Pronouns (1)

I cannot imagine a conversation without a pronoun being addressed. If you talk to someone, you have to refer either to yourself, him/her, or to some others. The word that is used in place of a noun or a noun phrase is called a pronoun. Grammatically, pronouns are parts of sentences and we distinguish two types of pronouns, i.e. relative pronoun and personal pronoun.
Let us talk about personal pronoun first.

A) Personal pronoun as a subject (before verb):

I = saya/aku (aku is informal)
We = kami (is used when excluding the person addressed)
We = kita (is used when including the person addressed)
You (singular) = anda/saudara/kamu/kau (kamu and kau are informal)
You (plural) = kalian or anda/saudara/kamu/kau + sekalian
He = Ia/dia/beliau
She = Ia/dia/beliau
Mereka = they

You may notice that Indonesian does not distinguish between male and female third person, i.e. you may use ia, dia, or beliau for he or she. You may also notice that you have some choices in using personal pronouns. Which one you should use depends on the situation, which will be clear in the following examples.

Kemarin saya pergi ke Jakarta
Yesterday, I went to Jakarta

Kami mengundang anda
We invite you

Kita semua suka membaca
We all like reading

Anda bisa datang lagi besok
You may come back tomorrow

Kamu sekalian dipecat!
You are all fired!

Dia sangat mencintai istrinya
He loves his wife very much.

Dia sangat mencintai suaminya
She loves her husband very much

Mereka punya rumah besar di London
They have a big house in London

That’s enough for the moment. We will continue with some explanations about personal pronouns in the next posting.

Regards,

Ika