The suffix contrast changes which non-agent participant has direct-object status. Amir mengirimkan surat kepada Rina makes surat the object and leaves Rina in a kepada phrase. Amir mengirimi Rina surat makes Rina the object and places the theme after it. Subject, object, and later passive possibilities must be diagnosed from morphology and alternations, not copied from one English translation.
This page focuses on participants and order. For the semantic overview see -kan versus -i; discourse choice, marker scope, and advanced extraction are treated separately.
Theme object versus recipient object
| Frame | Subject | Direct object | Other participant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amir mengirimkan surat kepada Rina. | Amir | surat | kepada Rina |
| Amir mengirimi Rina surat. | Amir | Rina | surat as secondary theme |
| Surat dikirimkan kepada Rina oleh Amir. | surat | — | kepada Rina; oleh Amir |
| Rina dikirimi surat oleh Amir. | Rina | — | surat; oleh Amir |
Amir mengirimkan surat rasmi kepada Rina melalui pos berdaftar.
Amir sent an official letter to Rina by registered post.
Amir mengirimi Rina surat rasmi setiap awal bulan.
Amir sent Rina an official letter at the beginning of every month.
The full noun Amir is the actor-voice subject in both. The different first postverbal noun reveals the applicative choice: a theme after mengirimkan, an animate recipient after mengirimi. The frequent iterative reading in the second example comes partly from setiap awal bulan, not from -i alone.
Full nouns and pronouns
Replacing the actor with a pronoun does not change the argument alignment.
Dia mengirimkan surat itu kepada Rina semalam.
He sent that letter to Rina yesterday.
Dia mengirimi Rina surat itu semalam.
He sent Rina that letter yesterday.
An object pronoun -nya attaches to the verb in writing. Its reference follows the selected object role.
Amir mengirimkannya kepada Rina pagi tadi.
Amir sent it to Rina this morning. (-nya refers to the item)
Amir mengiriminya sepucuk surat pagi tadi.
Amir sent him or her a letter this morning. (-nya refers to the recipient)
In mengirimkannya, -nya is the theme; in mengiriminya, it is the recipient. Malay -nya does not mark gender. Spelling and suffix choice therefore carry information that the same English pronoun order may obscure.
Omitted secondary participants
A discourse-known recipient can be omitted after a -kan verb, and a discourse-known theme can be omitted after an -i verb. What remains implicit differs.
Amir sudah mengirimkan surat itu.
Amir has sent the letter. (recipient omitted or irrelevant)
Amir sudah mengirimi Rina.
Amir has sent something to Rina. (theme omitted or understood; formal/less usual)
The second is grammatically interpretable but less natural without a recoverable theme. Malaysian usage often prefers Amir sudah menghantar sesuatu kepada Rina or states the item. Grammatical omission does not guarantee equal discourse frequency.
The subject can also be omitted in coordinated discourse:
Amir menulis surat itu lalu mengirimkannya kepada Rina.
Amir wrote the letter and then sent it to Rina.
The understood subject of mengirimkannya is Amir. Attached -nya still refers to the letter, not the omitted actor.
Theme moved into a container versus container affected
The spatial pair shows the same remapping with nonhuman participants. Memasukkan barang ke dalam kotak makes the moved goods the object; memenuhi kotak dengan barang makes the container the object and presents it as extensively affected.
Pekerja memasukkan barang ke dalam kotak satu demi satu.
The worker put the goods into the box one by one.
Pekerja memenuhi kotak itu dengan barang keperluan asas.
The worker filled the box with basic necessities.
| Frame | Direct object | Goal/content phrase |
|---|---|---|
| memasukkan barang ke dalam kotak | barang (moved theme) | ke dalam kotak (goal) |
| memenuhi kotak dengan barang | kotak (affected container) | dengan barang (content) |
The events need not be identical. Putting one item into a box satisfies memasukkan barang but does not necessarily memenuhi kotak. The -i family often supports a holistic or extensive effect on the location, reinforced here by lexical penuh “full.”
Passive order reveals object status
The direct object of actor voice becomes the passive subject.
Barang itu dimasukkan ke dalam kotak oleh pekerja.
The goods were put into the box by the worker.
