Kakak, adik, umur

Kakak means an older sibling; adik a younger one. Add perempuan or laki-laki when needed: kakak perempuan, adik laki-laki. These describe actual people, not grammatical noun gender.

Use umur for age: Umur saya tiga puluh tahun. Berapa umur...? asks it. Enam bulan describes the baby age.

Sudah ... tahun can describe how long a state has continued: Saya sudah tinggal di sini lima puluh tahun. It is an early useful duration pattern, not a conjugated past tense. Sari lived here fifty years and taught forty.

Indonesian has no inflected past tense. Learn Dulu saya guru (I used to be a teacher) and Saya sudah tinggal di sini lima puluh tahun (I have lived here for fifty years).

Tanggal, bulan, pertama

Dates use tanggal plus an ordinary number: tanggal sepuluh Juli, not a required ordinal. Learn all twelve months: Januari, Februari, Maret, April, Mei, Juni, Juli, Agustus, September, Oktober, November, Desember.

The birthday is sepuluh Juli; Intan turns ten on dua puluh delapan Maret. A year such as 1995 is seribu sembilan ratus sembilan puluh lima.

Positions use pertama, then kedua, ketiga, keempat and so on. Pertanyaan pertama is the first question. Kapan? asks when.

Rambut, mata, memakai

Descriptions follow the noun: rambut hitam keriting, mata cokelat. Use tinggi or pendek for a person; panjang or pendek for hair and objects.

Memakai means wear or use: Bu Sari memakai kacamata. In everyday descriptions, berkacamata also means wears glasses, learned as a whole word.

Dia is he or she without a grammatical gender contrast. Do not invent adjective endings for learner sex. Baik describes someone kind or good; ramah means friendly.

Untuk, yang besar, setengah

Use untuk before the recipient: hadiah untuk Intan. With a transfer, kepada may introduce the person: Saya memberi buku kepada Intan.

Yang can select a described item: yang besar means the big one; yang kecil the small one. Terlalu kecil means too small.

Setengah is half. The large book costs 280,000 rupiah; the small one 120,000. Sharing the large one equally gives 140,000 each.

Sudah, belum, waktu kecil

Sudah can express a completed change or current state: sudah menikah. Belum menikah means not married yet. Tidak punya anak simply says have no children.

For a past photo, a time phrase makes the meaning clear while the verb stays unchanged: Waktu kecil saya tinggal di sini. Dulu means formerly/back then.

Lahir means be born and does not change for learner sex. The learner was born on 10 July 1995. A fixed sudah meninggal says someone has died; use Saya turut berduka for condolences.