Contents

The following Help Topics are available:

Overview of Indonesian

Alphabet

Nouns

Number and Agreement

Pronouns

Classifiers

Adjectives

Adverbs

Verbs

Prepositions

Conjunctions

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Overview of
 Overview of Indonesian

Indonesian is the official langauge of the Republic of Indonesia. It evolved from Malay, and in fact, the two are almost identical except for some spelling differences.  The Indonesian spelling system was developed by the Dutch, while the Malay system was developed by the British.

Indonesian has about 20 million native speakers in Indonesia and belongs to the Austronesian family of languages. It is one of the largest language families in the world. Austronesian languages are divided into two groups: Formosan (spoken by about 200,000 people in Taiwan) and Malay-Polynesian.  Austronesian languages have either a Roman alphabet, or an alphabet based on Indian and Arabic script. Indonesian uses a Roman alphabet and contains no unfamiliar characters to speakers of English.


 Alphabet

a	as in cart
b	as in baby
c	as in chair
d	as in day
e	as in deluge
f	as in frog
g	as in gate
h	as in house
i	as in big
j	as in judge
k	as in king
l	as in lamp
m	as in mother
n	as in news
o	as in hope
p	as in pink
q	as in unique
r	as in rain
s	as in snow
t	as in toy
u	as in tutor
v	as in van
w	as in way
x	as in lox
y	as in you, baby
z	as in zebra


Nouns

A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing or idea. There are a few different types of nouns worth noting.

A proper noun names a specific person, place, thing or idea, and is written with a capital letter.

Jakarta (Jakarta)

Amerika (America)

A count noun is a noun that can be counted.

rumah (house)

karcis (ticket)

A non-count noun is a noun that cannot be preceeded by a number.

air (water)

uang (money)

Nouns in Indonesian do not possess gender.

See Also:

Number and Agreement

Classifiers


Number
Number and Agreement

There are two numbers in Indonesian: singular and plural.

Most nouns in Indonesian have singular and plural forms. The plural can be formed by duplicating the noun:

barang (thing)

barang-barang (things)

When the context clarifies the number, it is not necessary to duplicate the noun:

dua karcis (two tickets)

Pronouns also have singular and plural forms:

dia (he)

mereka (they)

Verbs do not change to agree with the subject of the sentence in number:

Dia pergi ke restoran. (He goes to the restaurant.)

Mereka pergi ke restoran. (They go to the restaurant.)

See Also:

Nouns

Pronouns

Adjectives


Pronouns

A pronoun is a word that stands for a previously mentioned (or understood) noun.  That noun is called the antecedent of the pronoun.

In the sentence:

The house was badly damaged when it was hit by the hurricane.

the pronoun it refers back to the noun house (the antecedent).

Pronouns can be used in various ways.

They can be the subject of a verb.

Dia tidak di sini.

(She isn't here.)

They can be the object of a verb.

Saya melihat dia di jalan.

(I saw her in the street.)

They can be the indirect object of a verb.

Saya memberi dia sebuah buku.

(I gave a book to her.)

They can be the object of a preposition.

Buku itu untuk dia.

(This book is for her.)

Personal Pronouns Chart

Subject	Direct Object	Indirect Object	Following a Preposition
saya (I)	saya	saya	saya
kamu (you)	kamu	kamu	kamu
dia (he)	dia	dia	dia
dia (she)	dia	dia	dia
anda (you)	anda	anda	anda
kami (we)	kami	kami	kami
kalian (you)	kalian	kalian	kalian
mereka (they)	mereka	mereka	mereka
anda anda (you, pl.)	anda anda	anda anda	anda anda


Classifier
Classifiers

A classifier is similar to an indefinite article, but it also places the noun in a particular class.

CLASS	CLASSIFIER
	Singular	Plural
People	seorang	orang
Living creatures	seekor	ekor
Objects	sebuah	buah

Saya punya sebuah buku.

I have a book.

Saya punya dua buah buku.

I have two books.

Seorang bayi sedang menangis.

A baby is crying.

Tiga orang bayi sedang menangis.

Three babies are crying.

See Also:

Nouns

Number and Agreement


Adjectives

In Indonesian, an adjective does not agree in gender or number with the noun it modifies.

buku yang bagus (a good book)

banyak pelajar (many students)

kebudayaan Indonesia (an Indonesian custom)

kamar yang lain (other rooms)

An adjective immediately follows the noun it modifies.

See Also:

Number and Agreement

Classifiers


Adverbs

Adverbs in Indonesian can be formed by duplicating the adjective.

Anak perempuan itu berbicara pelan-pelan.

The girl spoke slowly.

In a series of adverbs, the adjective form is used.

Anak perempuan itu berbicara pelan, jelas, dan keras.

The girl spoke slowly, clearly, and loudly.

A number of modifying adverbs can precede an adjective, such as:

sangat (very)

agak (rather)

serba (completely)

Certain adverbs can also followed the adjective, like:

sekali (very)

benar (really)

See Also:

Adjectives


Verbs

Indonesian verbs do not change for conjugation or for tense.

Sekarang saya sedang bekerja.

Now I am working.

Kemarin dia bekerja.

Yesterday, she was working.

Besok mereka bekerja.

Tomorrow, they will work.

The imperative expresses a direct command and is identical to the base verb form.

Pergi! (Go!)

Bekerja! (Work!)


Prepositions

Prepositions are the connecting words that show the relationship between words in the sentence. Nouns, pronouns, noun phrases, gerunds or noun clauses can be the complement of a preposition.

Simple prepositions in Indonesian include the following:

ke	to
dengan	with
berlawanan	against
dari	of, from, since
di	at
saat	during
di dalam	in
antara	between
menuju	toward
sampai	until
untuk	for, in order to
oleh	for, by
di atas	on
diseberang	over
setelah	after
Kami pergi ke Jakarta.

We are going to Jakarta.

Dia datang dengan adiknya.

She's coming with her brother.

Aple itu di atas meja.

The apple is on the table.


Conjunctions

A conjunction joins words, phrases and clauses together.

The most commonly used conjunction in Indonesian is dan (and).

anjing dan kucing

dog and cat

anak laki-laki dan anak perempuan

boy and girl

Other commonly used conjunctions:

atau	or
juga	also
tapi	but