Dari vs Daripada

July 25, 2026 confusablesgrammar

Quick question: if someone asks where a student comes from, do you say “Dia dari Sekolah A” or “Dia daripada Sekolah A”?

Most people just pick whichever one feels right and move on. But if you got this wrong, you’re in good company — it’s the single most common mistake that professional emcees and announcers make in Malay.

There’s a clear rule hiding underneath, and once you see it, you’ll spot the mistake everywhere.

What is dari vs daripada?

Both dari and daripada get translated as “from” in English, which is exactly why they get mixed up.

But Malay splits them into two completely different jobs. This isn’t a formality thing or a dialect thing — it’s a hard rule about what kind of starting point you’re describing.

Dari covers: direction, physical place, and time.

Daripada covers: people and institutions, where something comes from, what something is made of, and comparisons.

How to tell them apart

Use dari when the starting point is:

A place

• Saya balik dari sekolah. — I returned from school.

A time or duration

• Kedai itu buka dari pagi hingga malam. — That shop is open from morning to night.

A life stage (which marks time)

• Saya tinggal di sini dari kecil hingga dewasa. — I’ve lived here from childhood to adulthood.

Use daripada when the starting point is:

A person

• Hadiah ini daripada mak saya. — This gift is from my mother.

An organisation or institution

• Dia daripada Jabatan Bahasa Melayu. — He’s from the Malay Language Department.

Where something comes from or originates

• Nasihat yang baik datangnya daripada pengalaman. — Good advice comes from experience.

What something is made from

• Kertas ini terbuat daripada pulpa kayu. — This paper is made from wood pulp.

A comparison

• Kereta ini lebih mahal daripada kereta itu. — This car is more expensive than that car.

The flagship mistake: institution vs movement

Here’s where most people slip up. These two sentences look almost identical, but they need different prepositions:

Wrong: ❌ Pemenangnya ialah Zarul dari Sekolah ABC.

This makes it sound like Zarul physically moved away from the school.

Right: ✅ Pemenangnya ialah Zarul daripada Sekolah ABC.

This says Zarul belongs to / represents the school.

The difference is about the relationship

Use dari when someone physically returned from a place:

• Encik Azman pulang dari pejabat. — Encik Azman physically returned from the office.

Use daripada when someone is affiliated with or representing an organisation:

• Encik Azman daripada Jabatan Bahasa Melayu akan berceramah. — Encik Azman from the Malay Language Department will give a talk.

This is exactly the mistake emcees make. They announce “Pemenangnya ialah Ahmad dari Sekolah A” when they mean Ahmad is representing the school, not that he literally walked in from the building.

The comparison rule

Whenever you’re comparing two things — better, faster, more expensive, different — you always need daripada, even if it feels odd.

• Buku ini lebih baik daripada buku itu. — “This book is better than that book.” (not dari)
• Motosikal ini lebih laju daripada kereta itu. — “This motorcycle is faster than that car.” (not dari)

This rule is ironclad. English says “than,” Malay says daripada. No exceptions.

A second trap: when to use dengan instead

There’s a sneaky related mistake that catches even confident writers.

Two verbs that look similar take opposite prepositions:

Berbanding (to compare) takes dengan:

• Buku ini lebih tebal berbanding dengan buku itu. — “This book is thicker compared to that book.”

Berbeza (to differ) takes daripada:

• Warna rumah ini berbeza daripada warna rumah itu. — “This house’s colour differs from that house’s colour.”

Swapping these is a separate error from the dari/daripada confusion itself. If you remember this pair, you’ll catch yourself before making the mistake.

The exception worth knowing

Malay has one accepted exception.

Expressions like “Bakatnya dalam bermain gitar terserlah dari peringkat sekolah lagi” (“His talent for playing guitar was already evident from school level”) use dari before peringkat (level/stage), even though peringkat is abstract.

Official Malay authorities accept this usage as normal. So if you see dari peringkat, don’t correct it — it’s not a mistake.

Common mistakes

• Using dari in a comparison. ❌ Dia lebih baik dari yang lain. / ✅ Dia lebih baik daripada yang lain. — “He is better than the rest.” Any comparison needs daripada, never dari.

• Using dari for institutional affiliation. ❌ Pemenangnya ialah Zarul dari Sekolah ABC. / ✅ Pemenangnya ialah Zarul daripada Sekolah ABC. — Zarul represents the school, he’s not physically returning from it.

• Using dari when the source is a person. ❌ Surat ini dari abang saya. / ✅ Surat ini daripada abang saya. — The source is a person, not a place. In everyday conversation people blur this one, but formally daripada is correct.

• Using daripada with berbanding. ❌ Prestasi syarikat kami meningkat berbanding daripada tahun lalu. / ✅ Prestasi syarikat kami meningkat berbanding dengan tahun lalu. — The verb berbanding takes dengan, not daripada.

Why this mistake is so common

People don’t look at the context carefully enough before choosing a preposition.

Casual speech defaults to dari for nearly everything because it’s simpler.

Most people don’t check the official grammar guide before writing.

So the “wrong” form is often the one people hear most often in everyday speech — which is exactly why official Malay authorities keep publishing grammar columns on this topic.

Quick summary

• Dari = places, time/duration, life stages
• Daripada = people, organisations, origins, materials, comparisons
• The flagship mistake: using dari when someone is affiliated with or representing a place, not physically moving from it
• A separate trap: berbanding takes dengan, while berbeza takes daripada
• One exception to memorise: dari peringkat is accepted usage, not an error

Dari atau daripada? Perbezaannya lebih mudah daripada yang anda sangkakan. 😊

— Abang Zul