Adjectives

 

Adjectives

There are grammatical adjectives in Indonesian. 

Stative verbs are often used for this purpose as well. 

Adjectives are always placed after the noun that they modify. 

Hence, "rumah saya" means "my house", while "saya rumah" means "I am a house".

Indonesian	Gloss	English
Hutan hijau	forest green	(The) green forest.
Hutan itu hijau	forest that green	That/the forest is green.
Kəreta yang merah	carriage which (is) red.	(The) carriage which is red = the red carriage.
Kəreta merah	carriage red.	Red carriage.
Dia orang yang terkenal sekali	he/she person which be-famous very	He/she is a very famous person
Orang terkenal	person famous.	Famous person.
Orang ini terkenal sekali	person this be-famous very	This person is very famous

To say that something "is" an adjective, the determiners "itu" and "ini" ("that" and "this") are often used. 

For example, in the sentence "anjing itu galak", the use of "itu" gives a meaning of "the/that dog is ferocious", while "anjing ini galak", gives a meaning of "this dog is ferocious". 

However, if "itu" or "ini" were not to be used, then "anjing galak" would meaning only "ferocious dog", a plain adjective without any stative implications. 

The all-purpose determiner, "yang", is also often used before adjectives, hence "anjing yang galak" also means "ferocious dog" or more literally "dog which is ferocious"; "yang" will often be used for clarity. 

Hence, in a sentence such as "saya didekati oleh anjing galak" which means "I was approached by a ferocious dog", the use of the adjective "galak" is not stative at all.

Often the "ber-" intransitive verb prefix, or the "ter-" stative prefix is used to express the meaning of "to be...". 

For example, "beda" means "different", hence "berbeda" means "to be different"; "awan" means "cloud", hence "berawan" means "cloudy". 

Using the "ter-" prefix, implies a state of being. For example, "buka" means "open", hence "terbuka" means "is opened"; "tutup" means "closed/shut", hence "tertutup" means "is closed/shut".