Indonesian Adverbs
Learning the Indonesian Adverbs is very important because its structure is used in every day conversation. The more you master it the more you get closer to mastering the Indonesian language. But first we need to know what the role of Adverbs is in the structure of the grammar in Indonesian.
Indonesian adverbs are part of speech. Generally they're words that modify any part of language other than a noun. Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives (including numbers), clauses, sentences and other adverbs.
Grammar Tips:
While
in English adverbs are usually formed by adding (-ly) to adjectives. In
Indonesian many adverbs are formed this way:
pelan
(slow) becomes pelan-pelan (slowly)
sempurna
(perfect) becomes dengan sempurna (perfectly)
However
that’s not always the case. Some words are adverbs by nature. For example:
sekarang
(now), benar-benar (really), segera (soon), malam ini (tonight), cantik
(pretty), hampir (almost)
are
all Indonesian adverbs.
Here are some examples:
| English Adverbs | Indonesian Adverbs |
| adverbs | kata keterangan |
| I read a book sometimes | Saya membaca buku kadang-kadang |
| I will never smoke | Aku tidak akan pernah merokok |
| are you alone? | apakah kamu sendirian ? |
As you can see from the example above, the structure of the Adverbs in Indonesian has a logical pattern. Locate the Adverbs above and see how it works with the rest of the sentence in Bahasa Indonesia.
List of Adverbs in Indonesian
Below is a list of the Adverbs of time place manner and frequency in Indonesian placed in a table. Memorizing this table will help you add very useful and important words to your Indonesian vocabulary.
| English Adverbs | Indonesian Adverbs |
| adverbs of time | kata keterangan waktu |
| yesterday | kemarin |
| today | hari ini |
| tomorrow | besok |
| now | sekarang |
| then | kemudian |
| later | kemudian |
| tonight | malam ini |
| right now | sekarang juga |
| last night | tadi malam |
| this morning | pagi ini |
| next week | minggu depan |
| already | sudah |
| recently | baru-baru ini |
| lately | akhir-akhir ini |
| soon | segera |
| immediately | segera |
| still | masih |
| yet | masih |
| ago | silam |
| |
| adverbs of place | kata keterangan tempat |
| here | di sini |
| there | sana |
| over there | di sana |
| everywhere | mana-mana |
| anywhere | di manapun |
| nowhere | tidak dimanapun |
| home | rumah |
| away | jauh |
| out | ke luar |
| |
| adverbs of manner | adverbia ragam |
| very | sangat |
| quite | agak |
| pretty | cantik |
| really | benar-benar |
| fast | cepat |
| well | baik |
| hard | keras |
| quickly | segera |
| slowly | pelan-pelan |
| carefully | hati-hati |
| hardly | tidak |
| barely | baru saja |
| mostly | kebanyakan |
| almost | hampir |
| absolutely | sama sekali |
| together | bersama |
| alone | sendirian |
| |
| adverbs of frequency | adverbia frekuensi |
| always | selalu |
| frequently | sering |
| usually | biasanya |
| sometimes | kadang-kadang |
| occasionally | kadang-kadang |
| seldom | jarang |
| rarely | jarang |
| never | tak pernah |
Adverbs of time place manner and frequency have a very important role in Indonesian, therefore they need very special attention. Once you're done with the Bahasa Indonesia Adverbs, you might want to check the rest of our Indonesian lessons here: Learn Indonesian. Don't forget to bookmark this page.