HaloBahasa

Tense without conjugation: sudah, sedang, akan

The verb never changes. Three small words do the whole job that English does with endings.

a1Lesson 31 of 438 minWhere people get stuck

By the end of this lesson

  • Say something has happened, is happening, or will happen
  • Stop looking for a verb ending that does not exist
  • Use belum and masih, which have no clean English equivalent

Indonesian verbs never change. Not for person, not for number, not for tense. Makan is eat, ate, eats, eaten, will eat and have eaten.

You are done with conjugation forever. What replaces it is a handful of words placed before the verb.

The three basics

Saya sudah makan. ‘I have eaten.’
Saya sedang makan. ‘I am eating.’
Saya akan makan. ‘I will eat.’

Same verb, three times, untouched.

Sudah is bigger than “already”

Sudah is the most used of the three, and it covers the whole English perfect. It is also a question on its own.

Sudah makan? ‘Have you eaten?’

You will be asked this several times a day. It is a greeting as much as a question, closer to “how’s it going” than to a genuine enquiry about your lunch.

Belum is the answer, not tidak

The opposite of sudah is belum ‘not yet’, and this is where English speakers go wrong.

Sudah makan?Belum.
‘Have you eaten?’ → ‘Not yet.’

Answering tidak means ‘I do not eat’, full stop. It sounds like a statement of principle. Belum leaves the door open, which is what the situation almost always calls for.

Masih

Masih is ‘still’, and it pairs naturally with the others.

Dia masih tidur. ‘He’s still asleep.’
Masih jauh? ‘Is it still far?’

Dropping akan

If a time word already makes the future obvious, akan is usually left out.

Saya pergi besok. ‘I’m going tomorrow.’

Adding akan is not wrong, just unnecessary. Indonesian omits whatever the situation already supplies, and you will see this pattern everywhere once you notice it.

What you’ll actually hear

What the book says: Saya sedang makan. What you’ll hear: Aku lagi makan.

Lagi has almost completely replaced sedang in speech. Sudah shortens to udah, and often to a bare dah. Learn the written forms, expect the spoken ones.

Words from this lesson

sudahalready, have doneMarks completion. Udah in speech.
sedangin the middle ofLagi in speech, far more common.
akanwillOften dropped when a time word makes the future obvious.
belumnot yetThe opposite of sudah, not of akan.
masihstill