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Indonesian English
A Reference for EFL Teachers (v1.4 Dec 1999)
by Matthew Arciniega
This is a list of key differences between English and the Indonesian language, Bahasa Indonesia, written with EFL teachers in mind. The idea was to give native speakers a concise idea of both the general and specific areas where Indonesian students might experience difficulties in learning English. Although some of this information may also be of interest to persons studying Bahasa Indonesia, the focus is on Indonesian learners of English. Therefore, examples of Indonesian have been given only where it is thought these might assist the EFL teacher in his or her task. The author is bi-lingual in Indonesian and has lived in Indonesia since 1993. He has been on the teaching staff of English First and The British Institute, both in Bandung (Indonesia).
This paper is copyright by Matthew Arciniega. You are free to reproduce it, but only for individual personal reference and only in its entirety with the author’s name appearing on the copied page. If you have some other use in mind, or if you would like to share other examples of “Indonesian English”, please contact the author via email: matthew@xentana.com. Any contributions will be credited in future versions of this paper.
Quick Links to Topics: Preference: Like/Prefer/Would Prefer/Would Rather Used To/Be Used To/Get Used To Verbal (Participle) Adjectives Word + Preposition Collocations
Acknowledgements: Several persons have contributed in various ways to the compilation of this guide. Agung Riyanto drew my attention to a number of frequently-heard errors produced by Indonesian students in his classes. Iwan Syahril read the first draft and made a number of helpful suggestions regarding pronunciation problems and a bit of my Bahasa Indonesia. My linguist friend Ben Zimmer was helpful in discussing certain Indonesians’ problems with p, f, and v sounds. Dr. Uli Kozok of the University of Hawaii also provided corrections on doubled adjectives as well as interesting input on the p/f confusion. My thanks to these people. Intonation patterns in English vary far more than they do in Bahasa Indonesia, the ‘sing-song’ patterns of English contrasting markedly with the ‘clipped’ sounds of Indonesian. Furthermore, a major hurdle that students’ must overcome if they are to become effective speakers and listeners is in learning to ‘connect’ words in speaking and ‘disconnect’ them when interpreting what has been said. For example, when the sentence “Point to the moon and ask a dog, what is this?” is spoken by a native speaker at normal speed, the Indonesian actually hears something like, “Poin to the moo nan das ka dog, wha tis this?” Of course, this is actually a closer approximation of how the sentence really sounds objectively, but the ability to sort out the individual words is so ingrained in the native speaker that s/he takes it for granted. The Indonesian student, however, needs to be taught how to approach these issues, as nowhere in the Indonesian language are such trans-word connections so prominent. An excellent exercise is simply to first have students mark such connections in a sample paragraph, and then have them practice reading aloud to each other, emphasizing the connections when they encounter them.
Another factor the EFL teacher should take into account is that Bahasa Indonesia almost always places the highest stress on the penultimate (second-to-last) syllable of a word (e.g., Pa-ngan-DAR-an) and never on the final syllable (as in reply, review, refer, etc.), whereas English words follow a number of different patterns. Because the Indonesian pattern is so regular, students tend to bring very little awareness of stress patterns to their study of English.
Bahasa Indonesia uses the same forms for subject pronouns, object pronouns, and possessive adjectives (saya = I/me/my; anda = you/your/your, etc.). Indonesian learners of English have to cope with three times as many new words, and mistakes may be common through the early intermediate levels.
The Indonesian third person pronoun dia is neuter, meaning both he/him/his and she/her/her. Even advanced students must be constantly reminded to differentiate between masculine and feminine gender when using the English third person.
The Indonesian word for we/us/our has one of two different forms, depending on whether the listener is included in the reference (kita = inclusive, kami = exclusive). Since there is only one word in English, this is a small point of ease for Indonesian learners.
The use of the indefinite third person pronouns ‘one’ and ‘some’ (as opposed to the definite ‘it’ and ‘them’) is a curiously neglected area of most elementary and intermediate students’ English education. In the short examples which follow, students almost unanimously try to replace ‘a movie’ with ‘it’ and ‘bananas’ with ‘them’:
A: Are Mr. and Mrs. Santosa going to see a movie tonight? B: No they’re not. They’ve already seen one this week.
