Basic Indonesian Grammar Foundation

Trying to understand how words fit together in a particular language is like solving a fun puzzle. If you’re interested in Indonesian particularly, understanding its basic grammar rules is key. 

In this article, we’ll help you understand the most important parts of Indonesian grammar and we’ll compare these with their English counterparts, whenever possible. Whether you’re just starting out learning Indonesian or want to improve your skills, this guide will help you speak Indonesian confidently. 

To better understand how Indonesian grammar works, it’s important to learn how it differs from English grammar:

No Verb Conjugation and Time Markers for Tenses

One important difference between Indonesian and English grammar involves verb conjugation. English verbs change frequently to indicate when and how actions occur, using different forms for past, present and future tenses. 

Indonesian, on the other hand, has a simpler tense system and often relies on context or time expressions to indicate time frames. Additionally, with English, there are different ways of talking about actions, such as simple, progressive, perfect, and perfect progressive tenses. 

In Indonesian, these differences in tenses are not marked in the same way.

For example:

English 

  • Simple Present Tense: “She eats dinner at 6 PM.”
  • Present Progressive Tense: “She is eating dinner now.”
  • Simple Past Tense: “She ate dinner yesterday.”

Indonesian 

  • Present Tense: “Dia makan malam pukul 6.” (The present tense in Indonesian is often indicated by the absence of specific tense markers. The context or time expressions like “pukul 6” [at 6 PM] indicate the time frame.)
  • Present Progressive Tense: “Dia sedang makan malam sekarang.” (The present progressive tense is typically formed by adding the word “sedang” before the verb. So, “makan” [to eat] becomes “sedang makan” [is eating]. Additionally, the word “sekarang” [now] indicates the present time.
  • Past Tense: “Dia makan malam kemarin.” (Similar to the present tense, the past tense in Indonesian is often implied through context or time expressions like “kemarin” [yesterday].)

No Subject-Verb Agreement

Another difference is that you won’t have to deal with subject-verb agreement when forming Indonesian sentences. A verb doesn’t change its form based on the subject or number. The verb form remains the same regardless of whether the subject is singular or plural, first person, second person, or third person.

For example:

  • “Dia makan.” (He/She eats.)
  • “Mereka makan.” (They eat.)

In both sentences, the verb “makan” (eat) remains the same, regardless of whether the subject is singular (dia) or plural (mereka).

Now that you understand how both grammatical systems generally differ, let’s dive deeper into how words are formed by discussing word order and sentence structures.

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