Choose the di- passive when the clause is primarily about an affected participant and a third-person or unstated actor performs the event. Rina membaca buku itu answers “What did Rina do?”; Buku itu dibaca Rina continues a discussion about the book. Both describe the same roles, but they guide the listener through the information differently.
Voice choice is therefore not a mechanical active-to-passive transformation. Definiteness, animacy, topicality, genre, and the form of the actor all affect what sounds natural. This page focuses on that choice; the arguments page establishes the participant diagnostics, while aspect and advanced constraints are treated elsewhere in this series.
One event, three discourse shapes
| Construction | Clause | Natural discourse question |
|---|---|---|
| actor voice | Rina membaca buku itu. | Apakah yang dilakukan Rina? |
| di- passive | Buku itu dibaca Rina. | Apakah yang berlaku pada buku itu? |
| object voice with pronoun actor | Buku itu saya baca. | Siapakah yang membaca buku itu? |
Rina membaca buku itu untuk menyiapkan tugasan sejarah.
Rina read that book to complete her history assignment.
Buku itu dibaca Rina sebelum dipulangkan ke perpustakaan.
That book was read by Rina before being returned to the library.
Buku itu saya baca semasa cuti sekolah.
I read that book during the school holidays.
The first centers Rina. The second centers buku itu and uses di- with a third-person full-noun agent. The third also centers the book, but first-person saya precedes a bare verb in object voice. Formally related alternatives are not pragmatically interchangeable.
When di- is favored
Continuing an affected topic
Once a text establishes an object or person, passive voice lets the next clause maintain that topic.
Kami menerima sebuah manuskrip lama. Manuskrip itu diperiksa oleh dua orang pakar sebelum dipamerkan.
We received an old manuscript. The manuscript was examined by two experts before being exhibited.
Repeating actor voice—Dua orang pakar memeriksa manuskrip itu—would shift attention to the experts. That can be appropriate, but it produces a different information path.
Unknown, obvious, or irrelevant actor
Agentless di- is natural when identifying the actor adds little, the actor is recoverable, or the speaker does not know who acted.
Kuncinya diambil ketika pejabat itu kosong.
The key was taken while the office was empty.
Jalan utama akan ditutup mulai pukul sepuluh malam.
The main road will be closed from ten at night.
In the road notice, the authority arranging the closure is less important than what road users must know. Omitting the agent is a discourse decision, not an admission that no actor exists.
Institutional and news reporting
Reports often center documents, decisions, victims, infrastructure, or procedures. Di- is therefore common without being an imitation of English formal prose.
Surat itu ditulis oleh Ali bagi pihak jawatankuasa penduduk.
The letter was written by Ali on behalf of the residents' committee. (formal)
Dua buah rumah rosak selepas dilanda ribut pada awal pagi.
Two houses were damaged after being hit by a storm early in the morning. (news)
A dialogue, a news sentence, and a narrative
Register changes the surrounding language, but all three contexts can motivate di-.
Dialogue: an identifiable object
A: Buku itu siapa yang baca? B: Buku itu dibaca Rina; saya belum sempat membacanya.
A: Who read that book? B: It was read by Rina; I haven't had time to read it yet. (conversation)
In very casual speech, speakers may use Rina yang baca or Rina baca instead. The di- answer is still standard; the book remains the established topic.
News: source and responsibility
Surat itu ditulis oleh Ali dan diserahkan kepada pihak berkuasa pada hari Isnin.
The letter was written by Ali and submitted to the authorities on Monday. (news)
The explicit oleh Ali attributes authorship. The next passive keeps surat itu as the understood subject across the coordinated report.
Narrative: withholding the actor
Kuncinya diambil tanpa bunyi; beberapa minit kemudian, pintu belakang terbuka.
The key was taken silently; a few minutes later, the back door opened. (narrative)
Omitting the actor creates uncertainty and lets a narrative reveal responsibility later. This is a discourse effect of agent suppression, not a special tense.
di- versus actor voice
Actor voice with meN- is favored when a new, animate, volitional actor advances the event sequence.
Ali menulis surat itu, memasukkannya ke dalam sampul, lalu keluar menuju ke pejabat pos.
Ali wrote the letter, put it into an envelope, then left for the post office.
The chain follows Ali's actions. Recasting every verb as passive would disrupt that actor-centered narrative. Conversely:
Surat itu ditulis oleh Ali, disemak oleh pengerusi, dan dihantar pada hari yang sama.
The letter was written by Ali, checked by the chairperson, and sent the same day.
This chain follows the letter through a process. Neither voice is inherently better or more formal; each maintains a different topic.
di- versus object voice
Both constructions place an affected participant before the verb, but their actor patterns differ. Neutral di- typically takes a third-person full-noun agent, an attached third-person agent such as -nya, or no stated agent. Object voice is strongly favored with first- and second-person actor pronouns.
