Post-5591

Post 18 dari 23 dalam Teach Nenek a Bahasa Lesson

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#18 avatar
Azalae 21 November 2003 jam 8:39am  

Heheh :blush:

Well normally we say:
Pak guru <name> -or-
Bu guru <name>

bapak :: mister or father of. Could be confusing but most of time means 'father of'
e.g. bapak <name> :: the father of <name>
(short form) pak :: mister

ibu :: missus but usually means mother of.
e.g. ibu yonny -- yonny's mother -or- miss yonny (depending on context)
bu (short) :: missus or miss.
e.g. bu yonny -- definitely means missus yonny.

'guru' is usually followed by the specific faculty.
guru bahasa -- teacher of languages
guru bahasa indonesia -- teacher of indonesian language
guru matematika -- teacher of mathematics

'pak guru' and 'bu guru' do not translate into mr. teacher and ms. teacher. They are just titles or honorifics. Loosely means 'male teacher' or 'female teacher'.

'se-' prefix

Now let's wrap up our lesson for this prefix. As mentioned before, this prefix has two purposes: to indicate a singular quantity or the same object. If you think about it, it basically means: one. Same object also means 'one' object right?

So whenever you come across this prefix just remember that it's literal translation is 'one'. Of course you have to incorporate this meaning with the context to get the complete translation.

Saya bekerja seharian. -- I work one-dayness. -- I work the whole day.
hari :: day
sehari, satu hari :: one day
harian :: daily, per day. '-an' suffix ;)
seharian :: the whole day

Like English, there are also 'unit words'. Unit word is a special word used to accompany numericals to indicate its unit. English: a sheet of paper, a cup of tea, a bowl of rise. Indonesian unit words differ slightly than English, you'll soon see why.

In daily casual conversation, you can omit this words. However! However, 'se-' prefix has to prepend a unit word. So if you omit the unit word, you cannot use 'se-', instead use 'satu'.

puluh :: yup it is also a unit word, thereby you write 'sepuluh' not 'satu puluh'. (1st difference with english)

sebuah koper -- a trunk, a fruit of trunk. (2nd difference with english)
dua butir telor -- two eggs
tiga cangkir kopi -- three cups of coffe
cangkir :: cup

This might be kind of difficult to understand at first. So don't take them all at once. Especially in daily conversation. So let's recap what's really important.

You only need to remember that 'se-' means 'one'. That's it. You can then try to probe for the correct translation using this as a guidance.

You don't need to use unit word in daily conversation.

Numbering, for 'single units':
USE: sepuluh, seratus, seribu, etc
NOT: satu puluh, satu ratus, satu ribu, etc