Stating an opinion
Menurut saya… ‘In my opinion…’
Saya rasa… ‘I feel that…’
Kayaknya… ‘It seems like…’
Kayaknya is by far the most common in speech, and it is weaker than the other two. Indonesians hedge opinions more than English speakers do, and reaching straight for menurut saya on a small matter sounds heavy.
Kayaknya enak. ‘Looks good.’
Kayaknya nggak bisa. ‘I don’t think that’ll work.’
Agreeing
Setuju. ‘Agreed.’
Betul. ‘That’s right.’
Iya, ya. ‘Yeah, true.’
Sama. ‘Same here.’
Disagreeing, and the reason it is indirect
Flat contradiction costs the other person face, so the language is built to avoid it. The pattern is to agree partly, then add.
Betul, tapi… ‘True, but…’
Mungkin, tapi menurut saya… ‘Maybe, but I think…’
Kayaknya nggak begitu. ‘I don’t think it’s quite like that.’
Mungkin ‘maybe’ is doing real work here. Placed at the start of a disagreement it signals that you are offering an alternative rather than correcting.
The blunt forms exist. Salah ‘wrong’ and tidak setuju ‘I disagree’ are grammatical and land hard, and between people who are not close they land very hard.
Softening anything
Sih and ya attached to the end take the edge off almost any statement.
Mahal sih. ‘It’s a bit pricey.’
Bagus ya. ‘Nice, isn’t it.’
Sih is one of the particles you will meet properly in B1. For now, notice that it makes an opinion sound offered rather than declared.
What you’ll actually hear
What the book says: Menurut pendapat saya, hal tersebut kurang tepat.
What you’ll hear: Kayaknya nggak gitu deh.