Hello everyone ! How’s your day? I hope it was great
For Indonesian people applying greeting etiquette is very important. This is as a representation your attitude when you had a conversation towards someone either they are older or younger than you.
That is why before you start forward to learn Indonesian language, you will gonna need to give attention to get to know about Indonesian etiquette.
In Indonesian there are levels when you involved in a conversation with someone. It will be different way on how you speak between older and younger people. When you talk to an older people you will need to speak more polite rather than with the younger ones. For your information there are special nicknames in Indonesia to call older/younger people that you will need to know when you learn Bahasa Indonesia.
In Indonesia the nicknames that you will use to call somenone who were younger than you, you will call them with “adik”. The word “adik” divide into A-Dik. How to pronounce the word “Adik” is produce the sound /A/ like you say “ha” and then /Dik/ like when you say “dig”.
This were applied into a younger boy or in English called a brother and a younger girl wich is usually called sister.
Actually there is no specific gender when it is used in Bahasa Indonesia, so it will be same nickname of “adik”, the way Indonesian people spesify the gender by adding the person’s name after/before the word “adik” or “adek”.
Read more about several words that have consimilar purposes or meaning:
Here are the example of how to say younger sister “adik”:
- Adikku Mita sedang belajar di kamarnya. (My sister Mita were studying in her room)
- Adikku akan berulang tahun minggu depan. (My sister will have her birthday next week)
Here are the example of different using “adik” on spesify its gender:
- Bayu, adikku akan pergi ke bali besok pagi. (My brother Bayu, will go to Bali tomorrow morning).
- Dia adalah Siska, adik perempuannya Dito. (She is Siska, Dito’s younger sister).
The use of word “adik” usually used in a formal occasion or when you just met someone for the first time. When it comes into informal occasion you could simply call your opponent with the word “Dik” , a short form from the word “Adik”. This is also another way to show your close relation with your opponent.
The example of using the word “Dik”:
- Pagi dik, mau makan apa? (Good morning sister, what do you want to eat?)
- Dik, nanti siang tolong antar mama ke bandara. (Sister, please take mom to the airport this afternoon.)
To be more spesific, it is easier to call younger sister with the nickname based on their own local language. This nickname in local language also use as an effort to erase the gap and awkwardness between two strange people.
The example of the word ‘adik’ in some spesific local language:
- Sundanesse: Eneng or Neng
- Neng, sudah mengerjakan PR mu? (Sister, have you finish your homework?)
- Mau beli sayuran apa neng? (What kind of vegetables do you want to buy sister?)
- Javanesse: Gendhuk or Ndhuk
- Ndhuk, ayo kita beli pizza. (Sister, lets go to buy some pizzas.)
- Sudah mandi, ndhuk? (Have you take a bath sister?)
In general, the definition of the word “adik” in Bahasa Indonesia means younger sister or brother. You could add the persons name to make it clear about the gender which is they are a sister or brother.
To make it easier you could try to say younger sister in their local language such as “eneng/neng” for Sundanesse, “gendhuk/ndhuk” when you talk with Javanesse girl.
Hopefully this article were easy to understand and provide knowledge on your learning process of Bahasa Indonesia. See you later !