Languages for Travellers Blog

Sunday, 23 January 2011

Indonesian: Other uses of "yang"

In our last post, we looked at the word "yang" which literally means "that is" or "which is". We saw several ways to use this word in Indonesian. In this post, we see some other uses.

For starters, another use for the word "yang" is as part of the phrase "yang mana" which means "which one". The phrase "yang mana" always comes after the thing that you're asking "which one" about. For example, to ask "which restaurant?", you'd say "restoran yang mana?" - literally, "restaurant which one?"

How about these?

Mobil yang mana Anda ingin membeli?
Guru yang mana terbaik di sekolah Anda?
Rumah yang mana yang rumah Anda?

The phrases above mean:

Which car do you want to buy?
Which teacher is the best in your school?
Which house is your house?

Notice that the last example uses "yang" more than once. The sentence asks "which house is your house?" or literally, "house which one that is house yours?"

It's common to use "yang" more than once in a sentence, and that can be somewhat confusing for English speakers! Take this sentence for another example:

"yang kecil yang saya ingin membeli"

The sentence means "it's the small one that I want to buy" - literally "that is small that is I wish to buy". "Yang kecil" means "the small one" and using "yang kecil yang" means "it's the small one that".

It seems confusing at first so you might need some practice. How about these examples?

"yang ini yang saya tidak suka" (It's this one that I don't like)
"yang besar yang tidak pas" (It's the big one that doesn't fit)

Note that in all these examples, you can add "lah" to the end of the word that comes after the first "yang" to emphasise that you're talking about something. So you could also say:

"yang kecillah yang saya ingin membeli"
"yang inilah yang saya tidak suka"
"yang besarlah yang tidak pas"

It's more common to see the "lah" in writing, but you could hear it if the speaker really wants to emphasise their point. In practice, most times you probably won't use the "lah".

The last use of "yang" is with the word "ada", another word that doesn't have an English equivalent. If you remember, "ada" means "there is" or "is there?" When you use "ada yang" as a phrase, it roughly translates to "some", "someone" or "something".

One example of this is the phrase "ada yang mahal, ada yang murah" which translates as "some are expensive, some are cheap".

Try these other examples:

ada yang muda, ada yang tua (some are young, some are old)
ada yang besar, ada yang kecil (some are big, some are small)
ada yang menyetir mobil, ada yang tidak (some drove a car, some didn't)

Adding "tidak" turns the expression "tidak ada yang" into "no-one".

tidak ada yang mau menyetir mobil itu (no-one wanted to drive the car)
tidak ada yang bicara kepada dia (no-one spoke to him)

So you can see that "yang" is a very versatile Indonesian word. Coming to grips with its many uses can take a lot of practice so start now.

Selamat belajar!

Posted By LFT At 1:11 PM •

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Sunday, 9 January 2011

Indonesian: using "yang"

There are several words in Indonesian that don't have any equivalent in English and "yang" is one of those. "Yang" can mean "that is", "who is" or "which is" and it can be used in several ways. Let's have a look at "yang" a bit more closely.

The first use we'll see is when "yang" emphasises a description of a noun. You're probaby aware that you need to add the adjective (description word) after the noun in Indonesian. For example, to say "new car" you'd use "mobil baru" - literally "car new".

You can use "yang" to emphasise the description of the car by saying "mobil yang baru" or "car that is new". This phrase is very slightly different from "new car" because it emphasises that the car is new.

Try these examples:

gaun yang merah
anak yang nakal
wanita yang cantik
rumah yang besar

Can you figure out the answers for yourself?

Note: if you want to use "sekali" or "sangat" to add "very" to your description, you add it after the word "yang" e.g, "rumah yang sangat besar" or "rumah yang besar sekali".

A second use of "yang" is to mean "whose". For example, you could say "the man whose wife is clever" with the phrase "pria yang istrinya pintar". Notice that we added "nya" to the end of the word "istri" to indicate that it is "his" wife who is clever.

Other examples of this use of "yang" are:

teman saya yang rambutnya panjang (my friend whose hair is long)
mobil yang harganya tinggi (the car whose price is high)

You can also use the word "yang" when you are talking about "the one". So to say "the white one" you would use "yang putih itu" or just "yang putih" - literally "that is/which is white". Can you think of other examples?

