Indonesian grammar is similar to English grammar. Generally, a sentence contains a subject, followed by a verb and then an object.

Verbs are not inflected for person or number. Indonesian does not incorporate tenses. Indicating past or future tense requires auxiliary verbs (time signals), which is very simple.

Examples:

As you noticed in the examples above, the word ‘sudah’ indicates completed actions, the word ‘akan’ indicates future actions, and the word ‘sedang’ indicates actions in progress. The main word

itself (i.e. ‘makan’ = to eat) is left unchanged.

There is a complex system of verb affixes to render nuances of meaning, and to denote active-passive voices. However, prefixes, infixes, suffixes, and combinations may all be ignored in daily conversations.

Since Indonesian does not have verb tenses like English, it relies more heavily on expressions of time.

Saying “Saya makan” is grammatically correct, but ambiguous, since it does not have a specific time reference. “Saya makan sekarang” is clearer since it means literally “I eat now”. In Indonesian, you may use either an auxiliary verb or a time expression.

EXAMPLES:

INDONESIAN SENTENCE PATTERN

– KELUARGA SAYA –

(MY FAMILY)