me- prefix for verbs in Indonesian
People can still understand you even if you don’t know this.
Why I’m learning this now
I started Indonesian with conversations and didn’t want to care too much about rules and grammar. Up until now, I’ve randomly add me- when I feel like it 🤣 truth is, people will still understand.
I feel like I’ve been stuck in the same level for some time, so trying to pick up these rules bit by bit.
How is it used
Used for active verbs, indicating an action performed by a subject.
Prefix: root word starts with
(red means the letter is dropped)
- me + m: b, f, p
- me + n: d, j, c, t
- me + ng: vowels, g, h, k
- me + ny: s
- me: everything else
Examples
- B: beli (buy) – membeli
- F: fokus (focus) – memfokuskan (make notes on the -kan affix in the future)
- P: pakai (use) – memakai (note: ‘p’ dropped)
- D: dengar (hear) – mendengar
- J: jual (sell) – menjual
- C: cuci (wash) – mencuci
- T: tulis (write) – menulis (note: ’t’ dropped)
- A: ambil (take) – mengambil
- G: ganti (change) – mengganti
- H: hafal (memorize) – menghafal (note: more academic word than mengingat)
- K: kirim (send) – mengirim (note: ‘k’ dropped)
- S: salin (copy) – menyalin (note: ’s’ dropped)
- L: lihat (see) – melihat
- M: minum (drink) – meminum
- N: nanti (wait) – menanti
- R: rata (flatten) – merata
- W: warna (color) – mewarna
- Y: yakin (assure) – meyakinkan
What’s next
My TODO list:
- -kan affix
- pe- prefix
- ter- prefix
- ber- prefix
- -i affix