We hope you've found this post useful as we've covered some of the main uses of the word "yang". There are others which we'll cover in the next post.

Selamat belajar!!

Posted By LFT At 9:36 AM •

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Sunday, 28 November 2010

A recent trip to Bali

This week's blog is a little different from the others, which have focused on the Indonesian language. We recently had the opportunity to go to Bali for a quick holiday (again) and thought it might be interesting to share an experience about speaking Indonesian.

We went to Bali with a South African friend who speaks Afrikaans. She has no experience with Bahasa Indonesia but stopped us several times to ask about the meaning of particular words. It turns out that these words were also in Afrikaans and meant the same thing.

One example was the word "handuk" which means "towel" and another "kwitansi" which means "receipt". After we started talking about it, the reason for the sharing of words became obvious. The Dutch connection! Both South Africa and Indonesia were former Dutch colonies so both languages borrowed from Dutch. To quote this blog:

Afrikaans is essentially a dialect of Dutch which contains numerous Malay words, not to mention words from many other languages, especially African ones. Indonesian is essentially a dialect of Malay which contains numerous Dutch words

Wikipedia reports that some of the other words taken from Dutch are:

polisi (from politie = police),
kualitas (from kwaliteit = quality),
wortel (from wortel = carrot),
kamar (from kamer = room, chamber),
rokok (from roken = smoking cigarettes),
korupsi (from corruptie = corruption),
persneling (from versnelling = gear),
kantor (from kantoor = office),
resleting (from ritssluiting = zipper), and
kelas (from klas = class).

Do you know of any more words from the Dutch that might also be in the Afrikaans language? We'd love to know about them!

Posted By LFT At 12:54 PM •

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Sunday, 21 November 2010

Indonesian: all about "nya"

You've probably seen "nya" on the end of some Indonesian words. The suffix "nya" has lots of functions in Indonesian and we'll cover the main ones in this blog.

Most commonly, "nya" is used when you want to say "his", "her" or "its". For you grammatically minded folks, this is known as a third person possessor.

So for example, you can say "Dia makan makanannya" which means "He/she eats his/her food". The "nya" attaches to the word that is owned by "him" or "her".

Try these:

Ini mobilnya
Putu kembali rumahnya
Buku itu bukunya

Did you figure out the meanings? They are:

This in his/her car
Putu returns to his/her house
That book is his/her book

You can also use "nya" with a verb (doing word) to indicate the subject of the verb or who the action is done to. For example, if you say "Budi melihatnya", that phrase means "Budi sees her/him".

How about "Mereka membelinya kemarin"? That means "They bought it yesterday. In that case, "nya" means "it".

The last use of "nya" is in place of "the". "Nya" is not always used to mean "the". You only use it the first time you mention a noun or naming word.

For example, "Makanannya enak" means "The food is delicious" if I hadn't been talking about this food previously. If I had already spoken about the food before, I'd say "Makanan itu enak" and this time "itu" takes the place of "the". In fact, the translation of this second phrase could easily be "It is delicious" with "Makanan itu" meaning "it" in this context.

How about:

Kamar tidurnay kotor sekali?
Kareta apinya terlambat
Airnya terlalu panas

And the answers are:

The bedroom is very dirty
The train is late
The water is too hot

So you can see that the suffix "nya" is used in many different ways. Just remember that there are some rules about how it should be used.

Selamat belajar

Posted By LFT At 9:36 AM •

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Friday, 5 November 2010

Indonesian: describing verbs - how to add "ly"

We'll start with a quick grammar lesson about adverbs. Sorry in advance if you hated English at school!

An adverb is a description of a verb or doing word. It describes how you do the action.

In English, adverbs often end in "ly". So you can say "I am walking quickly". The word "quickly" is an adverb that describes how you are walking and "walking" is the verb.

In English, we add "ly" to the end of a word to create the adverb for example loudly, happily, softly etc. In Indonesian, it's really common to use the word "dengan" to create an adverb. As you probably already know, "dengan" means "with".

So, to say "I am walking quickly" you could say "Saya berjalan dengan cepat". Literally, "I walk with quick/fast".

Here are some useful adverbs.

dengan keras - loudly
dengan lembut - softly (as in speaking)
dengan baik - well
dengan nyenyak - soundly (as in sleeping)
dengang sedih - sadly
dengan cepat - quickly

Try and think of some others that you might use in your conversations.