A: Are you going to buy bananas today? B: No, I’m not. I’ve already bought some this week.
With some students, you may notice a certain reticence when it comes to using the pronouns you/your. For example, a student might say to me: “Would Mr. Matthew like to join us for coffee this evening after class?” This is an attempt at politeness à la Bahasa Indonesia. Singular “you” in Indonesian can be either kamu or anda. The first term sounds too informal to many Indonesians—especially to those whose everyday language is not Indonesian, but one of the regional languages where there are several very different words for the second person pronoun depending on that person’s relative status to the speaker. The second term is largely a product of the modern age of advertising and may have a “stilted” sound to some when used in real-life conversation. The solution for many is simply to use a person’s name, with an appropriate term of address if possible (such as Mr., Mrs., Dr., Bapak, Ibu, Mas, etc.). Some students need to be reminded that it’s perfectly okay for a young person to use the word “you” when speaking to his or her father, mother, teacher, etc., in English.
Also note that while the English you/your can be singular or plural, Indonesian has distinct forms for singular and plural. Some students founder when faced with a second person plural situation, and need to be reminded of the English-Indonesian difference.
Bahasa Indonesia does not have verb tenses. Saya makan could mean “I eat (every day)”, “I am eating”, “I ate”, “I am going to eat”, or “I have eaten”. The time frame of an action is usually indicated either by use of temporal adverbs such as sudah (already), belum (not yet), pernah (‘have ever’), tidak pernah (have never), akan (will) etc., or by use of time phrases such as two weeks ago, next week, etc. The adverb sedang is generally (but not always) used to indicate continuous action: Dia sedang berenang = S/he’s swimming. Even supposedly advanced students must be reminded to conjugate verbs and check for subject-verb agreement.
Because there are no tenses in Indonesian, many students struggle with both the concept and use of auxillary, or helping verbs (the term can be translated as kata kerja bantu or kata bantu kata kerja). This is especially noticeable in the formation of questions and negatives by lower-level students, but it’s a topic worthy of occasional review through the intermediate levels.
The difference between subject- and object-questions is a likely area of confusion, as there is a strong tendency to form object-questions with the passive voice, à la Bahasa Indonesia. Notice how the Indonesian language uses relative clauses and the passive in the following questions:
The Indonesian language does not have an equivalent for this verb. In some contexts, however, the demonstrative particle adalah is used like an English-speaker would use verb be: Dia adalah seorang guru = S/he’s a teacher. (This usage not uncommonly gives Euro-American learners of Indonesian the mistaken impression that adalah can be used like verb be, leading to such erroneous sentences as Bapak adalah sakit, or “Father is ill.”)
Perhaps because so much time is spent drilling verb be in the early stages, a surprising number of students develop a very curious habit of overcompensation where they add the contracted form of be to almost any subject-verb combination. For example: I’m usually go to school at 7:00.
Verbal (Participle) Adjectives
Teacher : What’s wrong Edwin? You look tired. Edwin : I’m just really boring today. Teacher (silently) : (You can say that again. Teaching you is like washing down a fat valium with a pint of vodka...)
Although it’s an easy thing in Indonesian to turn an adjective into a verb, since Bahasa Indonesia has no tenses there are also no verb participles to function as adjectives. Many students have a hard time accepting that a word that looks so much like a well-known verb is functioning as an adjective. The -ing participle adjectives remind students so much of the oft-drilled present continuous that they automatically come up with sentences like the one above. And the form be + -ed adjective is frequently confused with the passive (see Passive Form, below). This subject usually needs a lot of drilling with exercises that contrast the three different forms (verb, -ing adjective, -ed adjective) of a word.
