The ke-an construction can be used to create either verbs or nouns.

1 Nouns
The ke-an construction can be added to certain adjectives, nouns and verbs to create
abstract nouns (i.e. ideas and concepts).

a) ke-an with adjectives

Examples: cantik = beautiful kecantikan = beauty
makmur = prosperous kemakmuran = prosperity
bersih = clean kebersihan = cleanliness
merdeka = free kemerdekaan = independence
sehat = healthy kesehatan = health

b) ke-an with nouns

Examples: menteri = (government) minister kementerian = ministry
uang = money keuangan = finance
pemimpin = leader kepemimpinan = leadership
anggota = member keanggotaan = membership

c) ke-an with verbs

Examples: hidup = to live kehidupan = life
maju = to progress kemajuan = progress
ada = to be keadaan = situation
ingin = to want keinginan = desire

VCE Indonesian Grammar Supplement

2 Verbs
You must remember that some ke-an words are nouns and some are verbs.
The verbs created by the ke-an construction can be divided into two broad categories.

a) similar to the di-form and indicating possibility [ = dapart di- ]

Examples: kedengaran = can be heard kelihatan = can be seen
Mukanya kelihatan putih.
His face could be seen to be white.
Bunyi kereta api kedengaran dari jauh.
The sound of the train was audible from afar.

b) has the sense of to be caught by, struck by or to suffer from

Examples: kemasukan = to be broken into (as by a burglar)
kebanjiran = to be struck by a flood
kehujanan = to be caught in the rain
kesiangan = to sleep in (literally: to be caught by the afternoon)
ketinggalan = to be left behind
kepanasan = to suffer from the heat
kedinginan = to suffer from the cold
kejatuhan = to be struck by a falling object

The best way to cope with these words is to note them down and
learn them as you come across them in your reading.

VCE Indonesian Grammar Supplement

Ke-an
1. 'suatu abstraksi' atau 'hal'
Hal-hal baik yang dia dilakukan selama ini sulit dilupakan.
Hal berangkatnya ditunda karena alasan izin.
Hal malas memang harus dihilangkan.
Hal-hal berhasil tidak bisa dicapai dengan tidur-tidur.
Hal pandai seseorang terlihat saat dia bekerja secara kreatif.

2. 'hal-hal yang berhubungan dengan masalah yang tersebut dalam

bentuk dasar'
Hal-hal yang berhubungan dengan masalah hutan akan di bahas oleh mahasiswa
FH.
Hal-hal yang berhubungan dengan masalah wanita mulai mendapat tempat di
diskusi-diskusi publik.
Hal-hal yang berhubungan dengan uang memang menjadi masalah saat akhir bulan.
Hal-hal yang berhubungan dengan masalah budaya menjadi fokus kajian fakultas
ini.

3. 'dapat dikenai perbuatan yang tersebut pada bentuk dasar'

(dapat di-)
Bentuk ini tidak banyak.
Tulisan itu dapat dilihat dari sini.
Pelankan suaramu, aku tidak mau itu dapat didengar orang di sebelah.
Sepandai-pandainya menyembunyikan hal buruk akan dapat diketahui juga.

4. 'dalam keadaan tertimpa akibat perbuatan, keadaan, atau hal

yang tersebut pada bentuk dasar'
Sari tertimpa dingin karena lupa membawa jaket.
Pengungsi tertimpa lapar karena bantuan belum sampai.
Kami tertimpa kurang air karena mata air mulai kering.
Dia tertimpa jatuh mangga pohon kita.
5. ‘tempat’ atau ‘daerah’
Kami mengunjungi istana tempat presiden di Bogor.
Kami mengetahui bahwa di sini dahulu adalah daerah raja yang kuat.
Dia, sultan terakhir berhasil melebarkan daerah sultan sampai ke luar Jawa.
Tanah ini akan digunakan untuk tempat duta negera lain membangun gedungnya.
 38 Words

Circumfix ke-…-an
1.72 Circumfix ke-…-an forms nouns from adjectives, verbs and
other classes. Such nouns are generally of an abstract nature.

