#3 Ini and itu

Ini and itu are among the simplest words to be used to describe the goods or things in bahasa Indonesia. You will soon notice that ini and itu are very powerful just as the words this and that in English and many other languages.

Ini

Ini kertas.

Apa ini kertas?

Ya, ini kertas.

Bukan, ini bukan kertas.

Apa ini?

Ini plastik.

Itu

Itu mobil.

Apa itu mobilmu?

Ya. Itu mobil saya.

Bukan, itu bukan mobil saya.

Apa itu?

Itu mobil adik saya.

This

This is paper.

is this paper?

yes, it is.

no, it is not.

what is this?

This is plastic.

That

That is a car.

Is that your car?

Yes, that's my car.

no, it is not my car.

What is that?

That is my brother's car.

Audio: here

#2 Pronouns

Please read and or listen to the following conversation:

Ridwan: Halo(Hello)
Yudhi: Halo (Hello)

Ridwan: Permisi, siapa nama kamu? (Excuse me, what is your name. Lit: Excuse me, who name you)

Yudhi: Nama saya Yudhi, kamu? (My name is Yudhie, and you. Lit: name of me Yudhie, you?)
Ridwan: Saya Ridwan Kurnia, panggil saja saya Ridwan. (I am Ridwan Kurnia, you can call me Ridwan. Lit: I Ridwan Kurnia, just call me Ridwan).

Yudhi: Senang berjumpa dengan kamu, Ridwan! Selamat datang di Jakarta (Nice to meet you, Ridwan! Welcome to Jakarta. Lit: Happy to meet with you, Ridwan! Welcome in Jakarta)

Ridwan: Saya juga. Terimakasih (me too. Thanks).


After reading and or listening this conversation, you’ll be able to start to identify some of the pronouns in Bahasa Indonesia. In all, here they are:

Saya (sometimes aku) = I, me, myself
Kamu (sometimes anda in a very formal way) = you
Kita = inclusive we
Kami = exculsive we
Mereka = they
Dia = she or he or it.

In bahasa, the pronouns don’t change regardless of its function or position. For example: saya can be used as I, my or mine.

Saya Yudi Kristanto (I am Yudi Kristanto)
Nama saya Yudi Kristanto (My name is Yudi Kristanto)
Panggil saja saya Yudi (Just call me Yudi).

Special case for dia (he/she/it), the form of its, her or his become a suffix –nya. For example: her house (rumah dia (it may also, but more often with: rumahnya)

Now do this exercise: Write these sentences into Bahasa
We are (inclusive) doctors.
You are a singer.
She is a Christian
My uncle is a soldier.
Her father called them to her house.
Vocabulary guide: doctors (dokter), singer (penyanyi), Christian (Kristen), a (seorang; es. to indicate person), uncle (paman), soldier (tentara), called (memanggil), house (rumah). Please post the answers as a comment or an e-mail.

Audio format: here

Grammar and structure explanatory of “First things first”: How to ask with "apa"

In the previous edition you have learned some of the most common phrases in Bahasa. And fortunately, while you were listening and try to make it sense, I am sure you found that that’s very easy. In this edition, I will help you to make it sense and you’ll learn a step ahead in Bahasa.

Good Morning/ Day/Evening (Selamat pagi/ siang/ malam) are specific expressions which have no certain grammar or rule but they are simply a common use.

How are you (Apa kabar) is also specific one, literally it says what (is your) news?

Well (Baik) is corresponding fittingly with English word of OK or Alright. To say “good” to express something beautiful or nice, you may say: “bagus”.

You found some of the question words in Bahasa, here they are:

What = apa
Who = siapa
Where = dimana
When = kapan
Why = mengapa

How = bagaimana
How many/ much = berapa

You may notice that “How are you?” was said in Bahasa: “Apa kabar?” it is the matter of a common use. You can also say, “Bagaimana kabar?”

As I mentioned in the introduction, you don’t need “to be” at all in every Bahasa sentence.
For example:
I am very well. Thanks! Saya (I ) sangat (very) baik (well). Terima kasih (Thanks).
Where do you live? Dimana (where) kamu (you) tinggal (live)?

Now, after searching an online Bahasa dictionary, I found one which I gladly recommend to you: kamus.net. Please use that dictionary to do following exercises (I will do number one as an example):

I am very happy = saya sangat senang. Am I very happy? = Apa saya sangat senang?
You are beautiful = are you beautiful? =
She works in a Bank= Does she work in the Bank? =
He greets me = Does he greet me?=
Rudi opened the door= Did Rudi open the door?=

Alright, by this time you’re ready to improve your Bahasa mastery! Congratulations! (If you wanna know something more or more details, feel free to contact me ;) )

Audio format: here

Let's get started! #1 First thing first

In this edition, I want to engage you to know some of the most used words and phrases in Bahasa. These words and phrases would be very useful for you to be used as a stepping stone to discover essential things in Bahasa, besides you can use them when you meet people for the first time! I also record this edition into an audio format, so that you will easily learn how they are spoken in a native way. I hope you’ll enjoy it!