There is a passive form, and it is more frequently used in Indonesian than in English. Getting students to adopt a more active speaking/writing voice can often be difficult. In Bahasa Indonesia, the passive is formed either with the prefix-verb-suffix combination di-(verb)-kan or (less often) with the prefix-verb combination ter-(verb). By + agent in English is expressed in Indonesian as oleh + agent in precisely the same way. Some students breeze right through the passive. Others have a lot of trouble, especially where the form of the passive and the participle adjective are identical, or where the English calls for a passive but the Indonesian does not. Consider the use of ‘worry’ (khawatir) in the following sentences:
Note the identical forms in (d) and (e). That’s good grounds for confusion. But also notice that in (e) the English is passive, whereas in Indonesian this particular verb must be active!
The Indonesian adverb pernah functions like the English “ever” as used in the present perfect tense. However, while the present perfect ever is only used in interrogatives (“Have you ever..?”) and negatives (“S/he hasn’t ever...”), the Indonesian pernah is also used in positive sentences. This produces the extremely common error: I have ever (...been to Jakarta). Indonesian may also use ever in a sentence where English would call for the past simple, resulting in: “I have ever met you once at John’s house.” (Saya pernah ketemu kamu sekali di rumah John.)
Present perfect is usually the first really difficult tense that Indonesian students encounter. The use of the present perfect with for/since to indicate a period of time generally presents few problems, as there is a correlation with selama/sejak in Bahasa Indonesia. But the use of this tense to emphasize the present result of a past action (“She has bought a new car.”, ergo she has a car now) can be perplexing. Bahasa Indonesia would accomplish the same thing with temporal adverbs by saying something very much like She already has a car now.
In my experience, the concept of ‘unfinished time’ (e.g., this week, today, in my life) — for which we use the present perfect — versus ‘finished time’ (e.g., last year, in 1980, when I was a child) — for which we use the past simple — does not create undue anguish for students. However, they need to be reminded that the time signals for both tenses are sometimes only implied in actual usage. So, for example, a statement like “I have seen that movie twice” really means “I have seen that movie twice in my life.”
Counter words in Indonesian (buah, orang, helai, biji, lembar, etc.) function like the English indefinite article if only one object is indicated:
Itu sebuah meja. = That’s a table. Dia seorang guru. = He’s a teacher.
And the possessive suffix -nya can sometimes be used like a definite article, e.g.:
Dia bernama Alex. Orangnya tinggi, besar, dan garang. = His name’s Alex. The guy’s tall, built, and fierce-looking.
Nevertheless, the equivalent of a/an and the do not exist per se in Bahasa Indonesia, making articles one of the most difficult and confusing aspects of English grammar for Indonesian students. In the early stages of learning I often resort to Indonesian to explain the difference between a/an and the. I tell them that the indefinite article “indicates one among the many that exist in the world or in this environment” (menunjukkan salah satu antara sekian banyak yang ada di dunia atau di lingkungan ini). In contrast, you use the definite article “when you are sure the other person knows what object/s you are referring to” (ketika anda sudah pasti bahwa orang itu akan mengerti barang mana yang anda maksudkan), “either because you have already mentioned the object/s” (entah karena sudah disebutkan sebelumnya) “or because there is only one in your local environment/world/universe” (atau karena hanya ada satu di lingkungan anda atau di dunia).
The use of the + adjective to talk about groups of people (the rich, the poor, etc.) can also give rise to confusion. However, in Indonesian the same thing is accomplished by using the word kaum (“social, political, or economic community”), orang (“people”), or yang (an all-purpose relative pronoun) plus the relevant adjective. Examples:
Kaum intelektual menolak negara Islam. = The intellectual community rejects an Islamic state. Orang miskin semakin bertambah jumlahnya. = The poor are growing in numbers. Yang punya sebaiknya waspada. = The “haves” should look out.
Many students have trouble using English plurals (especially irregular plurals) consistently because the formation is so different in Indonesian. In Bahasa Indonesia plurals are formed by one of two methods:
a) Doubling a noun: buku = a book; buku-buku = books b) Use of a quantifier: orang = a person; dua orang = two people; banyak orang = many people
Note, however, that the use of the plural form is not nearly as obligatory in Indonesian as it is in English, especially where context implies plural usage. For example: orang miskin = a poor person; Orang miskin butuh makanan. = Poor people need food. Students very frequently create English sentences using singular nouns which should obviously be plural, unconsciously assuming that the reader/listener will hear a plural meaning, just as s/he naturally does. They need to be reminded that there is no such thing as an “assumed plural” in English.