1.73 ke-…-an nouns can have an adjective base. The nouns are all
abstract, identifying the characteristic of the adjective:
baik good kebaikan goodness, kindness
bebas free kebebasan freedom
bersih clean kebersihan cleanliness
cantik beautiful kecantikan beauty
sehat healthy kesehatan health
sulit difficult kesulitan difficulty

1.74 In general, the meaning of the noun can be predicted from the
meaning of the adjective base. In a few cases this is not so:
berat heavy keberatan objection
malu shy kemaluan genitals
terang clear keterangan explanation

1.75 The negative tidak ‘not’ can combine with some adjectives to
form a compound base for ke-…-an nouns. These correspond
to English nouns with prefix dis- or in-:
adil just ketidak-adilan injustice
jujur honest ketidak-jujuran dishonesty
puas satisfied ketidak-puasan dissatisfaction
senang pleased ketidak-senangan displeasure

1.76 Several adjectives derived with prefix se- (see 1.127) can form
the base of a ke-…-an noun:
seimbang balanced keseimbangan balance,
equilibrium
selaras in accordance, keselarasan conformity,
in harmony harmony
 Affixes 39

seragam uniform, of the keseragaman uniformity

same kind

1.77 The noun can be formed from an intransitive verb:

datang come kedatangan arrival
hidup live kehidupan life
ingin wish keinginan wish, desire
lahir be born kelahiran birth
menang win kemenangan victory
naik go up kenaikan rise, increase

1.78 The base can be a verb with prefix ber- or ter-. In this case the
prefix remains:
berangkat depart keberangkatan departure
berhasil succeed keberhasilan success
terbatas limited keterbatasan limitation
tersedia available ketersediaan availability

1.79 A few nouns are formed from a negated verb or have a compound
verb base:
tahu know ketidak-tahuan ignorance
ikut serta participate keikut-sertaan participation
1.80 A few ke-…-an nouns are based on modals (see 2.153) or
adverbs:
boleh may kebolehan ability, skill
harus must keharusan necessity, a must
kerap frequently kekerapan frequency
lebih more kelebihan excess
mungkin possible kemungkinan possibility
1.81 ke-…-an nouns can be based on nouns; this use is very produc-
tive and many forms are recent in the language. The ke-…-an
forms in general mean ‘having to do with [base]’. Some forms
have a different translation from the base:
anggota member keanggotaan membership
daerah region kedaerahan regionalism
ibu mother keibuan motherliness
pemimpin leader kepemimpinan leadership
wanitu woman kewanitaan femininity
 40 Words

1.82 Many ke-…-an nouns with noun bases typically modify

another noun. Thus keagamaan ‘having to do with religion’
occurs in such phrases as upacara keagamaan ‘religious
ceremony’. Sometimes the translation depends on context; thus
kebangsaan is translated differently in the phrases kebang-
saan kapal itu ‘nationality of the ship’ and lagu kebangsaan
‘national song’. When modifying another noun it is frequently
translated by an adjective, as in the case of keagamaan above.
In other cases, the ke-…-an noun has the same translation as
the base. Thus penduduk ‘population’ and (teori) kependudu-
kan ‘population (theory)’. In either case, such nouns are best
glossed ‘having to do with [base]’, except where context makes
their meaning clear, as in the following examples:
kedokteran medical, fakultas kedokteran faculty
having to do with doctors of medicine
kehutanan forestry, having petugas kehutanan forestry
to do with forests official
kepolisian having to do akademi kepolisian police
with police academy
keuangan finance, finances departement keuangan
department of finance; soal
keuangan financial matters
kemasyarakatan social, masalah kemasyarakatan
having to do with society community problem
or community
kemahasiswaan having to hidup kemahasiswaan
do with students student life
keimigrasian having to undang-undang keimigrasian
do with immigration immigration laws

1.83 In a few cases, ke-…-an nouns are formed from nouns

already having prefix peN-, such as kependudukan ‘having
to do with population’ (penduduk population, menduduki
occupy) and kepemimpinan leadership (pemimpin leader,
pimpin lead).

