Tenses (Bentuk/Pola Kata)

Tenses (Bentuk /Pola Kata)

Basic Indonesian word is almost similar to English. Generally, sentences begin with subject, followed by a verb which is called a predicate, and then the object. Indonesian verbs do not change depending on that tenses. Indicating the past and the future tenses only requires inserting words that indicate the time, in a very regular time.

Examples;

• Saya menulis sebuah buku (I write a book)

• Saya sedang menulis sebuah buku (I am writing a book)

• Saya telah menulis sebuah buku (I wrote a book)

• Saya akan menulis sebuah buku (I will write a book)

• Saya menulis sebuah buku kemarin (I wrote a book yesterday)

• Kemarin, saya menulis sebuah buku (Yesterday, I wrote a book)

As we noticed the examples above that the word, "sedang", indicate an action in progress, the words, "telah", indicate completed actions, the word, "akan", indicate the future action. The main verb (i.e. "menulis" = to write) is left unchanged. 

Note;
Also that Indonesian has no notions of imperfect tense. Instead, Indonesian uses duration words, such as selama (literally means during or as long as), sejak (literally means since)

Examples;

Saya sudah belajar bahasa inggris selama 5 tahun (I have studied English for 5 years)

Saya sudah belajar bahasa inggris sejak 5 tahun yang lalu (I- have been studying English since 5 years ago)

Saya sudah menulis buku - buku sejak tahun 1990 (I have been writing books since 1990)

Anak - anak itu sudah berada di Jepang sejak Agustus (Those children have been in Japan since August)

Selama 7 tahun terakhir, saya bekerja dengan sangat keras (For the last 7 years, I have worked very hard)

selama kamu menyayangiku /mencintaiku, aku tidak akan pergi (as long as you love me, i will not go)

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