Note:This is not a word-for-word transcript.
Halo, nama saya Dhona.
Nama Anda siapa?
Oh, dia Dewi. Kami tinggal di indonesia.
Hello, everyone! Welcome back to Mari Mengindonesia from BasaBasa Learning Centre.
My name is Dhona and I will assist you in learning Indonesian today.
Have you ever wondered how Indonesians use pronouns like “saya,” “aku,” “Anda,” “kamu,” “kalian”, “dia,”, “beliau”, “mereka,” “kami,” and “kita”. Sometimes, you might hear people say “saya” in some situations, but they use “aku” in other situations. So, which one is true?
Well, today, we’ll dive into the world of Indonesian pronouns and learn when and how to use them.
Before we start, grab a pen and paper to take some notes or practice writing the phrases we’ll be learning today. Don’t worry if you don’t get them right the first time, the more you practice, the easier it’ll become. So, let’s get started!
As you can see in the beginning of this video, I used some of the pronouns we’re about to learn today to introduce myself and someone. In a few minutes, you can also do that. So now let’s dive into it.
In Indonesian, pronouns play a crucial role in communication. Using the right pronoun can show respect and politeness towards the person you’re talking to. Let’s start with “saya,” which means “I” in English. It’s used in formal situations, such as to your colleagues, lecturers, teacher, and someone you just meet but not really close to them. For example, “Halo, saya Dhona.”
Next, we have the casual form of I, which is “aku,”, It’s mostly used in casual or informal situations among friends or family. So, please do make sure to use it instead of “saya” while you’re talking to your Indonesian friends and use “saya” in the formal situation.
Moving on to “Anda,” which means “you” in formal situations. You can use it to show respect towards someone you’re talking to, like your boss or a teacher. For example, “Anda guru Bahasa Indonesia?”, which means “are you Indonesian teacher?”. It’s actually very easy, right? Also, there’s other way to say “Anda” in Indonesian by saying their title or profession, but we’re going to discuss that in the next episode.
“Kamu” is another way to say “you” but in informal situations, like talking to friends or family. For example, “Kamu suka es krim?” which means “Do you like ice cream?” but in informal situation, for your friend or someone you already know or close enough.
For “Anda” and “kamu”, we only use them for singular. So, if we want to use it for plural, we have “kalian”. However, it’s better to use it only for people we’re close enough, such as your friends. For example, you can ask what your friends want to eat by asking “kalian mau makan apa?”.
The next one is how to say “he” or “she” in Indonesian. Fortunately the word for “he” or “she” is gender neutral in Indonesian. It’s just “Dia”. For example, “Dia Dewi” and “Dia Raffi” which mean “She’s Dewi” and “He’s Raffi”. However, if we want to say “dia” for an elder or someone we respect, we should use “beliau” instead. For example, “Beliau presiden Indonesia.”
Then the next word is “Mereka” means “they” and it’s used when referring to a group of people. For example, “Mereka orang Indonesia.”
Lastly, I want to tell you about how to refer to “we”. For some people it might be a little bit confusing as Indonesian has “kami” and “kita”. The difference is just if you want to include the person you want to talk to or not.
If you don’t want to include the person you talk to, you can use “kami”. For an example, my friend and I are living in Indonesia (we live in Indonesia), but you’re not. So, in that situation we have to say “kami tinggal di Indonesia”, because you’re not included in the subject.
But, if you’re also living in Indonesia, then I should say “kita” because I want to include you in the subject and we (all of us, including you) are living in Indonesia.
To recap, today we’ve learned how use the pronouns in Indonesian. Saya, aku, Anda, kamu, kalian, dia, beliau, mereka, kami, and kita.
These vocabularies are easy to learn and remember, and they will help you making new friends in Indonesia.
So, that’s all for today’s episode of Mari Mengindonesia with BasaBasa Learning Centre. We hope you’ve learned something new about Indonesian pronouns and how to use them in your daily conversation. Don’t forget to practice using these pronouns in different situations to become more confident in speaking Indonesian.
If you want to learn more about Indonesian and the culture, don’t forget to check out our website at basabasa.id and follow us on social media. Thanks for watching and see you in the next episode!
Sampai jumpa lagi! Dadah!
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