Appendix:Indonesian verbs

Unlike many languages, however, many (or likely all except ajar) verbs in Indonesian including other Malayic languages are defective to some extent. There is also many examples where meanings change in certain forms (notably tinggal (“to live, is left”) → meninggal (“to die”)) However, there is a few truly irregular verbs, notably *erti (“to understand”), ajar (“to teach”) and tahu (“to know”). Most of this page describe that of formal Indonesian, verb system in the colloquial one is greatly reduced. See also Appendix:Indonesian affixes.

Form structure

(Active prefixes)	(Causative prefix)	Root	(Verbal suffixes)	(Object enclitic)	(Jussive suffix)
meng-, ber-, ter-	per-	Root	-i, -kan	-ku, -mu, -nya	-lah

There are some constraints: the emphatic suffixes always cooccur with other verbal forms (thus the jussive is coexisting with the imperative), combination *teper- or *terper- never occurs except in ajar and daya (terpercaya ← percaya is a borrowing, this is the reason why Indonesian verbs are otherwise defective), and the suffix -i does not occur in verbs ending in the same vowel -i. Violation of this rule can be observed in speakers influenced by Banjarese and Madurese.

Object enclitics are only used after transitive verb forms, so they cannot be simply used without knowing their meanings first. However, these sometimes can be used following few verbal nouns in the colloquial language, such as kata / bilang and makan, technically as a possessive suffix. Thus kataku means either "my saying" or "I say".

Colloquial Indonesian, however, tends to fossilize verb forms into derivations.

Examples of conjugations

Ajar

Conjugation of ajar
Root	ajar
	Active	Involuntary	Passive	Imperative	Jussive
Active	mengajar, belajar	terajar	diajar	belajar	ajarlah, belajarlah
Locative	mengajari	terajari	diajari	ajari	ajarilah
Causative / Applicative1	mengajarkan, belajarkan	terajarkan	diajarkan	ajarkan	ajarkanlah
	Causative
Active	memperajar	terpelajar	diperajar	perajar	perajarkanlah
Locative	mempelajari	terpelajari	dipelajari	pelajari	pelajarilah
Causative / Applicative1	mempelajarkan	terpelajarkan	dipelajarkan	pelajarkan	pelajarkanlah
1The -kan row is either causative or applicative, with transitive roots it mostly has applicative meaning. Notes: Some of these forms do normally not exist or are rarely used in standard Indonesian. Some forms may also change meaning.

This is the only known fully conjugated verb in Indonesian (has 30 inflected rows, with total of 32 forms), although the active rows and causative rows are morphologically irregular. Belajar may be also used irregularly as an imperative, as the root is actually hardly used as such. However, certain forms are relatively rarely used: causative active and causative applicatives rows.

Gunting

Conjugation of gunting
Root	gunting
	Active	Involuntary	Passive	Imperative	Jussive
Active	menggunting	tergunting	digunting	gunting	guntinglah
Locative	mengguntingi	terguntingi	diguntingi	guntingi	guntingilah
Causative / Applicative1	mengguntingkan	terguntingkan	diguntingkan	guntingkan	guntingkanlah
	Causative
Active	mempergunting		dipergunting	pergunting	perguntinglah
Locative	memperguntingi		diperguntingi	perguntingi	perguntingilah
Causative / Applicative1	memperguntingkan		diperguntingkan	perguntingkan	perguntingkanlah
1The -kan row is either causative or applicative, with transitive roots it mostly has applicative meaning. Notes: Some of these forms do normally not exist or are rarely used in standard Indonesian. Some forms may also change meaning.

Most nominal roots, including the above verb from an etymologically nominal root, are almost fully conjugated (has 33 rows), except the causative involuntary rows.

Buat

Conjugation of buat
Root	buat
	Active	Involuntary	Passive	Imperative	Jussive
Active	membuat	terbuat	dibuat	buat	buatlah
Locative
Causative / Applicative1	membuatkan	terbuatkan	dibuatkan	buatkan	buatkanlah
	Causative
Active
Locative
Causative / Applicative1
1The -kan row is either causative or applicative, with transitive roots it mostly has applicative meaning. Notes: Some of these forms do normally not exist or are rarely used in standard Indonesian. Some forms may also change meaning.

Unlike the previous verbs, with only 10 rows are inflected. The causative forms of perbuat and the active berbuat has a slightly different meaning, that is "to do" instead of "to make" (the verb "to do" is otherwise supplied by laku, effectively being suppletive in the meaning (here, these 12 rows are inflected).

Conjugation of buat, laku
Root	buat, laku
	Active	Involuntary	Passive	Imperative	Jussive
Active	berbuat, berlaku				berlakulah
Locative
Causative / Applicative1	melakukan	terlakukan	dilakukan	lakukan	lakukanlah
	Causative
Active	memperbuat		diperbuat	perbuat	perbuatlah
Locative
Causative / Applicative1
1The -kan row is either causative or applicative, with transitive roots it mostly has applicative meaning. Notes: Some of these forms do normally not exist or are rarely used in standard Indonesian. Some forms may also change meaning.