1.84 With noun bases indicating a person holding a rank or office,

ke-…-an forms nouns meaning ‘the domain administered by
[base]’:
 Affixes 41

duta ambassador kedutaan embassy

kaisar emperor kekaisaran empire
lurah village head kelurahan administrative unit
headed by a lurah
menteri minister kementerian department
headed by a minister
raja king kerajaan kingdom
sultan sultan kesultanan sultanate

1.85 With a very few noun bases ke-…-an forms nouns indicating a
collection of [base]:
pulau island kepulauan archipelago
pustaka book (archaic) kepustakaan bibliography, list
of references

1.86 A few nouns are derived from numbers, both definite and
indefinite (see 2.106ff), meaning ‘a group which consists of
[base]’:
satu one kesatuan unit
sebelas eleven kesebelasan eleven (soccer
team)
seluruh whole keseluruhan entirety

Circumfix ke-…-an

1.123 This occurs with a small number of common adjectives and

with banyak and lebih to indicate excess, being synonymous
with terlalu ‘too’:
 54 Words

kecil small kekecilan too small

mahal expensive kemahalan too expensive
manis sweet kemanisan too sweet
tua old ketuaan too old
banyak much kebanyakan too much
lebih more kelebihan excessive, too much

This function of ke-…-an is borrowed from Javanese and is not

considered standard by all educated speakers:
Baju ini kebesaran bagi saya.
This shirt is too big for me.
Kamu kebanyakan uang.
You have too much money.

1.124 Occurring with a limited number of reduplicated noun and

adjective bases, ke-…-an forms adjectives meaning ‘possessing
to some degree the characteristic indicated by [base]’. It most
commonly occurs with colour terms, such as kemerah-mera-
han ‘reddish’:
Warna kemejanya kuning kemerah-merahan.
His shirt is a reddish yellow.

Compare furthermore:
kebiru-biruan bluish
kegelap-gelapan rather dark
kegila-gilaan slightly crazy
kekuning-kuningan yellowish
With noun bases it usually has a negative connotation:
kebarat-baratan westernised (acting like a European)
keilmu-ilmuan quasi-scientific

1.125 Some speakers allow an unreduplicated base with colour terms

and some other adjectives:
kehijauan greenish
keperakan silvery
kepucatan rather pale
In the case of keemasan ‘golden’, reduplication of the base does
not occur.
 Affixes 55

Reduplication does not occur if the base is already redupli-

cated:
kanak-kanak young child kekanak-kanakan childish
laki-laki man kelaki-lakian mannish (of a
woman)
malu-malu shy kemalu-maluan rather shy
 124 Words

Verbs with circumfix ke-…-an

1.276 With a few exceptions these verbs are adversatives; they indicate
that the subject undergoes an unpleasant or undesired experi-
ence or event.
Unlike basic verbs, adversative verbs explicitly focus attention
on the adverse effect of the event on the subject. The following
two sentences can be translated in the same way:
Mobil Tomo dicuri.
Tomo kecurian mobil.
Tomo’s car was stolen.

However, the first sentence is simply a statement of what

happened to Tomo’s car, while the second sentence specifically
indicates that Tomo undergoes something unpleasant. It could
more literally be translated, ‘Tomo suffered the stealing of his
car’, ‘Tomo had his car stolen’, or ‘Tomo was robbed of his car’.
There is only a limited number of adversative verbs and new
formations are not common. In colloquial speech numerous
forms occur with ke-…-an under Javanese influence, where
standard Indonesian has prefix ter-. These are not discussed here.
The few forms occurring in standard speech which have ter-
equivalents are, however, discussed in the following sections.
Some six subgroups can be recognised, based on the
relationships between the constituents.

1.277 Verbs in subgroup 1 derive from basic intransitive verbs in

clauses whose subject noun phrase contains a head noun and a
possessor, such as the following:
Uang Tomo hilang.
Tomo’s money is lost.

The possessor of the basic construction—Tomo in the above

example—becomes subject of the ke-…-an verb and the
original head noun—uang in the above example—is expressed
as a complement (see 3.65) following the verb:
 Affixes 125

Tomo kehilangan uang.

Tomo has lost his money (Tomo has suffered the loss of his
money).

Other verbs in this group include:

kehabisan suffer from (complement) being used up, run out
of (complement)
kematian suffer the death of (complement)
kekurangan suffer a deficiency of (complement), lack
(complement)
Also in this subgroup is keguguran ‘have a miscarriage’ (liter-
ally: ‘suffer the falling’). This verb does not have a complement,
as it is understood:
Ibu Asma keguguran tadi malam.
Mrs Asma had a miscarriage last night.