Dokumen itu disemak oleh pengurus semalam.
That document was checked by the manager yesterday.
Dokumen itu sudah saya semak semalam.
I checked that document yesterday.
Avoid Dokumen itu disemak saya as the unmarked first-person pattern. Disemak oleh saya is possible when “by me” is contrastively important, but ordinary discourse uses saya semak.
Definiteness, animacy, and topicality
The passive subject is often definite: buku itu, surat tersebut, kuncinya. Identifiability helps listeners accept it as the current topic. Yet an indefinite passive subject is possible when the text introduces it through an event:
Sebuah beg ditemukan berhampiran pintu masuk stesen.
A bag was found near the station entrance. (news)
Animacy also guides attention. Human affected participants are highly salient and therefore often become passive subjects, especially when harm, rescue, appointment, or evaluation affects them.
Tiga orang pendaki diselamatkan oleh pasukan bomba malam tadi.
Three hikers were rescued by the fire brigade last night. (news)
These are tendencies, not rigid rules. An animate actor may remain central in actor voice, and an indefinite inanimate item can be passivized when the discourse presents its discovery.
What di- does not automatically imply
The di- passive is not necessarily impersonal, evasive, formal, past, or negative. Buku itu dibaca Rina setiap minggu can describe a habit with an explicit agent. Makanan ini boleh dimakan expresses possibility. Interpretation comes from the clause and context.
Nor does passive voice automatically hide blame. Kesilapan itu dilakukan oleh penyelia explicitly identifies responsibility. Speakers choose whether to include the agent.
Common Mistakes
1. Using passive when the actor is the developing topic
❌ Ali tiba di pejabat. Surat itu ditulis oleh Ali, kemudian kedai dikunjungi oleh Ali.
Grammatically formed but poorly organized—the narrative is following Ali's actions.
✅ Ali tiba di pejabat, menulis surat itu, kemudian mengunjungi kedai berhampiran.
Ali arrived at the office, wrote the letter, then visited a nearby shop.
2. Using actor voice while trying to keep the patient as subject
❌ Buku itu membaca Rina sebelum dipulangkan.
Incorrect roles—actor morphology makes the book the reader.
✅ Buku itu dibaca Rina sebelum dipulangkan.
That book was read by Rina before being returned.
3. Forcing di- with saya
❌ Surat itu ditulis saya pagi tadi.
Poor neutral pronoun pattern—use object voice with a first-person actor.
✅ Surat itu saya tulis pagi tadi.
I wrote that letter this morning.
4. Assuming an agentless passive has no actor
❌ Kuncinya diambil sendiri tanpa sesiapa mengambilnya.
Contradictory interpretation—the passive suppresses an actor but does not erase one.
✅ Kuncinya diambil oleh seseorang ketika pejabat kosong.
The key was taken by someone while the office was empty.
5. Treating passive as past tense
❌ Jalan itu ditutup bermaksud penutupan sudah berlaku.
Incorrect—di- marks voice, not past time.
✅ Jalan itu akan ditutup pada pukul sepuluh malam.
That road will be closed at ten tonight.
Key Takeaways
Choose di- when the affected participant is the clause's discourse center and the actor is third person, obvious, unknown, or unimportant. Choose actor voice to advance an actor's actions and object voice for a fronted affected participant with a first- or second-person actor. Definiteness and animacy favor passive topicality, but they are tendencies. Voice alternatives describe related events while answering different discourse questions.
Now practice Malay
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Malay →Related Topics
- di- Passive: Overview and Formation in Malaysian MalayA1 — Form the Malaysian Malay di- passive by placing the affected subject first, attaching di- to the verb, and optionally adding a third-person agent.
- di- Passive: Subjects, Objects, and Argument Order in Malaysian MalayA2 — Identify the patient subject, optional agent, pronoun patterns, and argument alternations licensed by the Malaysian Malay di- passive.
- di- Passive: Aspect, Modality, and Negation in Malaysian MalayC1 — Build temporal, modal, and negative meanings by placing preverbal particles before an unchanged di- passive verb.
- di- Passive: Advanced Constraints and Register in Malaysian MalayC1 — Analyze di- passive relativization, extraction, agent placement, lexical limits, agentless discourse, and formal-colloquial distribution.
- meN- Actor Voice: Choosing This Construction in Malaysian MalayA2 — Choose meN- actor voice when an animate or discourse-prominent actor advances the event, especially through an action sequence.
- Object Voice with a Bare Verb: Choosing This Construction in Malaysian MalayC1 — Choose Malaysian object voice when a definite or questioned patient is topical and a first- or second-person agent remains immediately before the bare verb.