Kotak itu dipenuhi dengan barang keperluan asas oleh pekerja.
The box was filled with basic necessities by the worker.
The source actor follows oleh when expressed. Passive di- is attached, while locative di remains separate: Kotak dipenuhi di stor contains dipenuhi “was filled” and di stor “in the storeroom.”
Changed order and object voice
With a first-person or discourse-given actor, Malay object voice places the patient before the actor and removes actor-voice meN- while retaining the suffix.
Surat itu saya kirimkan kepada Rina semalam.
That letter, I sent to Rina yesterday.
Rina saya kirimi surat semalam.
Rina, I sent a letter yesterday. (marked/formal recipient-centered order)
Barang itu kami masukkan ke dalam kotak biru.
Those goods, we put into the blue box.
Kotak biru itu kami penuhi dengan bekalan makanan.
That blue box, we filled with food supplies.
This changed order is not random fronting. The initial noun corresponds to the object selected by -kan or -i, and the first-person actor pronoun immediately precedes the non-meN- verb. Standard Malaysian Malay does not replace this pattern with Rina dikirimi surat oleh saya: an expressed first- or second-person actor uses object voice, while a di- passive has a third-person actor or leaves the actor unexpressed. If recipient-first Rina saya kirimi surat feels too marked in a passage, recast it as actor voice—Saya mengirimi Rina surat—or restructure the surrounding discourse.
Relativization as another diagnostic
The same object can be relativized. In careful prose, passive relatives are especially transparent:
Surat yang dikirimkan kepada Rina itu belum sampai.
The letter that was sent to Rina has not arrived.
Penerima yang dikirimi surat itu perlu menandatangani borang ini.
The recipient who was sent the letter must sign this form. (formal)
The relative heads differ because the suffix selected a different object before relativization. Surface proximity alone is insufficient; voice morphology and alternate constructions confirm the analysis.
Common Mistakes
1. Keeping kepada before the -i object
❌ Amir mengirimi kepada Rina surat itu.
Incorrect—the -i recipient is a direct object.
✅ Amir mengirimi Rina surat itu.
Amir sent Rina the letter.
2. Omitting the recipient relator after -kan
❌ Amir mengirimkan surat itu Rina.
Incorrect in the dependable theme-centered frame.
✅ Amir mengirimkan surat itu kepada Rina melalui kurier.
Amir sent the letter to Rina by courier.
3. Promoting the wrong passive subject
❌ Surat rasmi itu dikirimi kepada Rina.
Incorrect—dikirimi promotes the recipient, not the letter.
✅ Rina dikirimi surat itu.
Rina was sent that letter.
4. Confusing content with container
❌ Kotak itu dimasukkan dengan barang keperluan.
Wrong verb for presenting the box as the filled container.
✅ Kotak itu dipenuhi dengan barang keperluan.
The box was filled with necessities.
5. Retaining meN- in object voice
❌ Surat itu saya mengirimkan kepada Rina.
Incorrect standard object-voice form—meN- does not remain after the actor pronoun.
✅ Surat itu saya kirimkan kepada Rina.
That letter, I sent to Rina.
Key Takeaways
-kan commonly selects a moved or transferred theme; -i selects a recipient, location, or affected container. Full nouns and pronouns preserve that alignment, omitted secondary arguments differ, and passive promotion exposes the primary object. In object voice the selected object moves first and actor-voice meN- disappears while -kan/-i remains. Diagnose arguments from morphology, passive and relative alternations, and discourse order together.
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- -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.
- -kan versus -i: Aspect, Modality, and Negation in Malaysian MalayC1 — Place aspect, modal, and negative markers before invariant -kan and -i predicates while preserving their distinct object alignments and scope.
- -kan versus -i: Advanced Constraints and Register in Malaysian MalayC2 — Handle extraction, passive and object-voice alternations, lexicalized suffix meanings, omitted agents, and Malaysian formal-colloquial preferences.
- -kan Valency Patterns: Subjects, Objects, and Argument Order in Malaysian MalayB2 — Track causers, themes, beneficiaries, goals, and passive pivots in Malaysian Malay clauses whose verb ends in -kan.
- -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.