The suffix -i often promotes a goal, recipient, location, or repeatedly affected target into the verb's direct-object position. Compare menghadiahkan sebuah buku kepada Rina, where the book is the object and Rina follows kepada, with menghadiahi Rina sebuah buku, where Rina is the direct object. The suffix does not simply mean “to,” “at,” or “on”; it reorganizes which participant is grammatically central.
This overview introduces the form and its main semantic tendencies. Detailed object diagnostics, discourse choice, aspect, and extraction belong to the other pages in the -i series and the -kan versus -i comparison.
Form-and-function overview
| Pattern | Example | Object promoted | Typical interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|
| meN- + root + -i | mendatangi rumah | goal/location rumah | come to, visit, approach |
| meN- + root + -i | menghadiahi Rina sebuah buku | recipient Rina | give Rina a book as a gift |
| meN- + root + -i | menandai halaman | affected location/target halaman | put marks on a page |
| meN- + root ending in i | mengisi borang | container/form borang | fill in a form |
| di- + root + -i | Rina dihadiahi sebuah buku | recipient as passive subject | Rina is presented with a book |
The spelling is solid: mendatangi, menghadiahi, menandai, dihadiai is not the relevant standard form here—use dihadiahi—and diisi. The actor-voice prefix changes shape according to the root, but the suffix remains -i.
Location and goal as direct object
Bare motion datang ke rumah introduces the destination with ke. Derived mendatangi rumah packages the house as a direct goal object and often adds a sense of visiting, approaching, or deliberately coming to it.
Pegawai kesihatan mendatangi rumah pesakit yang tidak dapat bergerak.
The health officer visited the home of a patient who could not move. (formal)
Wartawan mendatangi lokasi kejadian sebaik sahaja jalan dibuka semula.
Reporters went to the scene as soon as the road reopened. (formal/news)
Kami datang ke rumah mereka selepas waktu Maghrib.
We came to their house after Maghrib.
The two frames differ in syntax and register. Datang ke rumah is the everyday analytic motion expression. Mendatangi rumah is transitive, more deliberate, and more at home in formal or narrative prose. It should not replace every datang ke phrase merely because the English translation contains to.
A location object also appears in menanami kebun dengan jagung: the field is the affected surface, while the planted crop follows dengan.
Penduduk menanami kawasan lapang itu dengan pokok buah-buahan.
The residents planted the open area with fruit trees.
Compare Penduduk menanam pokok di kawasan itu, where the trees are the object and the location remains in a di phrase. The choice changes what is treated as affected.
Recipient as direct object
With transfer predicates, -i can promote an animate recipient. Menghadiahi Rina sebuah buku makes Rina the first object, while the gift follows.
Syarikat itu menghadiahi Rina sebuah buku kerana memenangi pertandingan esei.
The company presented Rina with a book for winning the essay competition.
Pihak penganjur menghadiahi setiap peserta sehelai baju-T.
The organizers presented every participant with a T-shirt.
The corresponding theme-centered construction is menghadiahkan sebuah buku kepada Rina. In passive voice, the suffix determines which participant is most directly promoted:
Rina dihadiahi sebuah buku oleh pihak penganjur.
Rina was presented with a book by the organizers.
Sebuah buku dihadiahkan kepada Rina oleh pihak penganjur.
A book was presented to Rina by the organizers.
This is the grammatical payoff of applicative morphology. It changes more than nuance: it helps determine which noun can become the passive subject.
Repeated, distributed, or exhaustive effect
With some roots, -i suggests action applied repeatedly over a target, distributed across multiple targets, or affecting a surface extensively. These are tendencies, not a mechanical meaning present with every root.
Pembantu penyelidik menandai setiap halaman yang mengandungi ralat.
The research assistant marked every page containing an error.
Kanak-kanak itu menulisi seluruh papan putih dengan nama rakan-rakannya.
The child wrote all over the whiteboard with the names of his friends.
Pekerja menanami kedua-dua tebing sungai dengan buluh.
The workers planted bamboo along both riverbanks.
Menandai halaman promotes the page as the affected target; menulisi papan construes the board as a written-over surface. Repetition or exhaustive coverage comes from the interaction of -i, the lexical root, plural/distributive expressions such as setiap, and context. -i alone does not guarantee “many times” or “completely.”