Sometimes, there are other ways to create adverbs in Indonesian. For example, you can say slowly by repeating the word for slow. "Pelan" means "slow" and "pelan-pelan" means slowly.

Here are some other common adverbs that use this reduplication or doubling effect:

diam-diam - silently
lekas-lekas - hurriedly
gila-gilaan - crazily

Try and introduce these adverbs into your Indonesian conversations for something a bit more descriptive. Selamat belajar!

Posted By LFT At 2:06 PM •

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Saturday, 23 October 2010

Indonesian: what happened to "is"?

If you've been learning Indonesian for a little while, you'll probably notice that the word "is" is usually implied in sentences. When you say "dia laki-laki ganteng" or "he is a handsome man" you'll notice that there isn't a specific word for "is" in the sentence. "Is" is implied between the words "dia" and "laki-laki".

Indonesian does actually have a word for "is" - "adalah" but it's used differently from the "is" in English. The word "adalah" is not usually used in short sentences, like the one above. Instead, it's more likely to appear where there is a longer or more complex sentence.

In English, the word "is" or "are" acts like a linking word between a subject and a noun (naming word). The same is true for "adalah" in Indonesian.

Here's an example. In English, we might say "The red car is a fast car". The "is" separates out the "red car" from the "fast car" and acts as a link between the two parts of the sentence.

In Indonesian, you could use the word "adalah" for the same purpose - "Mobil merah itu adalah mobil yang cepat". The "adalah" separates out the "mobile merah itu" and the "mobil yang cepat". You could say "Mobil merah itu mobil yang cepat" but the meaning is less clear.

Here are some more examples for you. Where could you put "adalah" in these sentences?

Laki-laki itu Bapak saya
Restoran ini restoran yang paling mahal
Mereka orang yang selalu senang
Tikus hewan yang kecil sekali

Try and figure out the answer yourself before looking below.

Note: Remember that you don't use "adalah" everywhere you'd use "is" or "are" in English. Instead, think about how it might make the meaning of the sentence clearer for both you and your listener.

Selamat belajar!

Answers:

Laki-laki itu adalah Bapak saya (That man is my father)
Restoran ini adalah restoran yang paling mahal (This restaurant is the most expensive restaurant)
Mereka adalah orang yang selalu senang (They are people who are always happy)
Tikus adalah hewan yang kecil sekali (A mouse is an animal that is very small)

Posted By LFT At 9:36 AM •

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Sunday, 10 October 2010

All about "ada"

There are many words in Indonesian that don't have a direct equivalent in English. "Ada" is one of those words. It is usually used to mean "there is" or "is there?". So you can ask a question starting with "ada" and it's common for the answer to be "ada".

For example, you could ask if there was any milk using "Ada susu?" or "Is there milk?". If there was milk, it's likely that the response would be "Ada" or "there is". If you want to say "there isn't", use "tidak". So, when asked "Ada susu?", if there was no milk, the response would be "tidak ada".

When you're buying from a shop in Indonesia, it's common for a shopkeeper to ask "Ada lagi?" or "Is there more?" when they finish ringing up your goods. You can reply "tidak" to this question.

You'll also hear the question "Ada lagi?" when someone takes your order in a restaurant. They are asking if you want to order any more food. Again, "tidak" is an appropriate reply.

You can also use "ada" if you want to ask whether someone is there, perhaps during a phone call. Saying "David ada?" is like asking "Is David there?" or "Is David in?".

Another use for "ada", is to mean "have" or "own", a bit like "punya". This is fairly informal. For example, you could say "Saya ada mobil baru" or "I have a new car". Again, the opposite is "tidak" so unfortunately, "Saya tidak ada mobil baru".

You can also use "ada" with "yang". "Yang" mean "that is" or "which is" and when you use the expression "ada yang", it's like saying "some" or "some are" (really it's a simplified version of "there is that is"). For example, you can say "some are cheap, some are expensive" with "ada yang murah, ada yang mahal".

The negative of "ada yang" is "tidak ada yang". That phrase is similar to "no-one" or "nothing" or "some don't". For example, to say "No-one wanted to eat" you could use the phrase "Tidak ada yang makan".

