Indonesian is a language that spoken by many people. Some words are too long for people to say. As a result, in informal in Indonesian, people abbreviate several word so that they can say it more comfortable. The word that we will discuss is “kan”. This is the word that used a lot in daily conversation. Read the explanation below to know “kan” in Indonesian meaning.
“KAN” = I told you so, but you never listened. Now, see!”
“Kan” is actually the abbreviated from the word “bukan”. In English, bukan means not. Below are several examples about how you use “bukan” in Indonesian conversation so that you will be more understand about this word.
- Aku bukan orang yang senang menggunakan pakaian berwarna putih.
I am not a person that loves to wear white colored shirt.
- Setrika itu bukan alat elektronik yang mahal harganya.
An iron is not an expensive electronic device.
- Kami bukan teman yang dekat.
We are not a close friends.
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Now you are understand about how we can use the word “bukan” in Indonesian daily conversation. “Kan” origin is indeed an abbreviation from the word “bukan”, but the usage is different. You cannot use “kan” as the substitute of “bukan”. Here is bad example of using “kan”:
- Aku kan orang yang senang menggunakan pakaian berwarna putih.
The sentence above has different meaning with “Aku bukan orang yang senang menggunakan pakaian berwarna putih.” It has totally different meaning. The sentence above is actually means “I am a person that loves to wear white colored shirt”. It is because “kan” has different function in usage with word “bukan.” Below are the explanation about the usage of “kan” in Indonesian.
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- Using “kan” in Indonesian to request agreement or verification
In short, using “kan” in Indonesian to request agreement or verification is similar with “isn’t it”, “aren’t you”, “isn’t she/isn’t he” in the end of questions, such as “you are Tom, aren’t you?”. The difference is Indonesian only use “kan” in the sentence for all of kind of positive and negative sentence. The position of the word is also do not have to be in the end of the sentence. Below are several examples of its usage in Indonesian conversational sentence (in question form).
- Kamu udah lulus kuliah, kan?
You have graduated from the university, haven’t you?
You have graduated from the university, right?
- Kan kamu sudah lulus kuliah?
You have graduated from the university, haven’t you?
You have graduated from the university, right?
- Kamu kan sudah lulus kuliah?
You have graduated from the university, haven’t you?
You have graduated from the university, right?
- Using “kan” in Indonesian to emphasize the meaning of the sentence in informal Indonesian sentence
Different from the previous usage, we can also use the word “kan” to emphasize the meaning of the sentence that we say. So, the sentence will not be a question. As a result, we say the sentence with different tone and intonation.
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Below are several examples of its use in informal Indonesian sentence.
- Kamu kan sudah lulus kuliah.
You have graduated from the university.
- Aku kan sudah makan.
I’ve already eaten.
- Aku kan tidak mau ikut pergi ke pantai.
I dont’t want to go to the beach.
That’s all about “kan” in Indonesian meaning. Thank you for reading.