Although the complement is always something possessed by the

subject, possessive -nya is rare but can occur:
Mereka kematian ayah(nya).
They have lost their father.
These verbs must be distinguished from nouns derived from
similar bases with ke-…-an (see 1.77). These nouns, such as
kematian ‘death’ in the following example, occur in different
environments from the verbs:
Kematian ayahnya sangat menyedihkan.
The death of his father was very saddening.

1.278 Verbs in subgroup 2 correspond to transitive passive verbs. Like

verbs described in section 1.277, they have a complement indi-
cating something possessed by the subject. An example with
kecurian ‘suffer from the theft of (complement)’ is given in
section 1.276.
Other verbs in this subgroup include:
kecopetan have (complement) stolen by a pickpocket
kemalingan be burgled of (complement)

Unlike verbs in subgroup 1, these verbs can occur without a

complement:
 126 Words

Saya kecopetan (dompet) di bus.

I was pickpocketed (of my wallet) on the bus.

1.279 Subgroup 3 verbs are based on nouns. The subject is adversely

affected by what the base indicates. In the following sentence,
the subject is unpleasantly affected by malam ‘night’:
Dia kemalaman di hutan.
He was overtaken by night in the forest.

Other verbs in this group include:

kehujanan be caught in the rain
kesiangan be overtaken by daylight
kegelapan overtaken by the dark
kebanjiran be flooded
ketulangan have a bone caught in the throat
keracunan be poisoned
kecanduan be addicted

Some of these verbs also occur in subgroup 5 (see 1.281).

1.280 Subgroup 4 verbs are based on adjectives. The subject suffers

from what the base indicates to a severe degree. The differ-
ence between the adjective alone and the verb derived from it is
shown in the following examples:
Dia lapar.
He is hungry.
Dia kelaparan.
He is famished/starving.

Other verbs in this group include:

kepanasan suffer from heat, be overcome by heat
kedinginan suffer extremely from cold
kehausan suffer from severe thirst
kesakitan be in pain
kesepian be lonely
ketakutan be terrified

These verbs must be distinguished from homophonous nouns

derived from the same adjectives (see 1.73). Thus ketakutan ‘be
 Affixes 127

terrified’ is homophonous with ketakutan ‘fear’, although they

have a different distribution in sentences:
Dia ketakutan.
He is terrified.
Dia hidup dalam ketakutan.
He lives in fear.

They must also be distinguished from colloquial adjectives

meaning ‘too [base]’ (see 1.123). Such adjectives have an inani-
mate subject, while the verbs have a human subject:
Kami kedinginan tadi malam.
We were freezing last night.
Air ini kedinginan.
This water is too cold (for me).

1.281 Subgroup 5 verbs have the same meaning as correspond-

ing basic verbs with affixation di-…-i except that the action
is explicitly adversative, the difference being shown by the
following:
Bu Hartini didatangi wartawan.
Mrs Hartini was visited by a journalist.
Bu Hartini kedatangan wartawan.
Mrs Hartini was unexpectedly visited by a journalist.

With verbs in this subgroup the noun following the verb is the
agent. If it is perceived as the human instigator of the action,
the actor (see 3.17), then it can be preceded by oleh ‘by’, as
in the first example below. If, however, it is inanimate, as in
the second example below, the use of oleh is unacceptable to
many people:
Dia ketahuan (oleh) ayahnya.
He was found out by his father.
Dia kejatuhan durian.
He was hit by a falling durian fruit.

Other verbs in this subgroup include:

kedapatan be discovered, caught in the act
kemasukan be possessed, infiltrated
ketularan be infected, contaminated
 128 Words

ketumbuhan be overgrown with

ketumpahan be spilled on

The verbs ketahuan and kedapatan allow a verbal complement

(see 3.72):
Dia kedapatan menggelapkan uang negara.
He was caught embezzling state funds.
Pemilik toko itu ketahuan oleh polisi menjual burung-
burung kookaburra.
The shop owner was caught by the police selling kookaburras.

