful prose, keluar dari rumah explicitly marks the source and is the safer standard frame. This is a register difference, not grounds for declaring ordinary conversation defective.
Keluar also extends to publication and announcement when the item itself is the subject: keputusan sudah keluar “the results are out,” buku baharu akan keluar “a new book will be released.”
Keputusan peperiksaan dijangka keluar pada minggu hadapan.
The examination results are expected to come out next week.
Mengeluarkan: causing something to come out
Mengeluarkan adds an actor and takes the moved or produced entity as its direct object. In the most transparent physical sense, compare dompet itu keluar dari beg with Nora mengeluarkan dompet itu dari beg.
Nora mengeluarkan dompetnya dari beg sebelum sampai di kaunter.
Nora took her wallet out of her bag before reaching the counter.
Doktor berjaya mengeluarkan serpihan kaca dari tapak kakinya.
The doctor managed to remove the glass fragment from the sole of his foot.
The caused-outward path has conventionalized into several lexical domains:
| Combination | Meaning | Domain |
|---|---|---|
| mengeluarkan wang | withdraw or spend money | banking/finance |
| mengeluarkan surat | issue a letter | administration |
| mengeluarkan buku | publish/release a book | publishing |
| mengeluarkan bunyi | emit/make a sound | general |
| mengeluarkan hasil | produce output/yield | agriculture/industry |
Saya perlu mengeluarkan wang tunai sebelum pergi ke pasar malam.
I need to withdraw some cash before going to the night market.
Jabatan itu mengeluarkan arahan keselamatan baharu kepada semua kakitangan.
The department issued new safety instructions to all staff. (formal)
Kilang tersebut mampu mengeluarkan dua ribu unit sehari.
The factory can produce two thousand units a day.
Context decides whether mengeluarkan wang means withdraw, provide, or spend money. A following source phrase such as daripada akaun favors withdrawal; a purpose phrase such as untuk membaiki bumbung favors expenditure. The morphology alone cannot resolve every lexical reading.
Dikeluarkan: the affected entity comes first
Passive dikeluarkan foregrounds the item removed, issued, published, produced, or the member expelled. An actor or institution may follow oleh.
Surat rasmi itu dikeluarkan oleh pihak universiti pada 12 Ogos.
The official letter was issued by the university on 12 August. (formal)
Dua pemain dikeluarkan dari padang selepas menerima kad merah.
Two players were sent off the field after receiving red cards.
Produk tersebut dikeluarkan daripada pasaran atas sebab keselamatan.
The product was withdrawn from the market for safety reasons. (formal)
The passive prefix is attached: dikeluarkan. In dikeluarkan di Malaysia, the first di- is verbal and solid, while the second di is a separate locative preposition.
Keluaran: product, output, edition, or release
Keluaran usually denotes something that has been produced or released. It can identify an edition of a publication, a model, industrial output, or a product associated with a maker.
Telefon keluaran terbaharu itu menggunakan bateri yang lebih tahan lama.
The latest model of that phone uses a longer-lasting battery.
Saya masih menyimpan majalah keluaran bulan kemerdekaan itu.
I still keep the magazine's Independence Month issue.
In some settings produk keluaran tempatan means a locally manufactured product. Here keluaran classifies the output; it does not name the act of manufacturing it.
Pengeluaran: process and institutional event
Pengeluaran names the act or process of causing something to come out. Its conventional readings include production, output, expenditure, and withdrawal.
Pengeluaran padi di daerah itu meningkat selepas sistem pengairan dibaiki.
Rice production in that district increased after the irrigation system was repaired.
Pengeluaran wang daripada akaun tersebut memerlukan pengesahan tambahan.
Withdrawal of money from that account requires additional verification. (formal)
Syarikat mengurangkan pengeluaran untuk menyesuaikan stok dengan permintaan.
The company reduced production to align stock with demand.
Do not expect one English noun to cover every occurrence: pengeluaran negara may mean national output, while pengeluaran tunai means cash withdrawal and pengeluaran wang untuk projek concerns expenditure on a project. Complements establish the domain.
The restricted form mengeluari
Mengeluari exists in dictionaries and older texts with the specialized meaning “go out to meet, confront, or repel an enemy.” It is (archaic/literary) in modern Malaysian Malay and is not a productive everyday alternative to keluar or mengeluarkan.
Angkatan Melaka pun mengeluari musuh yang menghampiri kota.
The Melaka forces then went out to confront the enemy approaching the city. (archaic/literary)
For a modern sentence about leaving a building, say keluar dari bangunan. For taking an object out, say mengeluarkan barang. The mere presence of a location or target does not license mengeluari.
Common Mistakes
1. Using an intransitive form with a moved object
❌ Saya keluar dompet dari beg.
Incorrect—the actor causes the wallet to come out, so a transitive verb is needed.
✅ Saya mengeluarkan dompet dari beg.
I took the wallet out of the bag.
2. Omitting the object of mengeluarkan
❌ Dia mengeluarkan dari rumah pada pukul enam.
Incorrect for ‘she left the house’—mengeluarkan requires an affected object.
✅ Dia keluar dari rumah pada pukul enam.
She left the house at six o'clock.
3. Splitting passive di-
❌ Surat itu di keluarkan oleh pihak bank.
Incorrect—the passive prefix di- is written solid.
✅ Surat itu dikeluarkan oleh pihak bank.
The letter was issued by the bank.
4. Generalizing the archaic -i form
❌ Saya mengeluari wang daripada mesin ATM.
Incorrect—mengeluari does not mean ‘withdraw.’
✅ Saya mengeluarkan wang daripada mesin ATM.
I withdrew money from the ATM.
5. Confusing product with process
❌ Pengeluaran terbaharu telefon itu lebih ringan.
Wrong noun for the intended model or release.
✅ Keluaran terbaharu telefon itu lebih ringan.
The latest model of that phone is lighter.
Key Takeaways
Use intransitive keluar when the subject itself goes or comes out, and transitive mengeluarkan when an actor removes, issues, publishes, produces, or spends something. Passive dikeluarkan foregrounds the affected entity. Keluaran usually names a product, edition, or model, whereas pengeluaran names production, withdrawal, or another process. Treat mengeluari as an archaic/literary word restricted to confronting an enemy, not as a productive modern -i alternative.
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