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Indonesian Sentence and Phrase Patterns
or
FTons of Fun with Grammar!
NMN

Sentences

Subject = whatever it is you are talking about
Predicate = the information you are giving (or asking) about the subject

I. Subject

Predicate
Noun/Pronoun (Negative) (Auxiliary "helping word") + Verb or Preposition {ke, di, dari} (+ Other Stuff)
***Don’t use "adalah"or "bukan" here!!***
Ayah saya bernama Ken. "My father is named (=has the name) Ken."
Ali minum "Ali drinks."
Ali sedang minum teh "Ali is (=in the process of) drinking tea"
Ali tidak mau minum teh. "Ali doesn’t want to drink tea."
Ali belum minum teh hari ini. "Ali hasn’t yet drunk tea today."
Dia mempunyai anjing. "She owns a dog."
Pak M. mau naik becak ke kantor. "Mr. M. wants to take a becak to the office."
Zainal ke sekolah jam tujuh pagi. "Zainal (goes) to school at 6 am.
Pak M. ada di kantor sekarang. "Mr. M. is at the office now."
Bu M. tidak ada di rumah. "Mrs. M. isn’t at home."
When the predicate ada comes in front of the subject, it means "there is/are":
Ada dua puluh mahasiswa di kelas ini . "There are 20 students in this class."
Tidak ada burung di rumah saya. "There are no birds in my house."

 

II. Subject

Predicate
Noun/Pronoun (Negative) + Adjective (+ Other Stuff)
***Don’t use "adalah"or "bukan" here!!***
Saya tidak nakal. "I am not naughty."
Kucing saya gemuk sekali. "My cat is very fat."
Ibu dan Bapak Mursidi pandai. "Mr. & Mrs. Mursidi are clever."
Sekolah saya kecil. My school is small.

 

III. Subject

Predicate
Noun/Pronoun (bukan OR adalah) + Noun/Pronoun (+ Other Stuff)
***NOW you can use "adalah"(optionally) or "bukan"!!***
Nama ayah saya (adalah) Ken. "My father’s name is Ken"
Saya (adalah) guru Bahasa Indonesia. "I am an Indonesian teacher."
Orang itu bukan teman saya. "That person is not my friend."
Adik perempuan ibu saya (adalah) bibi saya. " My mother’s younger sister is my aunt."
Hari ini (adalah) hari Rabu. "Today is Wednesday."
Itu bukan buku saya. "That’s not my book."
Umur saya (adalah) lima puluh tahun. "My age is 50 years."

Phrases

Phrases are found in sentences, but a phrase by itself is NOT a complete sentence

Possessive phrases:

NOUN (=OWNED THING/PERSON) followed by OWNER

kantornya... = his/her office
nama saya ... = "my name (is)..."
rumah ibu saya ... = "my mother’s house"
teman kakak laki-laki bapak mereka ... = "their father’s older brother’s friend..."

Adjective, etc. phrases:

NOUN followed by MODIFIER/ "DEFINER" (ini/itu)

kabar baik = good news
rumah ini = "this house"
orang Amerika = "American person"
mahasiswa pandai itu = "that clever college student"
adik laki-laki = "younger brother"

Combination phrases:

Note: you can only stack up a couple of modifiers, then you can use "yang"(="which/who is/are")

rumah saya itu = "that house of mine"
anak perempuan saya = "my daughter"
orang tua saya ini = "these parents of mine"
orang yang tua = "old people"
teman saya yang tua itu = those friends of mine who are old [in age]"
teman saya yang lama = "my old [for a long time] friend"

Number phrases:

NUMBER (+CLASSIFIER) preceding NOUN

dua puluh orang mahasiswa = "twenty [people of]college students"
tiga ekor ikan kuning = "three [tails of] yellow fish
lima ratus enam puluh empat buah buku saya yang kecil dan merah = 564 [fruits] of my little red books.
three weeks = "tiga minggu"
sebelas tahun = "eleven years"
dua puluh empat jam = "twenty four hours"

FBUT when specifying a time the word jam means "o’clock" and PRECEDES the number:

jam dua = 2:00
jam tujuh lewat seperempat = a quarter past seven

Similarly, the words hari, minggu, bulan and tahun can be countable units or part of a time designation:

empat hari = four days vs. Hari Senin = Monday
tiga minggu = three weeks vs. minggu libur = vacation week
enam bulan = six months vs. bulan September = the month of September
sembilan tahun = nine years vs. tahun seribu sembilan ratus sembilan puluh delapan = 1998

 

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