If you’ve decided to learn a foreign language, whether for work or just for fun, it’s essential to stay positive and motivated. This will make all the difference as you progress toward your language learning goals.  As you aim for positivity and a smooth language learning journey, I’m sure you would love to always be able to say yes! However, as you may imagine, you’ll also need to learn how to form negative sentences in Indonesian before you master the language. Don’t worry though. We only mean "negative" from a grammatical point of view…so keep the positive vibe! In this article, you’ll learn all about negation in Indonesian: how to answer a closed-ended question correctly and politely, how to transform positive sentences into... Show more

Like nouns, verbs are an essential part of all sentences. They are the words we use to describe an action (menyanyikan - to sing), a state of being (hidup - to exist), or an occurrence (mengembangkan - to develop), and they usually have to agree with a subject, which is who or what performs the action described.  Generally, no sentence is complete without a verb. This makes it crucial to pay special attention to verbs when learning a foreign language. Luckily for you, there are no real tenses in Indonesian to worry about. In this article, you’ll learn more about what this means and how to form the main English tenses in Indonesian. By the end of it, you’ll have taken a great leap toward using Indonesian verbs with ease. We’ve... Show more

Those who have tried know: Learning a foreign language may not be easy, but it’s an amazing and fulfilling process. By learning to understand, speak, and think in a foreign language, we add a new skill to our repertoire—but that’s not all! We can also change the very way we see the world. But in today’s civilization, time is money and many of us feel too trapped by responsibilities to try mastering a language ourselves. So if you’re planning to study Indonesian, an important question to ask yourself is: How long does it take to learn Indonesian? And perhaps more importantly: Is it worth the investment?  Did you know that Indonesian has a lot of words that can’t be translated into English? One of my favorites is faedah, which... Show more

Proverbs are popular sayings that provide a little dose of wisdom, a truth that is sometimes so obvious we overlook it.  Can you think of a proverb in your native language that touched you at an important moment of your life? Indonesians are actually famous for using a lot of slang words and proverbs in their daily lives. If you want to sound like a local, you’d better learn some Indonesian proverbs yourself! Doing so is a great way to let your language skills shine and familiarize yourself with Indonesian culture. As they say, "There is no time like the present." Learn the thirty most popular Indonesian proverbs and you’ll be sure to leave a good impression! Table of Contents The Top 30 Indonesian Proverbs ... Show more

You might have heard that Indonesian is an easy, accessible language, but have you ever wondered why? Since you’re considering learning Indonesian, you probably want to know what’s involved with the process. Are you going to have to memorize long declension tables, write out conjugations a zillion times, or cram adjective endings into your memory? None of the above. Indonesian grammar doesn’t require you to think in the ways that European grammar does. Instead, it’s a different challenge that people find refreshing and stimulating. In this article, we’ll break down some of the major Indonesian grammar rules that make it particularly interesting to learn (and not particularly challenging!). You’ll soon see that understanding... Show more

Many aspiring learners wonder whether the Indonesian language is easy to learn, and if so, why more people don’t speak it. You see, Indonesian is not a very commonly learned language for most of the world.  Sure, there are people in Southeast Asia that pick some of it up, it’s a growing subject in Chinese and Japanese universities, and it’s long been one of the most popular foreign languages for Australians—but you hardly see it on lists of languages people want to learn.  That’s a shame, really, because learning the language opens you up to so many wonderful things. Visiting the country when you can speak the language is much, much more freeing than being limited to an interpreter or dealing with whoever can speak some English. ... Show more

There’s a certain face that people make when they can’t understand what you’re saying. For many people, it’s a screwed-up grimace of concentration. For Indonesians, it’s more of a quiet smile and a slow drift of attention. Indonesians are polite folks, to be sure. They’re not going to tell you very much about your mistakes in Indonesian when you’re speaking with them. That’s up to you. If you want to hold up your end of the Indonesian conversation, you’ve got to make sure you’re speaking Indonesian that’s beyond just "comprehensible." It must be pleasant to listen to, and with as few mistakes as possible. But what types of mistakes tend to be the worst for Indonesian-learners, and how can you get around them? Table of... Show more

Would you describe yourself as a curious person? If you’re learning Indonesian, we imagine that you probably do!  You can make that curiosity work for your Indonesian skills, too! When you talk to people, they’ll be interested in who you are and what’s driven you to learn their language. And the bread and butter of that is questions. Statistically, questions make up a big part of conversation in any language. By preparing yourself with the most common Indonesian questions and answers, you’ll become familiar and comfortable with these conversational keystones and come off as a skilled conversationalist. Table of Contents Your Name Your Origin Story Language Matters Traveling Around A Personal Question A Taste of... Show more

You may be surprised at how fast you can start speaking Indonesian. Once you get a good stock of vocabulary, all you need to memorize is a handful of customizable Indonesian sentences. Then, you can easily make people think you’re good at the language. In Indonesian, there are some fascinating grammatical aspects concerning verbs, but for communication purposes, you can leave them out entirely—plenty of Indonesians do this, too!  So picking up Indonesian through patterns is pretty easy. In this article, we’ll outline ten different sentence patterns ready for your plug-and-play use. By the time you get to the end, you’ll probably start noticing these patterns (and more) all over the place in your studies! Table of Contents ... Show more

Nobody really sets out to memorize a bunch of adverbs. It might even be the least exciting part of speech – but there must be a reason we learn them! The reason is, if you ever want to describe something with any kind of detail, you’re going to need adverbs. Indonesian adverbs are easy, and for every one you memorize, you’ll open up a world of language possibilities. Table of Contents How Do You Do It? Numbers and Amounts Why Did You Do It? How Often And When? Showing Tense A Lot Or A Little? Like This or Like That? Where Did You Put it? How Likely Is It? Conclusion 1. How Do You Do It? This is the classic adverb format – you modify a verb to explain how you’re doing... Show more