To indicate possession, Indonesians place a proper noun, pronoun, or pronoun-derived suffix behind a noun: buku kamu = bukumu = your book; buku Adi = Adi’s book. The use of apostrophe-s to show possession probably feels a bit bizarre to many beginning students, and problems can easily persist into the higher levels, especially when problems become complex: “John’s dogs’ fleas are hard to kill” (Kutu-kutu anjing-anjing John sulit dibunuh).
Many verbs in Indonesian can be used as nouns with no change of form, e.g.: Saya berenang = I’m swimming; Berenang adalah hobi favorit saya = Swimming is my favorite hobby. So there is no gerund form as such. When students first encounter gerunds, their natural tendency is to try to interpret them as present continuous forms, leading to all manner of errors.
Used To/Be Used To/Get Used To The English modal verb Used To is not a verb in Indonesian, but is indicated by the temporal adverb dulu: Saya dulu merokok = I used to smoke. Students actually seem to have little problem with this. However, throw in Be Used To and Get Used To, and be prepared for confusion! Perhaps students just aren’t expecting the same words to be used in such different ways. Be Used To + Gerund in Indonesian can be translated as sudah terbiasa + verb, whereas Get Used To + Gerund can be translated (very awkwardly) as menjadi terbiasa + verb, or more naturally (but less accurately) as membiasakan diri + verb. Contrast the forms:
Indonesian uses the same word for both the name of a country and the nationality of its people and language: Jerman = Germany; orang Jerman = Germans; bahasa Jerman = the German language. Although this appears to be an elementary topic, even at pre-intermediate levels time must sometimes be set aside to teach students to use the English words properly and avoid falling back on the often similar-sounding Indonesian words.
Here’s a situation where one English word has several different equivalents in Bahasa Indonesia, leading to confusion for some students.
For these confusing verbs, Indonesian uses the roots bicara (speak), kata (word) and cerita (story):
Preference: Like/Prefer/Would Prefer/Would Rather There are several different words used to express preference in English, each with its own characteristic patterns. There is only one form with a few basic variations in Indonesian, using the verb suka (‘like’) with or without daripada (‘than’ or ‘instead of’):
Form : subject + lebih/kurang suka + object 1 (noun or verb phrase) [+ daripada + object 2] Example : Tomi lebih suka main basket daripada nonton televisi. Tomi prefers playing basketball to watching television.
With so much variation possible among the English forms in comparison to the Indonesian (as shown in the following table), it’s small wonder that students have difficulty mastering an area that might appear relatively straightforward to the native speaker.
Attempts at the subjunctive in (what should be) noun clauses appear so frequently in lower-intermediate students’ writing that it seems a shame it’s not generally explained until much later. Presenting it around the same time as reported speech might be a solution, since verbs requiring the subjunctive include suggest, propose, recommend, insist, demand, etc.
By far the most common attempt at the subjunctive is with suggest, e.g.: Dani suggested him to try that restaurant. This follows the Indonesian, Dani menyarankan dia mencoba rumah makan itu (where the transitive verb menyarankan is followed by a direct object dia). The more formal version, however, is Dani menyarankan agar dia mencoba rumah makan itu. This is structurally equivalent to the English, “Dani suggested that he try that restaurant.” Point out the similarity and the use of the base form (“that he try”), and the brighter students will usually catch on and explain to the others.
Word + Preposition Collocations This is a Pandora’s box of problems. Some English word-preposition combinations translate directly to Indonesian. With others, the preposition changes. Sometimes English uses a preposition where Indonesian does not, and vice versa. I’ve listed the most common errors in the table below:
Beware the following loan words whose meaning can be very different from the original English (* denotes non-standard Indonesian found only in conversation):
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