(20)Verbs and Tenses

In my earlier postings, I gave some Indonesian verbs without due attention to time and continuance or completion of the action or state expressed by the verbs. Now I will show you how the form of Indonesian verbs stays unchanged independent of the doer and tense. On the hand, this is an advantage in that you do not need to pay attention to the tense. All you need is the original form of verbs (you need less effort in memorizing). On the other hand, the lack of verb change makes you difficult in the beginning (this is especially the case for those whose languages apply verbs change due to time and the doer. Similarly, I had the same situation when once I learned English, German and other languages). But, do not worry about this, you will be familiar later. Let me give you some examples below.

Present tense:
I go to the office every weekday (He goes to office every weekday)
Saya pergi ke kantor setiap hari kerja (Dia pergi ke kantor setiap hari kerja)

Past tense:
I went to the office yesterday
Saya pergi ke kantor kemarin

Present continuous tense:
I am going to the office right now
Saya sedang pergi ke kantor sekarang

Perfect tense:
I have gone to the office
Saya sudah pergi ke kantor

Future tense:
I will go to the office tomorrow
Saya akan pergi ke kantor besok

You see in all tenses the word pergi (= go) does not change irrespective of time and active person. Hence, all you need to do is just concentrate on the time phrases concerned. Here are the time phrases generally used for all the tenses:
Present tense: hari ini (today), minggu ini (this week), setiap hari (every day), etc.
Past tense: kemarin (yesteday), minggu lalu (last week), tahun lalu (last year), etc.
Present continuous tense: sekarang (right now, at the moment)
Perfect tense: -
Future tense: besok (tomorrow), minggu depan (next week), tahun depan (next year), etc.

Please pay attention when you talk about the follwing tenses.
Present continuous tense:
Put sedang or lagi before the verb, e.g. Saya sedang pergi ke kantor sekarang.

Perfect tense:
Put sudah before the verb, e.g. Saya sudah pergi ke kantor.

Future tense:
Put akan before the verb, e.g. Saya akan pergi ke kantor besok.

Sometimes, time phrases are not necessary if the context is clear, especially in the conversation.

Until next time, good luck!

Ika