depan

Depan is a common word in Indonesian and Malay that denotes the front part of an object, the side facing forward, or a forward direction. It can function as a noun or as a modifier in noun phrases, and it appears in several locative expressions such as di depan and ke depan.

As a noun, depan refers to the front area or façade of something. Examples include pintu depan (front door), bagian depan mobil (front section of a car), and halaman depan (front yard). As a modifier, depan describes position within a compound noun, for instance ruang depan (front room) or toko depan (front of the shop).

Locative and directional phrases are common. Di depan means in front of, as in berdiri di depan gedung (standing in front of the building) or di depan saya (in front of me). Ke depan means forward or ahead, indicating movement in a forward direction. An everyday idiom is di depan mata, meaning right before one’s eyes.

In usage, depan contrasts with belakang (the back or behind). The word appears across formal and informal contexts and is ubiquitous in descriptions of places, objects, and spatial relationships. While related forms such as hadapan exist in Malay for “facing” or “in front of,” depan remains the more common everyday term for the physical front.

See also: belakang, muka, hadapan.