Question Words In Bahasa Indonesia [LEARNING INDONESIAN]

How to form an interrogative sentence using seven (7) question words in Bahasa Indonesia ? including its formal form and the slang form.

apakah / apa

kapan

bagaimana / gimana

berapa

mana

mengapa

siapa

Question formation and the use of question words in indonesian are not complex.
In general, the interrogative word is placed at the beginning of a sentence.
but inversion of word order is still considered to be correct for some Question Words.
so we're going to refer them as invertable Question word and uninvertable Question word
ok let's check out how these QUESTION WORDS occur in the sentence.

1. apa = what

1.1 apa as a question word

apa ini ?
what is this ?

apa itu ?
what is that ?

apa can function as a question word same like "what" in english and you need to add "yang" after "apa".

apa yang anda makan ?
what do you eat ?

bahasa apa yang dia suka ?
what language does he like ?

in such a sentence "yang" is equal to auxiliary verb "do/does" that is placed after "what"
but this question formation actually sounds too formal in daily conversation with friends and family.
you can use this formation instead, if you wanna sound friendly

kamu suka bahasa apa ?
what language do you like?
(you like language what ?)

literally it means (you like language what ?)

kamu makan apa ?
what do you eat ?
(you eat what ?)

literally it means (you eat what ?)
so apa is invertable Question word
and note that "yang" is no longer used as in the informal form.

1.2 apa as an interrogative marker in yes no question

apa kamu lapar ?
are you hungry ?

apa kamu suka musik ?
do you like music ?

here apa is the same like the auxiliary verb and modal verb that is placed in the beginning of the sentence
so if apa is used in yes no question, apa is uninvertable
in the formal form "kah" is attached to apa

apakah kamu lapar ?
are you hunggry

apakah kamu suka musik
do you like music

apakah is uninvertable, you cannot place it at the end of the sentence.

2. kapan = when

here the use of kapan is the same like "when" in english, but it's used only as an interrogative, not as a connective adverb meaning.

kapan kamu pulang ?
when did you come home ?

kapan kamu akan mengakatakan-nya ?
when are you going to say it ?

kapan is invertable, you can say

kamu pulang kapan ?
when did you come home ?

and we use ketika for connective adverb meaning "when" in english.
ketika saya lapar, saya makan
when I'm hungry, I eat.

3. bagaimana - how

Bagaimana is used exactly the same like "how" in english, it always comes on the beginning of the sentence.

bagaimana kabar anda ?
how are you ?
(how is your news ?)

bagaimana kamu melakukannya/itu ?
(how did you do that ?)

bagaimana is invertable, so you can say

kabar anda bagaimana ?
how are you ?
(your news how ?)

bagaimana in the slang expression

you can replace bagaimana with gimana if you wanna sound more friendly. and the question formation is just the same.

gimana kabarnya ?
how are you ?
(how is the news/ what's the news)

gimana kamu ngelakuin itu ?
how did you do that ?

here "ngelakuin" is the slang word of melakukan.

4. berapa = how much/ how many / how+adjective

the question word "berapa" can occur either on the beginning or at the end of the sentence (invertable QW)

berapa rumah kamu ?
how many houses do you have ?
(how many house of yours )

berapa harga gitar ini ?
how much does this guitar cost ?
(lit. whats the price guitar this)

you can invert "berapa" by placing it at the end of the sentence.

uang kamu berapa ?
how much money do you have ?
(you how much money)

harga gitar ini berapa ?
how much does this guitar cost ?
(the prise of this guitar how much)

5. mana = where / which / which one

5.1) di + mana - where

dimana is for asking location of something (in/at what)

dimana kamu tinggal ?
where do you live ?

dimana teman saya ?
where is my friend ?

dimana is invertable so you can say

teman saya dimana ?
where is my friend

5.2) ke + mana - where (to)

kemana is used when you are asking about the direction of something

kemana kamu pergi kemarin ?
where did you go yesterday ?

kemana kamu akan mencarinya ?
where are you going to look for it ?

5.3) yang + mana - which

yang + mana means which or which one

buku yang mana yang kamu beli ?
which book did you buy ?

yang mana ayah kamu ?
which one's your father ?

you can place "yang mana" at the end of the sentence for the informal form

kamu beli buku yang mana ?
which book did you buy ?
(lit. you buy which book ?)

6. mengapa - kenapa - ngapain = why

The use of mengapa and kenapa is the same like "why" in english. mengapa is used in the formal situation and kenapa is in the less formal situation. while ngapain is used in the very informal situation.

mengapa/kenapa kamu menangis ?
why do you cry ?

ngapain kamu nangis ?
why do you cry ?

"ngapain" it self can also mean "what are you doing" usually lagi is added before (ngapain).

hei lagi ngapain disini ?
hei what are you doing here ?

7. siapa = who

again, the word "yang" must be inserted if you are asking about who the subject or the object is, especially in verbal sentence.

siapa yang mereka suka ?
who/whom do they love ?

siapa yang (tadi) memukul kamu ?
who beat (V2) you ?

siapa yang di dalam ?
who's inside ?

in nominal sentence "yang" is no longer used if you are asking about subject pronoun.

siapa mereka ?
who are they ?

siapa kamu
who are you

siapa dia
who is she

siapa is invertable question word, so you can say

yang tadi memukul kamu siapa ?
who beat (V2) you ?
(lit. the one who beat you, who ?)

mereka siapa ?
who are they ?
(they are who ?)

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