Roots that already end in i
Surface spelling can hide morphological boundaries. The root isi already ends in i, so mengisi borang is spelled with one final i, not mengisii. From spelling alone, a learner cannot decide whether final i is lexical root material or an applicative suffix.
Sila mengisi borang pendaftaran dengan huruf besar.
Please fill in the registration form using capital letters. (formal instruction)
Pegawai itu mengisi tangki dengan air bersih.
The officer filled the tank with clean water.
The container/form is the direct object, and its content can follow dengan. A theme-centered alternative uses mengisikan:
Pegawai itu mengisikan air bersih ke dalam tangki simpanan.
The officer put clean water into the storage tank.
Here air bersih is the object moved into the tank. The contrast resembles -i location focus versus -kan theme/caused-motion focus, but mengisi must be learned as an established verb whose root itself ends in i. Morphological labels cannot be read directly from the last letter.
Alternation is lexical, not automatic
Some families support a clear -kan/-i alternation; others select only one common form or develop specialized meanings. Mendatangi has no everyday mendatangkan synonym: mendatangkan means cause to come, bring about, or generate, as in mendatangkan faedah “bring benefits.” Menandai and menandakan also overlap only partly; menandakan frequently means “indicate/signify.”
Kehadiran burung itu menandakan bahawa kawasan paya masih sihat.
The presence of those birds indicates that the wetland remains healthy.
This does not mean “put marks all over” the presence. The derived form is lexicalized. Learners must verify frequent combinations rather than choose a suffix solely from the nearest English preposition.
Common Mistakes
1. Adding a preposition before the promoted object
❌ Pegawai itu mendatangi ke rumah pesakit.
Incorrect—the goal is already the direct object of mendatangi.
✅ Pegawai itu mendatangi rumah pesakit.
The officer visited the patient's home.
2. Keeping kepada before an -i recipient
❌ Penganjur menghadiahi kepada Rina sebuah buku.
Incorrect—the recipient follows menghadiahi directly.
✅ Penganjur menghadiahi Rina sebuah buku.
The organizer presented Rina with a book.
3. Treating every -i as repeated action
❌ Mendatangi mesti bermaksud datang berkali-kali.
Incorrect—repetition is not a universal meaning of -i.
✅ Jururawat mendatangi rumah itu sekali sahaja.
The nurse visited that house only once.
4. Doubling final i after isi
❌ Sila mengisii borang ini sebelum masuk.
Incorrect—isi already ends in i; standard spelling has one final i.
✅ Sila mengisi borang ini sebelum masuk.
Please fill in this form before entering.
5. Assuming -kan and -i preserve the same object
❌ Penganjur menghadiahkan Rina sebuah buku.
Wrong for the dependable theme-centered -kan frame taught here.
✅ Penganjur menghadiahkan sebuah buku kepada Rina.
The organizer presented a book to Rina.
Key Takeaways
-i commonly promotes a destination, recipient, surface, or affected target to direct-object status. This promotion can support repeated or exhaustive interpretations, but lexical root and context remain decisive. Compare mendatangi rumah with datang ke rumah, menghadiahi Rina buku with menghadiahkan buku kepada Rina, and container-centered mengisi tangki with theme-centered mengisikan air ke dalam tangki. A final written i does not by itself reveal morphological structure.
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- -i: Formation and Allomorphy in Malaysian MalayB2 — Form Malaysian Malay -i verbs with an unchanged base, solid spelling, and the prefix patterns required by clause type.
- -i: Meanings and Derivational Network in Malaysian MalayB2 — Understand how Malaysian Malay -i verbs promote a location, goal, recipient, or other target to direct-object status.
- -i Applicative Patterns: Subjects, Objects, and Argument Order in Malaysian MalayB2 — Identify actors, target objects, secondary participants, passive subjects, and pronoun order in Malaysian Malay -i applicative clauses.
- -i Applicative Patterns: Choosing This Construction in Malaysian MalayB2 — Choose an -i applicative when discourse centers a container, goal, recipient, or marked target, then select actor, passive, or object voice by topicality.
- -kan versus -i: Overview and Formation in Malaysian MalayB2 — Choose -kan or -i by identifying whether a moved theme, caused result, location, goal, or recipient is treated as directly affected.
- -kan versus -i: Choosing This Construction in Malaysian MalayB2 — Choose -kan when a transferred or moved theme is central and -i when discourse profiles an affected recipient, location, or container.