All You Need To Know About Verbs In Bahasa Indonesia

Verbs in bahasa indonesia take different forms. Some have no affix, some have
the ber- prefix, some have the me/meN- prefix and some have the ter- prefix.

no affix

datang : to come
pergi    : to go
pulang : to go home
hidup   : to live
keluar  : to exit

ber-verb

berenang : to swim
berubah   : to change
bertemu   : to meet
berjalan   : to walk
berlari      : to run

me/meng-verb

me-rusak       : to ruin
mem-bawa    : to bring
meng-asah     : to sharpen
men-campur : to mix
me-lihat          : to see

    But dont worry about it, you dont have to memorize all of these rules , well I know this is a boring task, so all you need to do is just to understand this basic rule, so that u can look up a word in your indonesian dictionary easily. and you can recognize which is which.

active verbs, me-verbs

in me-verbs, A prefix "me" is attached before the base or root word. A number of sound changes can occur, like me becomes "men" or "mem when the prefix "me" is combined with some root words in order to facilitate a smooth transition in pronunciation.

bual - membual        : to boast
lompat - melompat  : to jump
rokok - merokok      : to smoke
tangis - menangis     : to cry
tari - menari.             : to dance
uap - menguap.         : to yawn

As a native Indonesian, I never bothered to memorize this rules, which verb should take which prefix "me", "men" or "mem" or meng, all I did is just to copy what I heard and that's it. so it's easy to master bahasa Indonesia, just do like I did, and do not waste your time memorizing these rules.

ber-verbs

basically ber-verbs are intransitive verbs but it can also be pseudo transitive meaning verbs.

and Some verbs can take either the ber- or the me-  prefix with no difference in meaning.

bernyanyi / menyanyi - to sing
berbekas / membekas - to leave a mark or trace

Some other intransitive verbs take what are sometimes called
pseudo-objects [nouns that look like objects, but are not perceived as being affected by the action].

bermain gitar -  to play guitar

bersepatu roda - to roller-skate

bernyanyi sebuah lagu - to sing a song

in this sentence "sebuah lagu/a song" is the
pseudo-object (it looks like object, but is not being affected by the action)

well u know everybody sings a song, and no body sings a gitar.

passive verbs - di-verbs

in english we form passive voice using "to be + V3" and in bahasa indonesia it is much simpler, you only need to add a prefix "di" to the verb.

makan       : to eat

dimakan    : to be eaten

memukul  : to beat

dipukul     : to be beaten

saya memukul dia
I beat him

saya dipukul oleh dia
I am beaten by him

Terri makan sepotong roti
Terri eats a piece of bread

rotinya dimakan Terri
the bread is/was eaten by Terri

ter- verbs

Ter verbs behave like basic intransitive verbs
except that they explicitly state that the subject undergoes
something unintentionally, the action often occurs suddenly
and unexpectedly.

Paijo tertidur di kelas.
Paijo fell asleep in the class.

dia tergelincir di jalan.
he slipped on the road.

Tadi pagi saya terbangun jam lima.
This morning I woke up (suddenly and unintentionally) at
five o'clock.

Other verbs in this group include

terdiam    : to fall silent
tertegun   : to stop suddenly
tertelan    : to be swallowed accidentally
terjadi       : happen / take place
terkejut     : to be startled / to be shocked
terciduk    : to be caught
terbakar   : to be burnt
terpekik    : to scream suddenly

another feature of indonesian verb is that verb can indicate a Repeated action

to indicate that the action is done repeatedly to one or more objects. we must add suffix "i" to some me-verbs, di-verbs or ter-verbs but this rule cannot be applied to ber verbs.

let's take some examples
              
mereka memukuli dia
they beat him many times

dia menciumi gitar itu
she kissed the guitar (repeatedly or several times)

mereka terpukuli
they were beaten several times (suddenly)

mereka dipukuli
they were beaten several times

gitar itu diciumi
the guitar is kissed repeatedly

those are the main rules of indonesian verb that you must understand, I hope now you understand about the characteristics of verb in bahasa indonesia. then if you have some questions about this rules, please feel free to ask me on the comment down below