Survival Indonesian. Katherine Davidsen

object)sedang, lagi (informal)in the process ofakanwillmauwant to, willbisacanboléhallowed, permittedtidak boléhnot allowed

       Have you eaten?

      Sudah makan?

       Not yet.

      Belum

       I’m eating.

      Sedang makan.

       I’m going to.

      Mau.

       May I eat?

      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 likes eating crab.

      Joni suka makan kepiting.

       Does Joni like eating crab?

      Apakah Joni suka makan kepiting?

       It’s too hot.

      Kepanasan.

       Is it too hot?

      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.