Hi/ Hello! Hai/ Halo

Good morning --> Selamat pagi

Good day --> Selamat siang

Good evening/ night!--> Selamat malam

How are you? --> Apa kabar?

Good/ well and you? --> Baik! Kamu?

I am very well. Thanks! --> Saya sangat baik. Terima kasih.

Where do you live? -->Dimana kamu tinggal?

I live in Washington. -->Saya tinggal di Washington.

What are you? --> Kamu kerja apa?

I am a writer. --> Saya (seorang) penulis.

Nice to meet you! --> Senang kenalan dengan kamu.

Nice to meet you too! --> Saya juga!
(in Bahasa: me too)

List of new words:

Thanks = terima kasih
Where = dimana
Live = tinggal
Writer = penulis
You = kamu
Meet = kenalan

Note: For further exercise to write and speak these words and phrases, please listen to the audio here. I will soon post the explanations of these phrases in the next edition :).

Welcome!

Hi, welcome to Jawara Bahasa Blog, a blog that helps you to learn Indonesian language. I write this blog especially for you who really want to learn Indonesian language i.e. Bahasa in a more simple and interactive way, since you can ask and contact me freely as you are going on your learning simply by writing your comments or send me an e-mail. This is one little act of gratitude in celebrating the 64th years of Indonesian Independence from the colonialism. I do it simply to help you who want to be able to write, speak and understand Bahasa in your various purposes, either for tourism, international communication or may be just for pleasure! Welcome! I wish this blog can be a meaningful help for your learning Bahasa.

Even though I have but a slight experience in teaching Bahasa to expatriates, and may be you’d prefer to choose another more academic resources to your learning, but I am still willing to help you to learn it in a more communicative way. Besides, I am sure that your questions, comments and suggestions will be very helpful for me to improve the content quality of this blog so that this blog would be a good media for you too as an addition to your reliable resources.

This blog will guide you to learn Bahasa from the most basic level and gradually go to the intermediate (both spoken and written form) level, so that it would be very suitable for beginners. I am very happy to present it to you, because not only you who will learn through this blog but also me, my self since I am now a student teacher in a Teachers College and in the future I am going to be a Bahasa teacher for the expatriates students who study in Indonesia. Therefore your encouragements and ideas will be very helpful for me as a preparation and as the best ‘teaching’ experience, or simply to say, your success is mine too!

I hope you enjoy your learning, but I encourage you to be patient to wait for the updates of the postings, see you soon in Jawara Bahasa Blog. As an addittion, you can listen to the audio recording of each posting simply by downloading via given links in the end of each posting. For this edition, you can download here!

Yudhie

Introduction

10 reasons of why to learn Bahasa is very easy!
It uses Latin alphabets, A-Z, that is the very same system used in English, including the writing marks (such as "..", !, ? ) and also the number system (1-10).
You may read and speak the text as it is written. There is not an exception for this rule, or any special characters, or any special reading technique.
You can find many familiar words in Bahasa which are adopted from English and many other languages. For example, toilet, security, adopsi (adoption), nasional (national), linguistik (linguistic)
No gender in words, you can use any articles to any words, so does with adjective and etc.
No "to be", you will never worry about it.
No problem with single or plural because most of times you can use the basic form of a noun to express both singular and plural things.
Very little possibility for you to mispronounce a word in Bahasa: Indonesians are very flexible in pronouncing the words with any dialect. And I assure you that we will still understand you even when you mispronounce some vowels, especially "e", which can be pronounced as ‘e’ like in terrific or ‘e’ like in "exit".
Consistency in the change of verbs. Many times, the verbs can be used in all time with basic form in an informal context. For example: Saya baca buku (I read (a) book), Dia baca buku (She reads (a) book)!
There are no levels of language, means it is just the same with English to whomever and wherever you speak, you may speak just in the same way.
There are no tenses. Don’t worry about the time orientations, because they’ll never appear in any structure. You can simply say the past things as if you say in the present.
3 things you may anticipate in learning Bahasa
There will be a little bit variations of prefixes and suffixes in verb formation. But don’t worry, because you will be very easily follow and practice it in this blog.
Although most of the clauses constructions are very simple, but to construct a more complex sentences you might use conjunctions with some variations. We will discover it also in this blog.
You might also need to know a little bit about famous idioms or a special expression to be able to communicate in Bahasa, in a real sense.

Audio format, here