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Lesson Transcript

Halo semuanya, nama saya Fira. Hi everybody! I’m Fira.
Welcome to IndonesianPod101.com’s “Bahasa Indonesia dalam 3 menit”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Indonesian.
In the last lesson, we learned how to ask "Who" questions in Indonesian.
This time, we are going to ask "why" questions.
Imagine your boss is giving you a call because you are not at work today... He will certainly ask you Kenapa kamu tidak masuk kantor hari ini?
So let’s break down this question.
First we had -
Kenapa, which is the basic translation of "Why" in Indonesian.
Kamu, meaning “you”.
Tidak masuk is ”absent” or “not present”
Kantor which is "the office"
And finally hari ini which is "today"
All together it is Kenapa kamu tidak masuk kantor hari ini?
”Why didn’t you come to the office today?”
So in Indonesian, Kenapa is the translation of "Why", and it’s used to ask the reason for something.
For example, if your boss is asking you "Why are you late today?" he will say Kenapa kamu terlambat hari ini?
Another common usage of Kenapa is to ask the purpose of something.
So, Kenapa can also mean "What for?"
In Indonesian, we often say Kenapa repot-repot? which literally means "What is the hassle for?"
Now it’s time for Fira’s Insights.
A famous expression in Indonesian is Kenapa tidak? which means, as in English, "Why not?"
You can use it to say yes to a suggestion if you're not really excited about it, or if it it was not planned in advance.
For example if a friend asks you suddenly "Do you want to go to the movies tonight?", you can answer Kenapa tidak? "Why not?"
This lesson is the last of this Absolute Beginner’s video series.
But it’s hopefully not the last you learn about the Indonesian language! To take your language ability to the next level, check out IndonesianPod101.com, the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Indonesian.
Sampai jumpa!!

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