HaloBahasa

And, but, or: the everyday joiners

Four small words, one of which has two forms depending on whether you are joining things or sentences.

a2Lesson 7 of 345 min

By the end of this lesson

  • Join two things and two sentences correctly
  • Use the casual forms people actually say

And

dan joins anything.

nasi dan ayam ‘rice and chicken’
Saya makan dan dia minum. ‘I ate and he drank.’

In speech, dan is often replaced by sama, which also means ‘with’.

Saya sama dia. ‘Me and him.’

This is one of the clearest markers of casual speech. Dan in a conversation between friends sounds slightly like reading aloud.

But

tapi ‘but’.

Enak, tapi mahal. ‘Tasty, but expensive.’

The formal written form is tetapi. You will see it in newspapers and never hear it.

Or

atau ‘or’.

Kopi atau teh? ‘Coffee or tea?’

In a question offering a choice, atau is often dropped entirely and the two options are simply said with rising then falling intonation: Kopi, teh?

Also

juga ‘also’, and it goes after the thing it applies to, not before.

Saya juga mau. ‘I want some too.’
Dia juga dari Prancis. ‘He’s from France as well.’

English puts “also” almost anywhere. Indonesian puts juga immediately after the word it attaches to, and moving it changes what is being echoed.

Then, next

lalu and kemudian both mean ‘then’, for sequences. Terus is the casual one and by far the most common.

Saya makan, terus tidur. ‘I ate, then slept.’

Terus also means ‘keep going’, which you met in the directions lesson. Same word, and the sentence sorts it out.

What you’ll actually hear

What the book says: Saya lelah, tetapi saya harus bekerja.
What you’ll hear: Capek, tapi harus kerja.

Both conjunctions survive. The pronouns and the formal forms do not.

Words from this lesson

danandWritten and neutral. Joins things and clauses.
samaand, withCasual. Also means 'same'.
tapibutTetapi is the formal form. Nobody says it.
atauor
jugaalso, tooGoes after the thing it applies to.