Hello!
Most languages have its own non-formal way to communicate, both implicitly and explicitly. Therefore, you have known about Indonesian Slang in Internet Chatting. In Bahasa Indonesia, if you do not want to give stiff sense or you want to be more friendly in terms to communicate, you could use Indonesian Informal Verbs. However, please use it wisely, understand the time and place context. Before we start, take a look of these following articles.
Get rid of’ the affixation
As you know, Forming Indonesian Words & Using Indonesian Affixes is very important in Bahasa Indonesia. It is used mostly to form verbs. When you want to form active/passive verb, you usually should add Indonesian Prefixes as well as Indonesian Prefixes and Suffixes. However, in informal communication, people ignore it, especially in active verb. Here are some examples to make it more clear to you (Check me- Prefix and Prefix Ber-)
- Saya memakan nasi (I eat rice) – formal
Saya makan nasi (I eat rice) – less formal (because ‘makan’ also a standard word) - Buku itu dia yang mengambil (He took that book) – formal
Buku itu dia yang ambil (He took that book) – informal - Berapa buku yang dijual kamu? (How many books sold by you?) – formal
Berapa buku yang kamu jual? (How many books sold by you?) – informal - Dia sedang bermain bola (She is playing football) – formal
Dia sedang main bola (She is playing football) – less formal (because ‘main’ also a standard word) - Saya sudah membayar barang ini, ya (I have paid for these goods, okay) – formal
Saya sudah bayar ya ((I have paid for these goods, okay) – informal - Andi suka menggambar pemandangan (Andi likes to draw scenery) – formal
Andi suka gambar pemandangan (Andi likes to draw scenery) – informal
Notes: When you form the word with prefix ‘me-‘, some of the words would have sound changing. For example: me + tari (dance) = menari (dance-verb). In that case, the informal verb of ‘menari’ would be ‘nari’, NOT ‘tari’. Here are several examples.
- ngambil – mengambil (me + ambil)
– Andri yang ngambil uang Susi (Andi is the one who took Susi’s money) – informal
– Andri yang mengambil uang Susi (Andi is the one who took Susi’s money) – formal - naruh/naroh (depends on dialects) – menaruh (me + taruh)
– Aku taruh minuman di atas meja ya (I put the water on the table) – informal
– Aku menaruh minuman di atas meja ya (I put the water on the table) – formal - ngaum – mengaum (me + aum)
– Harimau itu ngaum dengan kencang sekali (The tiger roar loudly) – informal
– Harimau itu mengaum dengan kencang sekali (The tiger roar loudly) – formal - nangis – menangis = me + tangis)
– Dia nangis karena dipukul (She cried because she was hit) – informal
– Dia menangis karena dipukul (She cried because she was hit) – formal
Indonesian Suffix -in
In formal Bahasa Indonesia, you never use the suffix ‘-in’. However, the Indonesian usually replace the suffix ‘-kan’ for or prefix/suufix ‘me-/-kan’ with ‘-in’ . Here are several examples.
- marahin = memarahi
– Jangan marahin anakmu! (Do not scold your child!) – informal
– Jangen memarahi anakmu! (Do not scold your child!) – formal - buatin = membuatkan/buatkan
– Tolong buatin PR saya (Please finish my homework) – informal
– Tolong buatkan PR saya (Please finish my homework) – formal
– PR Andi, dia yang buatin (Andi’s homework was done by him) – informal
– PR Andi, dia yang membuatkan (Andi’s homework was done by him) – formal - pikirin = pikirkan
– Pikirin sebuah ide untuk memecahkan masalah ini (Think about an idea to solve this problem) – informal
– Pikirkan sebuah ide untuk memecahkan masalah ini (Think about an idea to solve this problem) – formal
Other verbs:
- jualin = jualkan / menjualkan (sell)
- beliin = membelikan/ belikan (buy)
- kirimin = mengirimkan/kirimkan (send)
- tulisin = menuliskan/tuliskan (write)
- bacain = membacakan/bacakan (read)
Indonesian Diction (Choice of Words)
- berbicara, bicara, ngomong (speak)
– Saya berbicara Bahasa Indonesia (I speak Bahasa Indonesia) – formal
– Saya bicara Bahasa Indonesia (I speak Bahasa Indonesia) – less formal
– Saya ngomong Bahasa Indonesia (I speak Bahasa Indonesia) – informal - jalan, berangkat (go)
– Dia sudah berangkat ke bandara (He has gone to the airport) – formal
– Dia sudah jalan ke bandara (He has gone to the airport) – informal
– Dia sudah otw (on the way) ke bandara (He has gone to the airport) – very informal
Notes: Some informal verbs also formed because of dialects, for example ‘sampai’ (arrive) usually pronounced as ‘sampe’. The sound ‘ai’ is changed to ‘e’ because the person way to talk (usually the downtown people)
Indonesian Special Case
There is one verb that has special case in Bahasa Indonesia, which is ‘ubah’ (change). When it added prefix ‘me-‘ it will change to ‘mengubah’. However, you may found that some people pronounce and even write it as ‘rubah/robah’ and ‘merubah/merobah’. I can tell you the latter are wrong. It happened because when the word ‘ubah’ is added prefix ‘ber-‘ (for intransitive verb), it will become ‘berubah’.
Therefore, as informal verbs above, when people get the prefix rid of, they assume it to be ‘rubah’. Therefore, there is why people mispronounce the root word as ‘rubah’ and later ‘merubah’. In addition, the real meaning of ‘rubah’ is a fox. Hopefully, you won’t make the same mistake!
Those are the Indonesian informal verbs. To add up your knowledge, check these following articles.