A few verbs in subgroup 3 (see 1.279) can also occur in sub-

group 5. As subgroup 3 verbs they are based on nouns and do
not have an agent, while as subgroup 5 verbs they correspond
to di-…-i verbs and can have an agent. In the first sentence
below kebanjiran is based on the noun banjir ‘flood’ and
means ‘subjected to flood (banjir)’, while in the second sentence
it corresponds to dibanjiri ‘be flooded’ and occurs with an
agent:
Kota itu kebanjiran.
The town was flooded.
Kota itu kebanjiran (oleh) turis asing.
The town was flooded with foreign tourists.

Some other subgroup 5 verbs which also occur in subgroup 3

are given here with exemplary agents and corresponding basic
verbs:
keracunan (permen basi) be poisoned (by spoiled sweets)
(diracuni poisoned)
kehujanan (batu) be rained on (by stones) (dihujani rained
on)

1.282 Subgroup 6 includes several verbs whose subject is not the

person adversely affected but the thing possessed by that person.
In this respect they resemble ter- verbs (see 1.269). In the follow-
ing sentence the person adversely affected by kebongkaran ‘be
broken into’ is saya ‘I’, the possessor of the house:
Rumah saya kebongkaran.
My house was broken into.
 Affixes 129

The ‘ter-like’ character of these verbs is seen with kebakaran

‘catch fire, be burned’ which has the same meaning as
terbakar:
Kapal itu kebakaran/terbakar.
The ship caught fire.

With ketinggalan ‘be left behind’ a person can be subject only if

he or she is the ‘thing’ left behind:
Saya ketinggalan bis.
I missed the bus. (literally: ‘I was left behind by the bus.’)

1.283 Two ke-…-an verbs are not adversative. These are kelihatan ‘can
be seen, visible; looks, seems’ and kedengaran ‘can be heard,
audible; sounds, seems’:
Rumahnya tidak kelihatan dari sini.
His house can’t be seen from here.
Musik itu kedengaran dari jalan.
The music can be heard from the road.

Meaning ‘can be seen/heard’, these verbs function like passive

verbs and can take an agent. If the agent is a pronoun, occur-
rence of oleh ‘by’ is obligatory (see 3.32):
Musik itu kedengaran olehku.
I could hear the music.

These verbs can have a verbal complement (see example in section

3.76).
If the verb means ‘seems (looks/sounds)’, it cannot take an
agent (being intransitive in this function); it can have an adjec-
tival complement (see 3.69) and can take -nya:
Supomo kelihatan(nya) sakit.
Supomo looks sick.

1.284 Acting like kelihatan are the affixless verbs nampak and tampak
‘can be seen, visible’ (with -nya these mean ‘seems, looks’ and
function as sentence adjuncts—see 4.107):
Umi tampak/nampak olehku duduk di belakang.
I could see Umi sitting in the back.
 130 Words

Verbs with prefix ke-

1.285 There are only a few verbs occurring with prefix ke-. The prefix
is a borrowing from Javanese and all these verbs are regarded as
non-standard to some degree by many people.17 Almost all ke-
verbs correspond to ter- accidental verbs. A very few, includ-
ing the first two listed below, correspond to other forms. More
standard forms having the same meaning as ke- verbs are given
in parentheses for the following examples:
ketemu (bertemu) meet
ketimbang (dibandingkan dengan) compared with
ketawa (tertawa) laugh
kesohor (tersohor) famous
ketipu (tertipu) tricked
ketabrak (tertabrak) collided with
kesasar (tersasar) lost, astray
kepergok (tepergok) caught red-handed
 . . . . . . ..,(
Ke-an
In grammatical terms, ke-an is called a circumfix;that is, a combination
of a prefix (ke-) and a suffix (-an) to form a w o r d . ~ h i schapter looks at
the various uses of ke-an. . 1

Many ke-an verbs indicate that the subject experiences or suffers from
something over which the subject has no control-similar to one of the
meanings of ter- in Chapter 14. This meaning can be specified further,
as follows.

