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LESSON 3

Lectures
Kuliah

ayo

come on!

lalu

then

balik

to go back

lupa

to forget

berangkat to leave, set out mengobrol to chat

bertanya to ask

mulai

to begin

bisa

to be able; can

payung

umbrella

bodoh

stupid, silly

pikirnya

she thought

guna

use

ruangan

room, hall

ingin

to want to

saja

only; just

jadi

so

selesai

finished

katanya

they said

siap

ready

ketemu

to meet

tapi

but

kuliah

lecture

tiba

to arrive

lagi

again

tidak

not; no

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When talking to someone, or when referring to them, we should use the appropriate title in front of their name, and not just the name, so
Pak Hasan or Bu Yoto. This means that a title will be found even where Mr or Mrs is not usual in English. A Western male is likely to
be addressed with the title Om (from Dutch oom "uncle"), so Om John (using his first name, not his family name). If he is addressed
as Pak John, this means that he is becoming integrated into the Indonesian social world.
Similarly, there are quasi-kinship titles for younger people as well, namely Mas "elder brother" or alternatively Kang; Mbak
"elder sister"; and Dik "younger brother or sister". These can be followed by the person's name. In general, terms of address are much
more frequent in Indonesian than in English, and to use just someone's name, without a title, would suggest a high degree of intimacy, a
big age-gap or a superior-inferior relationship.
To say "Ladies and Gentlemen", as when beginning a speech, we say Bapak-bapak dan Ibu-ibu note the doubling for the
plural, and the order, men first! In a formal letter, we could use as pronouns Bapak or Ibu, both with a capital letter, to mean "you".

Pronoun substitutes
As well as the genuine pronouns set out in Lesson 2, in Indonesian we find the frequent use of other words (nouns) that take their place
and function in exactly the same way as pronouns. It will make your Indonesian more idiomatic if you can use them in the right way.
The nouns concerned are terms for family relationships. The main ones are bapak "father" and ibu "mother". These can be used
to mean "you", and would replace anda or saudara. They have quite a different "feel": on the one hand they express respect, because a
parent is someone you look up to, and on the other hand they have a certain warmth, because they mean that we are entering a quasifamilial relationship. Obviously, bapak is used for addressing a mature male, and ibu for a mature female.
Abbreviated forms of bapak and ibu can be used for addressing or calling someone: Pak! Bu! There does not seem to be a real
English equivalent for this (not Mr! or Mrs!). (See also the Cultural comments on page 18.)
Proper nouns, that is, people's names, can also serve as pronouns, not only second person ( = you) instead of kamu, but also first
( = I) instead of aku, especially when children are speaking, e.g.

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Rini lapar, I am hungry. (Rini speaking)

Tense
We have already seen a number of examples of simple verbs. In Indonesian, the verb does not change its form to indicate tense, as
English does (e.g. to gain: gains, gained, and so on). As a result, when translating from Indonesian into English the appropriate tense
markers have to be supplied. You can use present, past or future tense depending on what is needed.
However, all this does not mean that Indonesian is lacking in precision. We have ways of indicating the tense when it is necessary
to be explicit, by using special words which are placed directly in front of the verb concerned, as follows:
The Past
The word which indicates the past, that is, that something happened or has been done, is
sudah
Note that this expresses both the English "simple past" (-ed) and the "perfect" tense (has -ed). And sometimes the translation
"already" fits well too. These words can also be used in front of certain adjectives, meaning that the condition indicated has been
reached, even if an English present is used in translation, e.g. Sudah tua he is old (i.e. is already old or has reached this state). Another
word that can be used in the same way here is telah.
The Present
This is like the "default" setting of the verb, referring to something happening now or something that happens regularly. However, we do
have a word that can be inserted to suggest that we are "in the midst of" or "in the process of" doing something, namely

sedang
So we can contrast makan "eats" with sedang makan "is in the process of eating". But sedang will only be put in when it really
is necessary to stress this "continuous" meaning. Another word that can be used in the same way here is tengah.

The Future
To express the future, "will" or "is going to", we have the word

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akan
This is placed in front of its verb, just like the cases above. Another word with a similar meaning mau, "going to, on the point
of'; this has another common meaning, "want to".
Finally, please note that these words cannot be combined with each other to make other tenses, such as the English future perfect
("will have"), and there is no special form for the conditional ("would").
Use of ada
As will be seen in the story, this important word has a range of meanings: "to be there; exist"; "to be there, to be present"; "to be there, to
have". An idiomatic use is Ada apa? meaning "What's up?" (What's wrong, what's the matter?).
Another use of -nya
Apart from the possessive use already noted, this suffix also has a "demonstrative" use, best translated with "the," that is, making a noun
definite. It can also be found idiomatically, attached to an adjective forming a word with adverbial meaning, as in e.g.:
Biasanya

usually

Sayangnya unfortunately
Verbs with berAs well as simple verbs, we will meet some verbs that feature a prefix ber-; examples above are berangkat "to set out", and bertanya
"to ask". Verbs of this type are always intransitive. We will have more to say about them in Unit 13.

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