Indonesian Lesson 3: Personal Pronouns (Saya, Anda, Dia, Kami, Kita, Mereka and Other 2nd Person Terms)

Continuing my first series of Indonesian language lessons with A.M. Almatsier's book How to Master the Indonesian Language.

Lesson 3 covers personal pronouns, meaning the words for I, you, he, she, it, they, and so on.

Indonesian pronouns are fairly straightforward but vary from English in their use of formal you depending on the person being spoken to, as well as the distinction from inclusive and exclusive we (a different pronoun if the person being spoken to is included in we or not).

The exercises for this lesson involved sentence creation with a wide variety of pronouns and new adjectives and verbs. To avoid redundancy, I have constructed the sentences with the first person pronoun, and then included the other pronouns and vocab so that everything's covered.

Here are my exercises for this lesson:

Sentence Creation

Saya pintar. = I am clever.
Saya malas. = I am lazy.
Saya rajin. = I am industrious.
Saya bodoh. = I am silly.
Saya kecil. = I am small.
Saya pendek. = I am short.
Saya tinggi. = I am tall.
Saya berat. = I am heavy.
Saya ringan. = I am light.
Saya duduk. = I sit.
Saya pergi. = I go.
Saya pulang. = I go home.
Saya makan. = I eat.
Saya minum. = I drink.
Saya datang. = I come.
Saya tidur. = I sleep.
Saya tinggal. = I stay.
Saya mandi. = I bathe.

Indonesian Personal Pronouns

(Keep in mind that this edition is from 1988 and pronoun use may have changed, but it's still good to review some of the older words here.)

Saya/aku = I
Kamu/engkau = You (inf.)
Saudara = You ("comrade")
Tuan = You (to a male foreigner)
Nyonya = You (to a married female foreigner)
Nona = You (to an unmarried female foreigner)
Bapak = You ("father", to a respected male)
Ibu = You ("mother", to a respected female)
Dia/ia = He/she/it
Kamu (sekalian) = You (pl.)
Kami = We (excl.)
Kita = We (incl.)
Mereka (itu) = They

So there we have it. Learn your pronouns, they're important!

Selamat belajar,
Bahasa Brian