Choose -kan when the clause needs a caused event, a theme moving toward a goal, a participant brought to a result, or an action performed for a beneficiary. Compare Kunci itu masuk ke dalam lubang “The key went into the hole” with Ali memasukkan kunci itu ke dalam lubang “Ali put the key into the hole.” The suffix changes the event's valency and affected-participant structure.
After that lexical choice, voice answers what the clause is about: the causer, the affected theme, or a fronted object with a pronominal actor. These decisions interact but are not identical. This page concentrates on choosing the construction; the argument patterns and marker sequences have separate pages.
The three main reasons to choose -kan
| Meaning added/profiled | Without the pattern | With -kan |
|---|---|---|
| cause motion/change | Kunci itu masuk. | Ali memasukkan kunci itu. |
| bring to a result | Meja itu bersih. | Ali membersihkan meja itu. |
| act for a beneficiary | Ibu membaca buku. | Ibu membacakan buku kepada anak. |
| benefactive opening | Ali membuka pintu. | Ali membukakan pintu untuk tetamu. |
Dia memasukkan kunci ke dalam lubang lalu memutarnya perlahan-lahan.
He inserted the key into the hole and turned it slowly.
Pekerja itu membersihkan meja sebelum pelanggan baharu duduk.
The worker cleaned the table before new customers sat down.
Ibu membacakan buku kepada anak yang belum boleh membaca sendiri.
The mother reads a book aloud to the child who cannot yet read independently.
Pengawal membukakan pintu untuk tetamu yang membawa banyak barang.
The guard opened the door for the guest carrying many things.
Do not translate -kan with one English word. English may express it through make, put, clean, read to, or simply a lexical transitive verb.
One event presented three ways
Take the event of a clerk putting a key into an envelope:
| Voice | Clause | Discourse center |
|---|---|---|
| actor voice | Pegawai itu memasukkan kunci ke dalam sampul. | the clerk's action |
| di- passive | Kunci itu dimasukkan ke dalam sampul oleh pegawai. | the identifiable key |
| object voice | Kunci itu saya masukkan ke dalam sampul. | the key, with first-person actor |
Pegawai itu memasukkan kunci ke dalam sampul bersama-sama resit.
The clerk put the key into an envelope together with the receipt.
Kunci itu dimasukkan ke dalam sampul oleh pegawai bertugas.
The key was put into an envelope by the duty officer.
Kunci itu saya masukkan ke dalam sampul sebelum kaunter ditutup.
I put the key into an envelope before the counter closed.
All three retain -kan because all present caused motion. The prefix and actor placement change with voice. Formally possible variants do not answer the same discourse question.
Causative choice: spontaneous versus caused
The intransitive root or ber- form presents a participant entering a state or activity; a -kan verb introduces a causer and makes that participant affected.
Air masuk melalui celah tingkap ketika hujan lebat.
Water came in through the window gap during heavy rain.
Angin kuat memasukkan air hujan melalui celah tingkap.
The strong wind drove rainwater in through the window gap.
Similarly, Meja itu bersih describes a state, whereas Pekerja membersihkan meja itu describes an actor causing that state. Do not add -kan if no external cause or affected participant is intended.
Benefactive choice: action versus service
Compare a plain action with one performed for someone:
Ibu membaca buku di ruang tamu.
The mother reads a book in the living room.
Ibu membacakan buku itu kepada anak di ruang tamu.
The mother reads that book aloud to the child in the living room.
Membacakan conventionalizes reading aloud to or for someone. Likewise, membuka pintu simply opens it, while membukakan pintu untuk tetamu highlights the benefited person. Context can make a plain verb benefactive too, so -kan is not obligatory whenever someone benefits. It is chosen when the lexical construction profiles that service.
-kan versus -i
The closest suffixal alternative is often -i. A practical generalization is that -kan tends to make the moved theme or caused result the direct object, while -i often makes a goal, location, or recipient the affected object.
Mereka mengirimkan dokumen itu kepada setiap pemohon.
They sent that document to every applicant.
Mereka mengirimi setiap pemohon dokumen yang sama.