As you can see, "ada" is a very useful word that you can introduce in many different situations. Try it out the next time you have the chance to speak Indonesian.

Selamat belajar (happy learning)!

Posted By LFT At 11:29 AM •

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Sunday, 3 October 2010

Getting negative in Indonesian

The topic of this post is all about saying "not". We're going to talk about the differences between "tidak" and "bukan".

You probably know that "tidak" means "no" or "not". You might have heard of "bukan" but most people, when they start learning Indonesian, have trouble knowing when to use it. The simple rule is that you use "bukan" to mean "not" when you're talking about a noun or naming word. It's like saying "not a".

The best way to understand "bukan" is to see it in action and compare it with "tidak".

Let's start with an adjective or describing word - in this case "senang" or "happy". If you want to say "I'm not happy" you would use "Saya tidak senang" because "tidak" is used with adjectives. The same is true of verbs or doing words. "I am not cooking" uses "tidak" - "Saya tidak memasak".

You must use "bukan" when talking about a noun such as a "car", "book" or "telephone". For example, "that is not a book" would be "itu bukan buku". You can say "I am not a student" using "Saya bukan siswa".

Try out the following English phrases. The Indonesian answers are at the end of the post.

I am not tall
He is not a teacher
They are not swimming
This is not a car
She is not pretty
We are not eating
She is not my mother

One important point, if you are talking about an indefinite number like "some" or "many", you must always use "tidak". For example, "Not many children" would be "Tidak banyak anak".

Answers:

Saya tidak tinggi
Dia bukan guru
Mereka tidak berenang
Ini bukan mobil
Dia tidak cantik
Kita tidak makan
Dia bukan Ibu saya

Posted By LFT At 11:12 AM •

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Sunday, 19 September 2010

Indonesian: using "baru" to mean "just"

"Baru" is an interesting word in the Indonesian language. It usually means "new" and is an adjective (describing word) that is applied to nouns (names of things). For example, you'd say "mobil baru" to mean "new car".

There is another use of the word "baru" and that's as an alternative to the English word "just". We commonly use "just" to say that something has recent begun or happened. So, we can say "I've just come home" and you'd understand that I've recently arrived back at my house.

In Indonesian, you can use "baru" in the same way. So, you can say "saya baru pulang" or "I've just come home". Another way to think of it is, "I've newly come home". Instead of describing something, "baru" is a way to talk about time when you place it before a verb (doing word).

Using "baru" in this way is very common when you talk about learning Indonesian. You can get yourself out of a lot of trouble by saying "Saya baru belajar Bahasa Indonesia" or "I just learning Indonesian"!

Posted By LFT At 9:36 AM •

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Sunday, 12 September 2010

Indonesian: verbs starting with "me"

You'll notice that a lot of Indonesian verbs (doing words) start with "me". There are different variations on the beginning of theses verbs - some start with "mem" others with "men" or "meny" or "meng".

In Indonesian, there are some clear rules about which prefix you should use for each verb. And it depends on the starting letters of the base word for the verb. Remember that all words in Indonesian come from a base word.

If the base word starts with	The verb starts with
p, b, f, v	mem
t, d, c, j, sy, z	men
s	meny
k, g, h, kh, a, e, i, o, u	meng
m, n, ny, ng,w, y, l, r	me

So let's see some examples.

Base words starting with p, b, f, v

"membeli" (from "beli") - to buy
"memakai" (from "pakai") - to wear

Base words starting with t, d, c, j, sy, z

"mendatang" (from "datang") - to come
"mencari" (from "cari") - to search

Base words staring with s

"menyelemat" (from "selamat") - to rescue/save
"menyewa" (from "sewa") - to hire

Base words starting with k, g, h, kh, a, e, i, o, u

"mengirim" (from "kirim") - to send
"mengajar" (from "ajar") - to teach

Base words beginning with m, n, ny, ng,w, y, l, r

"meminta" (from "minta") - to ask/request
"merasa" (from "rasa") - to feel

One point to note - as you've probably seen, Indonesian uses repeated words in certain circumstances but you can't repeat the "me" part of the verb. So, for example, the word "membaca-baca" comes from "membaca" (to read) and means "to browse". You can't say "membaca-membaca".

Posted By LFT At 12:00 PM •

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