Learn about Indonesian sentence structure
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
Intro |
|---|
| Michael: How are sentences structured in Indonesian? |
| Blanca: And are the rules rigid? |
| Michael: At IndonesianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Ben Lee calls his friend Farah on the phone and asks her, |
| "What are you doing?" |
| Ben Lee: Kamu lagi apa? |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: Kamu lagi apa? |
| Farah Fauzi: Saya lagi makan siang. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: Kamu lagi apa? |
| Michael: "What are you doing?" |
| Farah Fauzi: Saya lagi makan siang. |
| Michael: "I'm having lunch." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, we'll focus on sentence structure in Indonesian. This dictates the way sentences are spoken, written, and understood. You may know that, in English, the most common sentence structure is subject-verb-object, which is often abbreviated as S-V-O. Take the sentence, "I eat chocolate," for example. In this sentence, "I" is the subject, "eat" is the verb, and "chocolate" is the object. We see here the S-V-O sentence structure at play. |
| Michael: Indonesian belongs to the family of Austronesian languages, which, in general, have very complex grammar and tenses. Fortunately, Indonesian, unlike most Austronesian languages, employs the S-V-O sentence structure, just like English! Let’s try “I eat chocolate” in Indonesian: |
| Blanca: Saya makan cokelat. |
| Michael: The subject in this simple sentence is “I,” or, |
| Blanca: saya |
| Michael: Next, the verb is “eat,” or, |
| Blanca: makan |
| Michael: And, finally, the object is “chocolate,” or, |
| Blanca: cokelat |
| Michael: Now, let's see how the "subject-verb-object" structure applies to sentences from the dialogue. Do you remember how Farah says, "I’m having lunch?" |
| [Pause 4 seconds.] |
| Blanca as Farah Fauzi: Saya lagi makan siang. |
| Michael: Here, we can still observe the SVO pattern, where the subject “I,” or, |
| Blanca: saya |
| Michael: is followed by the verb or present participle “having” and the object “lunch.” Keep in mind that Indonesian verbs don’t conjugate, so, instead, we use the word, |
| Blanca: lagi |
| Michael: to imply that the action of having lunch, or, |
| Blanca: makan siang |
| Michael: is currently going on. The same structure is used for negative sentences. In Indonesia, we only add the word, |
| Blanca: tidak |
| Michael: before the verb to negate a sentence. For instance, “I do not eat chocolate” in Indonesian is |
| Blanca: Saya tidak makan coklat. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: So far, you learned that Indonesian uses the same sentence structure as English, where the subject is followed by the verb and then the object. This is referred to as the SVO sentence pattern. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: Just like in English, there are instances in Indonesian when an object is not necessary in a sentence. This can be observed if the verb in the sentence is intransitive. Take this sentence, for instance, |
| Blanca: Sungai mengalir. |
| Michael: or “the river flows.” Here, we can only observe a subject, |
| Blanca: Sungai |
| Michael: or “river,” and an intransitive verb, |
| Blanca: mengalir |
| Michael: or “flows.” Here’s another example: |
| Blanca: Anda telah dewasa! |
| Michael: or “You have grown!” Again, the verb, or rather verb phrase, in this sentence does not allow a direct object. Moreover, just like in English, the object in an Indonesian sentence becomes the subject when it is in passive form. Let’s take a look at this sentence: |
| Blance: Pria itu sedang menanam pohon. |
| Michael: “The man is planting a tree.” Here, the word “tree” or, |
| Blanca: pohon |
| Michael: is the object of the sentence. If we change the sentence into passive form, it becomes, |
| Blanca: Pohon itu ditanam oleh pria itu. |
| Michael: “The tree is being planted by the man.” While the word “tree” is still the receiver of the action, it now becomes the passive subject in the sentence and is no longer the direct object. |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after the native speaker focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how Ben asks |
| "What are you doing?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Blanca as Ben Lee: Kamu lagi apa? |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Blanca as Ben Lee: Kamu lagi apa? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Blanca as Ben Lee: Kamu lagi apa? |
| Michael: And do you remember how Farah says, |
| "I’m having lunch?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Blanca as Farah Fauzi: Saya lagi makan siang. |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Blanca as Farah Fauzi: Saya lagi makan siang. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Blanca as Farah Fauzi: Saya lagi makan siang. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: While basic Indonesian word structure is similar to that of the English language, Indonesian allows the scrambling up of the word order without the underlying meaning being changed. In many cases, the subject can be placed at the beginning of the sentence, and it becomes the emphasis instead. Let’s look at this example: |
| Blanca: Saya sedang makan nasi. |
| Michael: “I am eating rice.” Here, the emphasis is neutral. Let’s compare it with this sentence: |
| Blanca: Sedang makan nasi saya. |
| Michael: “Eating rice I am.” Here, the emphasis is on the progress of eating rice, and we can see that the subject “I,” or, |
| Blanca: saya |
| Michael: is moved from the beginning of the sentence to the end of the sentence. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Blanca: Dadah. |
| Michael: See you soon! |
Comments
Hide