Learn about double negatives and how to say "no" in Indonesian
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
Intro |
|---|
| Michael: How do you say "no" in Indonesian? |
| Blanca: And what is a double negative? |
| Michael: At IndonesianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation; it's around noon on a Monday, but Mark Lee has not yet left for work. His wife asks, |
| "Not going to work today?" |
| Karen Lee: Tidak masuk kerja hari ini? |
| Dialogue |
| Karen Lee: Tidak masuk kerja hari ini? |
| Mark Lee: Bukannya tidak kerja tapi hari ini saya berangkat siang. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Karen Lee: Tidak masuk kerja hari ini? |
| Michael: "Not going to work today?" |
| Mark Lee: Bukannya tidak kerja tapi hari ini saya berangkat siang. |
| Michael: "It's not that I'm not going to work, but I'll leave later in the day." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, you'll learn how to say "no," and make negative sentences in Indonesian. You'll also learn what a "double negative" is. |
| First, let's review how to make simple negative sentences. |
| In Indonesian, there are two basic ways of creating negation, and that is by using the words |
| Blanca: tidak and bukan |
| Michael: The first |
| Blanca: tidak |
| Michael: is mostly used to negate verbal predicates. For example, you can use it to negate verbs, such as |
| Blanca: mau |
| Michael: which means "want, " and |
| Blanca: punya |
| Michael: which means "have." Let's see an example sentence, |
| Blanca: Saya tidak minum kopi. |
| Michael: This means "I don't drink coffee." The word |
| Blanca: tidak |
| Michael: can be seen as an equivalent of the English "not" but is also the same word used to mean "no," for example "No, thank you." is |
| Blanca: Tidak, terima kasih. |
| Michael: The second of the two markers, |
| Blanca: bukan, |
| Michael: is used when negating nominal predicates or nouns, such as in this example: |
| Blanca: Saya bukan pelajar. |
| Michael: "I'm not a student." Or in this example: |
| Blanca: Ini bukan pensil. |
| Michael: This means "It's not a pencil." Keep in mind that these two words used for negation are never interchangeable. The first one is used to negate "verbs," or |
| Blanca: kata kerja |
| Michael: while the second one is used to negate "nouns," or |
| Blanca: kata benda. |
| Michael: Now, let's see the double negative. In English, you are not allowed to use two negatives in the same negative sentence. For example, if you've been kept in the dark about something and you're asked about it, you can't say "I don't know nothing." You have to say "I don't know anything." |
| This rule doesn't apply as strictly to Indonesian, where two or more negatives in the same sentence are possible and intensify the negation. Let's see an example from our dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Mark says "It's not that I'm not going to work, but I'll leave later in the day?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Blanca as Mark Lee: Bukannya tidak kerja tapi hari ini saya berangkat siang. |
| Michael: Here, we see the two negations |
| Blanca: bukan and tidak |
| Michael: appearing in the same sentence. In Indonesian, one way to create double negation is by using these two words together in one sentence. Another way to create double negation is using the word |
| Blanca: tidak. |
| Michael: twice in the same sentence. |
| Michael: For example, |
| Blanca: Kamu tidak pernah tidak mengecewakan saya. |
| Michael: This literally means "You never don't disappoint me" but translates as "You have never failed me." |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned how to make a negative sentence in Indonesian, and how the "double negative" works. You learned that the two basic ways you can create negation is with the words |
| Blanca: bukan and tidak. |
| Expansion_1 |
| Michael: You might have heard a different negation word |
| Blanca: nggak. |
| Michael: This is an informal form of |
| Blanca: tidak. |
| Michael: Let's compare two sentences. First is |
| Blanca: Saya tidak mengerti, |
| Michael: meaning "I don't understand." Now, let's hear a shortened and informal version of the same sentence |
| Blanca: Nggak ngerti. |
| Michael: Here, the pronoun "I" is omitted, the word |
| Blanca: nggak |
| Michael: has replaced with |
| Blanca: tidak, |
| Michael: and the verb |
| Blanca: mengerti |
| Michael: was shortened to |
| Blanca: ngerti. |
| Expansion_2 |
| Michael: Finally, there's one more negation word worth a mention, which is |
| Blanca: jangan. |
| Michael: This means "do not" and it's mostly used to express disapproval, like in the sentence |
| Blanca: Jangan tidur terlalu malam, |
| Michael: meaning "Don't sleep too late." |
Outro |
| Michael: That's all for this lesson. Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Blanca: Dadah! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
Comments
Hide