Word Order, Possession & Grammatical Relations

Tidak ada sistem kasus sama sekali

Indonesian has no case system at all

No word endings ever change to show grammatical role

Urutan Subjek-Verba-Objek

Subject-Verb-Object order shows grammatical relations

Word order alone does the job that case endings do elsewhere

Saya makan nasi.

I eat rice.

SAH-ya MAH-kan NAH-see

Straightforward subject-verb-object sentence

Kepemilikan lewat penjajaran

Possession by juxtaposition: noun + possessor, no linking word

Fills the role a genitive case ending would play elsewhere

buku saya

my book

BOO-koo SAH-ya

Literally "book me" — no linking word needed

kepada

to (marks a recipient)

kuh-PAH-da

Functions where dative case would in German or Greek

Saya memberikan buku kepada kamu.

I give the book to you.

Recipient introduced by kepada after the direct object

Urutan kata menandai subjek vs objek

Word order alone marks subject vs object

There's no case ending to fall back on if word order is unclear

di, ke, dari

at, to, from (prepositions instead of case)

dee, kuh, DAH-ree

Location and direction shown with these small words

Sapaan langsung (tanpa kasus vokatif)

Direct address (no vocative case)

Just use the person's name or title directly