Suffer from climatic or bodily conditions

banjir flood kebanjiran t o be caught in flood

candu drugs kecanduan to be addicted to something
dingin cold kedinginan t o suffer from cold
haus thirsty kehausan t o be thirsty, parched
hujan rain kehujanan t o be caught in the rain
kering dry kekeringan to suffer from drought
lapar hungry kelaparan to be starved
panas hot kepanasan to suffer from heat berhasil
pemilik
semut ant kesemutan to get pins and needles (literally 'to tanpa
be struck or overcome by ants')

*'4
Complete each of the following sentences using- one of the ke-an words
from the above list.
1 Beberapa negara di Afrika sangat membutuhkan huian. Sudah
beberaja bulan ini mereka rneiderita
2 Aduh, saya tidak bisa berdiri karena kaki saya

f 00 A Student's Guide to Indonesian Grammar I

 3 Kasihan Ani, dia menggigil ('shivering']
4 Ibu menghidupkan AC di ruang tamu karena merasa

5 Karena hujan yang tidak berhenti selama berhari-hari, rumah saya

-

. Lack of control over emotions

senang glad kesenangan to be overcome by glee, overjoyed

susah sad kesusahan to be overcome by hardship
takut afraid ketakutan to be overcome by fear, scared
ination
oks at
Lack of control over a situation or event

bagi -. to distribute kebagian to be given a share of something

betul correct kebetulan by chance, it so happens
;from copet pickpocket kecopetan to have one's pocket picked
of ihe curi to steal kecurian to have something stolen
rther, habis finished kehabisan to run out of something
hilang to disappear kehilangan to lose something
jatuh fall kejatuhan to be hit by an object falling from
above
rnaling intruder kemalingan t o have the house broken into
tahu to know ketahuan to be caught red-handed
tidur sleep ketiduran to fall asleep

-4
'llanslate the following sentences into English.
( 1 1 1 1 Kebetulan saya bertemu dengannya di toko sepatu itu.
2 Kasihan Joni, rumahnya kernalingan tadi malam.
berhasil to succeed in
pemilk owner 3 Mereka berhasil membawa lari uang Rp5 juta tanpa ketahuan
literally 'to tanpa without pemilik rumah.
~yants') 4 Kami kehabisan beras, jadi malam ini harus berbelanja.
5 Pencuri itu lari ketakutan setelah melihat polisi datang.

In some cases, ke-an words simply indicate that something can be what
in words the base word indicates.

lihat to see kelihatan visible

 In this case, the meaning of ke-an is similar to the abilitative meaning
of the prefix ter- (see Chapter 14). Interestingly, kelihatan also extends
to 'look, it seems, it looks like' when we add -nyaat the end.
Kelihatann~adia sakit.
She looks sick:
- Hari ini mendung. Kelihatann~aakan hujan.
Today is cloudy. It looks like it's going to rain.
Kelihatann~a ekonomi Indonesia akan membaik.
tt looks like the Indonesian economy will improve.

K e a n words in this group generally indicate 'excessiveness' and

translate into English as 'too + adjective' (for example, too small, too
large). They also mean the same as 'terlalu (too) + adjective' in
Indonesian (for example, terlalu kecil, terlalu besar). The difference
between using ke--an and terlalu is that k ~ - a ncan sometimes sound
more informal.

besar large kebesaran too large, too big

capai tired kecapaian too tired, exhausted
gemuk fat kegernukan too fat
kecil small kekecilan too small
kenyang full kekenyangan too full (overeating)
kurus thin kekurusan too thin (of body)
mahal expensive kemahalan too expensive
murah cheap kemurahan too cheap
panjang long kepanjangan too long
pendek short kependekan too short
rendah low kerendahan too low
tebal thick ketebalan too thick
tinggi high ketinggian too high
tipis thin ketipisan too thin (not for body)

When ke-an is applied to base words indicating a particular part of the

day, such as morning, afternoon or night, it means 'something happens
at an inappropriate time'. For example, coming home too lateat night or
ringing someone too early in the morning.

102 A student*^ Guide to Indonesian Grammar

eaning
xtends
ep malam
~agi
night
morning
kemalaman
kepagian
t o o late (at night)
t o o early (in the morning)
siang afternoon kesiangan t o o late (in the day), oversleep
(get up t o o late)
- C
sore evening kesorean - coo late (in the afternoon)

Handy expression 1

A useful word to know with the 'excessiveness' meanine is

--a--
keterlaluan,which means 'too much, too far, (of behaviour)'. It comes
from terlalu ('too').
Dia memang keterlaluan. Sudah berkali-kali
diperingatkan jangan terlambat, tapi masih juga begitu.
ld Helshe has indeed gone too far. I've warned him/her
1, too repeatedly not to be late, but he/she still does it.

rence
sound
1ATlHAN 3
Match these sentences with the following pictures.
1 Rak itu kebesaran.
2 Rok itu kemahalan; uang saya tidak cukup.
3 Anjing itu ketakutan.
4 Joni ketiduran di kelas.

saya 'M'.