They sent every applicant the same document. (careful)
In the first, dokumen itu is direct theme object. In the second, setiap pemohon is the recipient object. Not every root supports both patterns, and Malaysian usage often chooses menghantar rather than mengirim in everyday logistics. See the -kan versus -i overview.
Definiteness, animacy, and topicality
These factors principally guide voice after -kan is chosen. A definite affected theme such as kunci itu readily becomes a passive or object-voice topic. An animate causer advancing a narrative favors actor voice. An animate beneficiary may be expressed prominently with kepada/untuk or, with licensed verbs, promoted in a passive construction.
Anak itu dibacakan cerita tentang Sang Kancil oleh datuknya.
The child was read a story about Sang Kancil by his grandfather.
The child is animate, definite, and discourse-prominent, which supports beneficiary-pivot syntax. By contrast, Datuk membacakan cerita kepada seorang kanak-kanak naturally introduces a new indefinite beneficiary later in the clause.
These are preferences rather than a fixed hierarchy. Lexical valency remains decisive.
Dialogue, news, and narrative
Dialogue
A: Meja ini masih kotor. B: Baik, saya bersihkan sekarang.
A: This table is still dirty. B: All right, I'll clean it now. (informal)
Colloquial object voice drops actor-voice meN- but keeps -kan: saya bersihkan. It is not a bare root.
News
Semua pintu kecemasan dibukakan untuk penghuni sebelum pasukan penyelamat tiba.
All emergency doors were opened for residents before the rescue team arrived. (news)
The affected doors are the report topic; the beneficiaries remain in untuk.
Narrative
Dia memasukkan kunci, menarik nafas panjang, lalu membuka pintu bilik lama itu.
She inserted the key, took a deep breath, then opened the door to the old room. (narrative)
Actor voice advances one protagonist through a sequence. Switching to passive would redirect attention to the key or door.
Common Mistakes
1. Adding -kan when no causer is present
❌ Air memasukkan ke dalam rumah ketika hujan.
Incorrect valency—the water itself enters, so use intransitive masuk.
✅ Air masuk ke dalam rumah ketika hujan lebat.
Water entered the house during heavy rain.
2. Dropping -kan from caused motion
❌ Dia masuk kunci ke dalam lubang.
Incorrect transitive causative—masuk alone does not take the moved key this way.
✅ Dia memasukkan kunci ke dalam lubang dengan berhati-hati.
He inserted the key into the hole carefully.
3. Treating plain membaca as necessarily benefactive
❌ Ibu membaca kepada anak buku cerita itu.
Incorrect participant frame for reading a book aloud to the child.
✅ Ibu membacakan buku cerita itu kepada anak.
The mother read that storybook aloud to the child.
4. Keeping actor-voice prefix after a pronoun in object voice
❌ Kunci itu saya memasukkan ke dalam sampul.
Incorrect neutral object voice—the pronoun precedes a verb without meN-.
✅ Kunci itu saya masukkan ke dalam sampul.
I put that key into an envelope.
5. Choosing -kan from English word order alone
❌ Mereka mengirimkan setiap pemohon dokumen itu.
Wrong object selection in the intended standard pattern—the recipient object calls for mengirimi.
✅ Mereka mengirimi setiap pemohon dokumen itu.
They sent every applicant that document.
Key Takeaways
Use -kan to profile caused motion, a result-bearing object, or an action performed for someone. Keep that lexical choice separate from voice: memasukkan, dimasukkan, and saya masukkan share caused-motion valency but select different discourse centers. Plain, -kan, and -i alternatives are not automatically interchangeable; lexical convention and the affected participant determine the natural construction.
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- -kan Valency Patterns: Overview and Formation in Malaysian MalayA2 — Form Malaysian Malay -kan verbs and recognize how they add a causer, beneficiary, moved theme, or result-bearing participant.
- -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.
- -kan Valency Patterns: Aspect, Modality, and Negation in Malaysian MalayB2 — Place aspect, modal, and negative particles before unchanged active, passive, and object-voice verbs ending in -kan.
- -kan Valency Patterns: Advanced Constraints and Register in Malaysian MalayC1 — Analyze -kan in relative clauses, extraction, lexicalized verbs, agentless passives, and formal and colloquial voice patterns.
- -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.
- -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.