Tuesday, April 15, 2008

- Some Differences between Indonesian and English

This article trise ti describe the differences between indonesian and english. These differences can make the indonesian learners get difficulties in learning English. The differences are also predicted to be difficult things for the English learners who learn Indonesian. The differences between Indonesian and English are as follows:




1. Article
In Indonesian, the role of articles is not so important. However, in English, an article is very important because it is grammatical requirement.

For example: Edy  membeli kamus. => Edy  bought a dictionary.

2. Noun
In Indonesian, the plural form is made by reduplicating the singular form, for examples, buku (singular) --> buku-buku (plural), rumah (singular) --> rumah-rumah (plural). In English, the plural form is made by adding –s, for example, boy (singular) --> boys (plural),  girl (singular) --> girls (plural) , and word (singular) --> words (plural).

3. Pronoun
In Indonesian, the singular third person, either male or female, has the same term, i.e. dia. In English, the third person is distinguished based on the sex. The singular third person for male is he, and for female is she.

Another difference is related to the position of the pronoun in a sentence. In Indonesian, the pronoun does not change although the position changes. For example: Saya mempunyai dua mobil  (saya = subject); Wanita itu teman saya (saya = possessive adjective); Orang itu menanyai saya (saya =object).

In English, the pronoun changes if the position changes. For examples: I hate Monday (I = subject); She borrowed my book (my = possessive adjective); The boy called me (me = object).

4. Tense Marker
Indonesian does not have tense marker as English does. English has both time adverb and tense. On the other hand, Indonesian has only the time adverbs but not the tenses. Moreover, in Indonesian, the form of the verb does not change although the time changes. For example: Saya pergi tiap hari (present tense) and Saya pergi kemarin. (past tense);  go everyday.(present tense) and went yesteday. (past tense).

5. Auxiliaries and Modals
An auxiliary has to agree to the subject that helps the main verb to make a passive construction and depends heavily on tenses. It also helps form a close question or helps form compound tenses.
Modals are used to convey shades of meaning and are dependent neither on nor in concord with their subject and are therefore free from tense aspect.

For examples: Our friends should be here in a few minutes (should means diharapkan); Our friend must be here in a few minutes (must means harus); Our friends ought to be here in a few minutes (ought to means seharusnya).

When the translator uses the auxiliaries and modals in the question tags, problems will come out as the tag pattern of English and Indonesian are not similar. In English question tags are formed depending on the tense and auxiliary verbs, but in Indonesian question tags are formed by adding the word bukan or kan? for example, He is clever, isn’t he? = Dia pandai, bukan/kan? , He goes, doesn’t he? = Dia pergi bukan/kan?

6. Word Order
In Indonesian, modifier is placed after noun head; for example, rumah besar. On the contrary, in English, modifier comes first before noun, for example, big house.

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