Colloquial Indonesian

The Complete Course for Beginners

Sutanto Atmosumarto

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317305316
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Languages & Linguistics
• Categoria: Languages

Colloquial Indonesian: The Complete Course for Beginners has been carefully developed by an experienced teacher to provide a step-by-step course to Indonesian as it is written and spoken today.

Combining a clear, practical and accessible style with a methodical and thorough treatment of the language, it equips learners with the essential skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively in Indonesian in a broad range of situations. No prior knowledge of the language is required.

Colloquial Indonesian is exceptional; each unit presents a wealth of grammatical points that are reinforced with a wide range of exercises for regular practice.

Key features include:

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• A clear, user-friendly format designed to help learners progressively build up their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills

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• Jargon-free, succinct and clearly structured explanations of grammar

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• An extensive range of focused and dynamic supportive exercises

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• Realistic and entertaining dialogues covering a broad variety of narrative situations

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• Helpful cultural points explaining the customs and features of life in Indonesian

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• An overview of the sounds of Indonesian

Balanced, comprehensive and rewarding, Colloquial Indonesian is an indispensable resource both for independent learners and students taking courses in Indonesian..

Audio material to accompany the course is available to download free in MP3 format from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. Recorded by native speakers, the audio material features the dialogues and texts from the book and will help develop your listening and pronunciation skills.

1 Nama saya John Stanton My name is John Stanton

DOI: 10.4324/9781315649870-1

In this lesson you will learn about:

• Personal and possessive pronouns
• Compound nouns
• Simple ‘What’ and ‘Who’ questions
• Using the words maaf and selamat
• Asking for and giving personal information

Study the dialogue in Situation 1 below, noting particularly the words in bold. You may need some help. Look at the English translation provided and the vocabulary.

Situation 1 (Audio 1: 7)

Nama saya John Stanton

John Stanton, who can speak Indonesian, is invited to a social gathering in Jakarta; he is sitting with a group of people that he does not know. He decides to start up a conversation

JS

Selamat malam. Nama saya John Stanton. Saya orang Inggeris. Saya pegawai bank.

AS

Selamat malam. Nama saya Asmara. Saya sekretaris.

JS

Maaf, anda siapa?

SM

Saya Samsudin. Saya manajer toko pakaian.

JS

Dan … ini isteri anda?

SM

Ya, ini isteri saya, Aminah. Dia bekerja di kantor.

JS

Good evening. My name is John Stanton. I am an English person (lit.). I am a bank employee.

AS

Good evening. My name is Asmara. I am a secretary.

JS

Excuse me, who are you?

SM

I am Samsudin. I am a manager of a clothes shop.

JS

And … this is your wife?

SM

Yes, this is my wife, Aminah. She works in an office.

selamant malam	good evening	pakaian	clothes/clothing
nama	name	ini	this
saya	I/me/my	isteri	wife
orang	person	sekretaris	secretary
pegawai	employee	Inggeris	English/England
maaf	excuse me/sorry	dia	he/him/his
anda	you	di	at/in
siapa	who	kantor	office
toko	shop	bekerja	to work
		dan	and

Grammar 1

Formal pronouns

Formal pronouns are used by people who do not know each other very well. The same form is used for both personal and possessive pronouns.

saya	I, my
saudara	you, your
anda	you, your
dia	he/she, his/her
kami	we, our (excluding the person spoken to)
kita	we, our (including the person spoken to/you and me)
mereka	they, their

For example:

saya	(I)	Saya murid.	I am a student
saya	(my)	Ini rumah saya.	This is my house
anda	(you)	Anda sekretaris.	You are a secretary
anda	(your)	Itu toko anda.	That is your shop

For informal pronouns, see Lesson 3, Grammar 1.

Noun predicate

Subject	Noun pred.	Subject		Art.	Noun pred.
Ini	Asmara	This	is		Asmara
Dia	sekretaris	she	is	a	secretary
Itu	Samsudin	That	is		Samsudin

In a sentence as above where the predicate is a noun, Indonesian does not always need an equivalent of the linking word ‘to be’. Also note that there is no Indonesian equivalent of the English indefinite article ‘a’. The use of the indefinite article is optional in Indonesian.

Compound nouns

A noun can be qualified by (an)other noun(s) to produce a compound noun. In English the qualifiers come befor...