Basic grammar guide
At a basic level, Indonesian grammar is relatively simple. In the formal and written language things get a little more complex, but many of the complicated constructions are mainly used in writing or in formal situations and can be dropped in everyday speech.
1 Sentence Word Order
The most basic sentence structure in Indonesian is the same as in English: subject + verb + object, for example:
Saya makan nasi. (“I eat rice.”)
Nouns and modifiers, however, are placed in the reverse of the English word order. “Big house” is rumah besar, literally “house big”. The order is also reversed in indications of possession. “My car” is mobil saya, literally “car my”.
Articles like “the” and “a/an” are not used in Indonesian in the same way as they are in English; however, the words ini (“this”) and itu (“that”) are often placed after nouns to specify which noun is being referred to:
this car = mobil ini
that car = mobil itu
2 Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns remain fixed in Indonesian, and the same pronoun is used for “he/she/him/his/her”. There’s no gender difference between “he” and “she” (both dia). However, there are formal and informal versions of “you” and “I”, different words for plural and singular “you”, and inclusive and exclusive versions of “we”. See the table below for details.
But, in everyday conversations, many of these distinctions are not used and Indonesians are wonderfully forgiving about minor grammatical infractions (i.e., using the incorrect form).
However, it is a good idea to always start out by addressing people you meet using the more formal and common pronouns (see below). Only use the informal pronouns with people you know well.
Here is a table showing the common Indonesian pronouns:
| FORMAL | INFORMAL |
| I/me/my/mine | saya | aku |
| you/your/yours (singular) | anda | kamu |
| he/she/him/his/her/hers | dia | |
| we/our/ours (not including the listener) | kami | |
| we/our/ours (including the listener) | kita | |
| you/your/yours (plural) | kalian | |
| they/their/theirs | mereka | |
It is normal in Indonesian to drop pronouns altogether in simple sentences. Suka kopi? (literally, “Like coffee?”) can be used instead of “Do you like coffee?” And you simply reply Suka! as a statement, this time meaning “I like.” (instead of Saya suka kopi.).
3 Verbs
Indonesian verbs have a simple root form to which prefixes and suffixes are added, such as mem-, ber-, -kan, etc. For instance, the word “to take” in Indonesian is membawa (made of the root verb bawa + the active verb prefix mem-). Fortunately, in everyday speech Indonesians often use the root verb alone, so you can just say bawa instead of membawa to mean “take”.
The verb “to be” doesn’t exist in Indonesian in the same way as it does in English, so the sentence “I am sick.” is translated as Saya sakit. (literally, “I sick.”). However, the much-used word ada (“to have”) is a very useful equivalent to “there is/there are”. Ada hotel means “there is a hotel/there are hotels”.
Verbs are fixed and do not change according to tense, quantity or gender. Time is indicated by adding time words such as sudah (“already”), belum (“not yet”), pernah (“have ever”), akan (“will”), sedang (“currently”) before the verb. In practice it’s usual to leave these words out, if the timeframe is already clear from the context, so in everyday speech “will go”, “going”, “went”, and “have gone” can all be translated as pergi (“go”). See Tenses on page 11 below.
Indonesians tend to use passive verb forms much more often than in English. The passive form is usually formed by placing the object of the action at the beginning of the sentence and adding the prefix di- to the root verb. Dia bawa mobil means “he used the car”; mobil dibawa dia means “the car was used by him”, with di- + bawa creating the passive verb form.
Some useful verbs:
to own, to have punya
to need perlu
to want mau
to like suka
to know tahu
to look for cari (pronounced “chari”)
4 Plurals
It is not necessary to indicate a plural noun in Indonesian. All nouns can be either singular or plural, and quantity is implied by the context. “One person” is satu orang, and “two people” is dua orang (literally, “two person”); “many people” is banyak orang (literally, “many person”). Sometimes nouns are doubled but this is mainly done to indicate variety rather than quantity, for example, ada hotel-hotel (“there are [many kinds of] hotels”).
5 Comparisons
To form comparisons (the equivalent in English -er, -est), the words lebih (“more”), kurang (“less”) and paling (“most”) are added before an adjective. The word daripada equates to “than”.
For example:
| beautiful indah | less beautiful kurang indah |
| more beautiful lebih indah | most beautiful paling indah |
That hotel is more expensive than this hotel.
Hotel itu lebih mahal daripada hotel ini.
6 Questions
The commonest way to form a question in Indonesian is through the use of intonation, adding a rising questioning tone at the end of the sentence. The word order does not change as it does in English.
| Is there a hotel there? | There is a hotel there. |
| Ada hotel disana? | Ada hotel disana. |
If you want extra clarity you can add the question word Apakah (“Is it so?”) in front of the sentence: Apakah ada hotel disana?
Other question words:
| Why? Kenapa? | Who? Siapa? |
| How? Bagaimana? | Which? Yang mana? |
| How many/How much? Berapa? | Where? Dimana/Mana? |
| When? Kapan? |
7 Yes and No
yes ya
no tidak
not bukan
Tidak applies to verbs and adjectives; bukan applies to nouns. Negations always go before the word they are describing.
| There is no hotel here. | That’s not a hotel. |
| Tidak ada hotel disini. | Itu bukan hotel |
| I can. | I cannot. |
| Saya bisa. | Saya tidak bisa. |
The response to questions featuring a verb, whether positive
