Learn Indonesian: Learning Indonesian through English

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Self-study Lessons > Indonesian > All levels >

Learning Indonesian through English

by Nurul Rahmah

Hi There!!

If you think learning Bahasa Indonesia is complicated, I'm pretty sure you'll change your mind after learning my lesson here. It's actually so much simpler than English. Here, I try to present the facts.

1. Tenses

Indonesian does not have tenses as English does. English uses both the time marker and verb changes, while Indonesian only requires the time marker. Confuse? let me elaborate a little :

In English,

I go to school everyday. (present tense)

I went to school yesterday. (past tense)

In Indonesian,

Saya pergi ke sekolah setiap hari

Saya pergi ke sekolah kemarin

2. Pronoun

While English uses different pronouns for subject, possession, and object, Bahasa Indonesia doesn't need them. For example, in English you have I for subject, my for possession, and me for object, right? Well, In Indonesian it's simply saya. Nice huh??

3. The modified noun order

In English, a modified noun has the order of modifier + noun. Need an example? When we say black hair while black in Indonesian is hitam and hair is rambut, if we go along with English grammar it should be hitam rambut right? Wrong!!
Indonesian has the opposite rule for a modified noun. It is noun + modifier, so it is definitely not hitam rambut , but it is rambut hitam.

4. Prefixes and Suffixes

A similar concept is in Passive Voice, where English use -ed (for regular verbs) and Indonesian use ter- or di- or di-kan. But unlike English which has irregular verbs with no fixed pattern , Indonesian has fixed ones. So it's always ter- or di- or di-kan. For example, there's eaten where the basic verb is eat, and there's sung where the basic verb is sing. In Indonesian it's dimakan where the basic verb is makan, and dinyanyikan where the basic verb is nyanyi. So it always has fixed pattern for passive voice. No need a spectacular memory!

Those are just little, tiny parts of things that I can show you how simple it is to learn Indonesian, especially with me..ha-ha. Wants to learn more? contact me now okay?

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