)art of the
happens
3t night or
1 04 A Student's Guide to Indonesian Grammar
Ke-an also forms abstract nouns. By 'abstract' we mean things that we
cannot touch, see or feel.

bahagia happy kebahagiaan happiness

bersih clean kebersihan cleanliness
cantik beautiful kecantikan beauty
cepat fast kecepatan speed, velocity
duduk t o sit kedudukan position, rank
gembira joyful kegembiraan joyfulness, excitement
giat active kegiatan activity
hidup live kehidupan life
kacau mixed up kekacauan havoc
kuat strong kekuatan strength. power
l isan oral kelisanan orality, oracy
maju t o go forward kemajuan progress, advancement
mati to die Icematian death
puas satisfied kepuasan satisfaction
satu one kesatuan unity
sehat healthy kesehatan health

We can also attach ke-an to words that already have a prefix, such as
ber-. For example, the word berada (to be at a place) comes from the
base word ada [there idare, exist)and the prefix ber-. When we add
ke-an, we get keberadaan, which means 'existence'.
Below are more examples.

beraksara literate keberaksaraan literacy

bersama together kebersamaan togetherness

a Did YOU LnoW

We can also form longer ke--an abstract nouns by adding the
negative word tidak before the base word.

Tidak adil n o t fair ketidakadilan injustice

Tidak mengerti n o t understand ketidakmengertian incomprehension
Tidak pasti n o t certain ketidakpastian uncertainty
Tidak tahu n o t know ketidaktahuan ignorance
 Some ke--an words have two meanings. Depending on h& we use
them, they may indicate one thing or the other.

kelaparan struck by hunger hunger

kepanjangan too long unabbreviated form (for example, of a name) I
kependekan too short abbreviated form
I
kerendahan too low lowness I
. ketinggian too high height
I
kebanyakan too much, too many most

LATIHAN 4
Match each Indonesian sentence in the left column with its English
equivalent in the right column.
1 Kasihan adikmu, dia a Don't overeat, or you will be
kecapaian. bloated.
2 Kegembiraannya meluap-luap. b I feel sorry for your younger
3 Jangan makan terlalu banyak. sibling: he/she is exhausted.
nanti kamu kekenyangan. c My mother's position in the
4 Mobil itu melaju dengan company is director.
kecepatan 90 krn per jam d Literally: His iov is
menuju Canberra. overflowing. (He is over the
5 Kedudukan ibu saya di moon.)
perusahaan itu adalah sebagai e The car moves at a speed of 90
direktur. kilometres per hour in the
6 Kemarin saya kecopetan ketika direction of Canberra.
di bis. f My friend is looking very sad
7 Wah, saya malu sekali tadi pagi today.
di kelas karena saya ketiduran g I'm sorry, ma'am, I'm having a
ketika guru saya berbicara. financial hardship, so I haven't
8 Teman saya kelihatan sedih been able to pay my (house)
sekali hari ini. rent.
9 Barang siapa ketahuan h Whoever is found cheating in
menyontek dalam ujian ini this exam will get zero.
akan mendapat nol. i I was so embarrassed this
10 Maaf Bu, saya sedang kesulitan morning in class because I fell i
uang, jadi belum bisa asleer, while my teacher was
membayar sewa rumah. talking.
j Yesterday I had my pocket
picked when I was on the bus.
 Uses of ke-an:
use Ke-an verbs: Generally indicating lack o f control; for example. over climatic
o r bodily condition, emotion or over an event or situation. When attached to
base words indicating parts of the day, k e a n indicates that something
happens at an inappropriate time.
Ke--an adjectives: generally indicating excessiveness (in English: 'too ...')
)f a name) * K e a n abstract nouns
Some ke--an words have dual meanings.

@ish

will be

?eed of 90
in the
1.
very sad

1 having a
o I haven't
(house)

leating in
fro.
d this
2ause I fell ..--
cher was

pocket
on the bus.