Learn how to ask questions at various levels of formality
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.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone! Welcome back to IndonesianPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner Season 1 Lesson 11, Where's the Nearest Bathroom in Indonesia? I’m Becky! |
| Fira: Halo. I'm Fira. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask basic questions in spoken and written Indonesian. The conversation takes place at a shopping mall. |
| Fira: It’s between a woman and an old man. |
| Becky: They will use formal indonesian when talking to eachother. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Ratna: Permisi, pak. Boleh minta tolong tunjukan arah menuju ke kamar kecil yang terdekat? |
| Orang asing: Saya minta maaf, tetapi sepertinya Anda harus bertanya kepada orang lain. |
| Ratna: (berbicara sendiri) Haruskah saya bertanya kepada anak kecil itu? |
| Ratna: Eh, kamar kecil di mana ya? |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Ratna: Permisi, pak. Boleh minta tolong tunjukan arah menuju ke kamar kecil yang terdekat? |
| Orang asing: Saya minta maaf, tetapi sepertinya Anda harus bertanya kepada orang lain. |
| Ratna: (berbicara sendiri) Haruskah saya bertanya kepada anak kecil itu? |
| Ratna: Eh, kamar kecil di mana ya? |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with English translation |
| Ratna: Permisi, pak. Boleh minta tolong tunjukan arah menuju ke kamar kecil yang terdekat? |
| Ratna: Excuse me, sir. Could you please help to point us in the direction of the closest restroom? |
| Orang asing: Saya minta maaf, tetapi sepertinya Anda harus bertanya kepada orang lain. |
| Stranger: I'm sorry, but it looks like you must ask someone else. |
| Ratna: (berbicara sendiri) Haruskah saya bertanya kepada anak kecil itu? |
| Ratna: (to herself) Shall I try asking that kid over there? |
| Ratna: Eh, kamar kecil di mana ya? |
| Ratna: Hey, where's the toilet? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: In the dialogue, the woman and the older man were using formal Indonesian. Fira, could you tell us some more about formality in Indonesian? |
| Fira: Sure. There are many different levels of formality in Indonesian that depend on who you are talking to. For example when you are asking your boss about a meeting time, you ask Permisi, pak. Boleh saya bertanya kapan rapatnya akan dimulai? which means "Excuse me, sir. Could I ask when the meeting will be started?" |
| Becky: But that changes when you are talking to your colleague, right? |
| Fira: Yes, you can say.. Eh, nanti rapatnya mulai jam berapa? which means "Hey, what time does the meeting start?" |
| Becky: So when you speak Indonesian in a formal situation, make sure you use the right words. Fira, could you tell us some keywords to use in a formal situation? |
| Fira: Sure. When you’re using formal Indonesian, make sure to use Permisi |
| Becky: meaning “Excuse me” |
| Fira: Mohon. |
| Becky: meaning “Please” |
| Fira: Tolong |
| Becky: meaning “Help” |
| Fira: and Boleh saya… or Bolehkah |
| Becky: meaning “Could I…” Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Fira: tolong [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to help; to please |
| Fira: tolong [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fira: tolong [natural native speed] |
| Next.. |
| Fira: orang lain [natural native speed] |
| Becky: other people |
| Fira: orang lain [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fira: orang lain [natural native speed] |
| Next.. |
| Fira: kamar kecil [natural native speed] |
| Becky: restroom |
| Fira: kamar kecil [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fira: kamar kecil [natural native speed] |
| Next.. |
| Fira: terdekat [natural native speed] |
| Becky: closest, nearest |
| Fira: terdekat [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fira: terdekat [natural native speed] |
| Next.. |
| Fira: tunjukan [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to point, to show |
| Fira: tunjukan [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fira: tunjukan [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Fira: arah [natural native speed] |
| Becky: direction |
| Fira: arah [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fira: arah [natural native speed] |
| Next.. |
| Fira: maaf [natural native speed] |
| Becky: sorry, excuse me |
| Fira: maaf [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fira: maaf [natural native speed] |
| Next.. |
| Fira: harus [natural native speed] |
| Becky: must |
| Fira: harus [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fira: harus [natural native speed] |
| Next… |
| Fira: berbicara [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to speak, to talk |
| Fira: berbicara [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fira: berbicara [natural native speed] |
| Next… |
| Fira: bertanya [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to ask a question |
| Fira: bertanya [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fira: bertanya [natural native speed] |
| And last.. |
| Fira: sepertinya [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to seem, to appear |
| Fira: sepertinya [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fira: sepertinya [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Fira: berbicara |
| Becky: Which means "to talk” or “to speak" |
