Learn Basic Indonesian Tenses with Examples

Halo semuanya! Apa kabar? Welcome back toMasteringBahasa! Not the first, but the best site for you to learn Bahasa Indonesia in days! Today’s article, we will learn together about Indonesian Tenses!

If you had seen our article of Indonesian Verb “To Be”, we had said that there is no concept of tenses in Indonesian language like English has. In English language, you may understand that it has complex 16 tenses which concluded in 4 types: Simple Tenses, Progressive Tenses, Perfect Tenses, and Continuous Tenses. It can also concluded in other 4 types: Present Tenses, Past Tenses, Future Tenses, Past Future Tenses. If you are a native speaker, this will be no brainer for you. But say hello to Indonesian language which does not have any kind of tenses formula!

But still, in Indonesian language, there is concepts of time.

1. Past Time – Masa Lalu.
2. Present Time – Masa Sekarang.
3. Future Time – Masa Depan.

Wait, hold on. Haven’t we said that there is no concept of tenses? Well yeah, but any sentences still need some support, so when a speaker says something, you will know when was the time that he or she mentioned. Let’s say, your friend wants to eat cakue. If he only says “I want to eat Cakue”, you wouldn’t know when exactly he wants to eat that! It maybe now, or later, or tomorrow, or next week! So we need some supports by adding some adjectives too. In our previous article of Indonesian Parts of Speech, we have explained that each parts of speech are important. Please check them out!

click here