Survival Indonesian. Katherine Davidsen
object)
Sudah makan?
Belum
Sedang makan.
Mau.
Boléh makan?
ADVERBS
To describe how someone is doing something, add dengan (with) or secara (in the way of) before the word you are describing. This is like adding -ly to English adjectives to make them adverbs, e.g.
| Dia | makan | dengan | lapar. |
| She | eats | with | hunger. |
| (= she eats hungrily) |
| Sari | menyetrika | secara | hati-hati. |
| Sari | irons | in the way of | careful |
| (= Sari irons carefully.) |
You can often leave out dengan or secara.
| Sari | hati-hati | menyetrika. |
| Sari | careful | to iron. (= Sari irons carefully.) |
PREPOSITIONS
The most common preposition is di (in, at).
| Di mana? | Di Jakarta |
| Where? | In Jakarta |
This is a separate word, and not attached like the prefix di-, which makes a verb passive.
| Dilarang | merokok | di | kamar kecil. |
| Forbidden | smoking | in | toilet. |
| (= No smoking in the toilet) |
For time, pada (in, on) is very useful.
| pada jam 10 | at 10 o’clock |
| pada hari Senin | on Monday |
| pada bulan Juni | in June |
| pada tahun 2014 | in 2014 |
You may also hear di for time, but this is slangy and less grammatical.
| to | ke | from | dari |
Almost all other prepositions can take di before them.
| on | di (atas) | in front of | (di) depan |
| over | di atas | next to | di samping |
| under | di bawah | within | di dalam |
| between | (di) antara | around | di sekitar |
| beside | di sebelah | near | di dekat |
| behind | di belakang |
NUMBERS
These are regular and logical. This should be one of the first vocabulary sets you learn!
| 1 | satu |
| 2 | dua |
| 3 | tiga |
| 4 | empat |
| 5 | lima |
| 6 | enam |
| 7 | tujuh |
| 8 | delapan |
| 9 | sembilan |
| 10 | sepuluh (lit. satu puluh or one ten) |
For the numbers 11 to 19 add belas (= teen):
| 11 | sebelas (satu belas) |
| 12 | dua belas |
| 13 | tiga belas, etc. |
For numbers ending in -0 add puluh (= ten):
| 20 | dua puluh |
| 30 | tiga puluh |
| 40 | empat puluh |
| 50 | lima puluh |
Bigger numbers:
| 100 | seratus (= satu ratus) |
| 200 | dua ratus |
| 500 | lima ratus |
| 1.000 | seribu (= satu ribu) |
| 2.000 | dua ribu |
| 10.000 | sepuluh ribu |
| 50.000 | lima puluh ribu |
| 100.000 | seratus ribu |
| 1.000.000 | sejuta (= satu juta) |
| 2.000.000 | dua juta |
You will notice that traditionally full stops are used to divide up thousand values. Increasingly you will see commas, as in English, but particularly with money, full stops are still the official format.
Ordinal numbers are very regular (except for one “the first”) – just add ke- to the number, however large:
| 1st | pertama |
| 2nd | kedua |
| 3rd | ketiga |
| 4th | keempat |
| 5th | kelima |
| 20th | keduapuluh |
Decimals are as in English, but use a comma rather than a full stop. So 4.5 (four point five) is 4,5 (empat koma lima) in Indonesian.
| ½ (one half) | setengah, separuh |
| ⅓ (one third) | sepertiga |
| ⅔ (two thirds) | dua pertiga |
| ¼ (one quarter) | seperempat |
| ¾ (three quarters) | tiga perempat |
COUNTERS
Like many Asian languages, Indonesian often uses a counter word when talking about a number of objects. This is similar to the English use of “twenty head of cattle,” “six pairs of pants” etc.
If you leave them out, people will still understand you, but you will hear them used and you will speak better Indonesian if you can use them.
| orang | for people, e.g. dua orang bayi two babies |
| buah | fruit, general counter for largish objects, e.g. lima buah jeruk five oranges; empat buah mobil four cars |
| biji | seed, general counter for small objects, e.g. tiga biji kancing three buttons |
| ékor | for animals, e.g. seékor sapi a cow |
| batang | for long thin objects, e.g. sepuluh batang rokok ten cigarettes |
ASKING QUESTIONS
| who | siapa |
| what | apa |
| where | di mana, (directional) ke mana |
| when | kapan |
| how | bagaimana |
| why | mengapa, kenapa (colloquial) |
| yes | ya |
| no | tidak, bukan (for objects) |
| not yet | belum |
To make a question not using a question word, all you have to do is start the sentence with Apakah (or Apa for short). Literally, apakah means “whether” while apa means “what.”
Joni suka makan kepiting.
Apakah Joni suka makan kepiting?
Kepanasan.
Apa kepanasan?
As in English, you can simply use a rising intonation at the end of the sentence to make it a question, but it is much simpler and clearer to use Apa or Apakah in front.