| Fira: You can break berbicara into two parts—the first part is the prefix ber-, and the second part is the root word bicara meaning "to talk" or "to speak". |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Fira: Sure. Ayah saya sedang berbicara dengan guru saya. |
| Becky: "My father is talking to my teacher." Listeners, keep in mind that you can use this word only in formal situations. |
| Fira: For informal situations, you simply have to drop the prefix ber- and just say bicara which means "to talk." |
| Becky: For example..? |
| Fira: Saya bicara dengan ayah saya. |
| Becky: “I talk to my father.” Okay, what’s the next word? |
| Fira: Next, we have.. bertanya |
| Becky:“to ask a question.” |
| Fira: Bertanya has two parts too. The first part is the prefix ber- and the second part is the root word tanya meaning "to ask". |
| Becky: Can you give us an example? |
| Fira: Sure. Jangan takut untuk bertanya. |
| Becky: "Don't be afraid to ask a question." literally “Do not be afraid to ask.” But Fira, how do you know the verb was about asking a question, and not asking a favor? |
| Fira: It’s because you can only use the verb bertanya when you’re asking a question. You cannot use it when you ask someone to do something, or ask a favor. |
| Becky: Then what verb should you use when you ask a favor? |
| Fira: You need to use the word minta, which means “to ask”. For example, when you say "Please ask him to come." in Indonesian, you should say Mohon minta dia untuk datang. As you can see, this sentence used the word minta, not bertanya… |
| Becky:...because that was about asking someone to take an action, or do a favor, not asking a question. |
| Fira: In informal situations, you can simply say tanya by dropping out the prefix ber-. |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask basic questions in spoken and written Indonesian. We’re going to take a look first at spoken, and then written Indonesian. First, let’s talk about asking questions in spoken Indonesian. In English, the five "w" words we use to gather information are "Who?", "What?", "When?", "Where?", and "Why?" And.. their equivalents in Indonesian are.. |
| Fira: Siapa? |
| Becky: meaning “Who?” |
| Fira: Apa? |
| Becky: meaning “what?” |
| Fira: Kapan? |
| Becky: meaning “When?” |
| Fira: Di mana? |
| Becky: meaning “where?” |
| Fira: Kenapa? |
| Becky: meaning “why.” |
| Fira: When you’re forming questions in Indonesian, you simply need to put one of these words at the front of a sentence. For example.. Siapa orang itu? |
| Becky: meaning “Who is he?” Literally, this means “Who that person?” |
| Fira: As you know, there’s no verb that means something like “to be.” So you can put the word Siapa and the pronoun or person’s name to create a question. |
| Becky: So how do you say “What’s today’s plan?” Would you say something like “What, today’s plan.” in Indonesian? |
| Fira: You would. Rencana is the word that means “plan” and hari ini is the word that means “today”, so “today’s plan” in Indonesian is rencana hari ini. so, you can say Apa rencana hari ini? |
| Becky: And that means “What’s today’s plan?” Okay. How do you say “Where is my pencil?” I think that should be something like “Where, my pencil?” |
| Fira: That’s right. Pensil saya is the Indonesian word meaning “my pencil.” However, when you ask where something is, you cannot use the word mana alone. |
| Becky: "Where" can be translated differently depending on the context in Indonesian. You'll need to use different words to mean “where” in different contexts. Can you give us an example, Fira? |
| Fira: Sure. Di mana literally means "at where". To ask where someone or something is located, you can use Di mana. That’s why you need to ask Di mana pensil saya? with Di before mana, when you want to know where your pencil is located. |
| Becky: What are the other ways to ask where? |
| Fira: We have Ke mana which literally means "to where" or "towards where". To ask where someone or something is going to or heading to, you can say Ke mana. When you want to ask “where”, you cannot use the word mana alone. |
| Becky: And we have another one meaning “from where” right? |
| Fira: Yes. Dari mana literally means "from where". To ask where someone or something came from or originates from, you can use this word. |
| Becky: Listeners, make sure to check the lesson notes to find examples of these. Okay, now let’s take a look at asking questions in formal Indonesian. |
| Fira: If you want to make your sentence more formal, such as in a written document, you need to add the suffix -kah at the end of the word. The meaning will be the same. |
| Becky: So they will be.. |
| Fira: Siapakah / Siapa+kah. / Siapakah |
| Becky: meaning.. "Who?" |
| Fira: Apakah / Apa+kah / Apakah |
| Becky: meaning "What?" |
| Fira: Kapankah / Kapan+kah / Kapankah |
| Becky: meaning "When?" |
| Fira: And finally we have manakah? / mana+kah / manakah? |
| Becky: meaning "Where?" |
| Fira: This rule doesn't apply to the word Kenapa which means “Why?” To make it more formal, you need to use the word Mengapa? meaning "Why?" |
| Becky: In general, adding the suffix -kah will indicate that the expression is a question. This is largely confined to writing and formal speech. Listeners, check out the Lesson notes to find more sample sentences about asking questions in written Indonesian. |
| Fira: You can also find information about how to ask a favor of someone in the lesson notes. |
Outro |
| Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone. See you next time! |
| Fira: Sampai jumpa lagi! |
Comments
Hide