"I want to fill it with water."
Translation:Saya mau mengisinya dengan air.
16 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
I would also appreciate a better explanation of what -nya is doing in this sentence.
58
-nya is actually a suffix, it has many functions, and in this case it is used to replace the third party. For example, in English you might say "I want to fill the bottle with water", and if you want, you can replace the bottle with "it". In Indonesian, you can also do that by adding -nya at the end of the verb.
Here, the -nya works as "it" in "fill it". Fill is mengisi, and then you add -nya, it becomes mengisinya.
- 10
I have trouble with the form "mengisinya". Does -nya stand in for "it"? Would the literal translation be "I want its contents to be filled with water"?
- 58
-nya is actually a suffix, it has many functions, and in this case it is used to replace the third party. For example, in English you might say "I want to fill the bottle with water", and if you want, you can replace the bottle with "it". In Indonesian, you can also do that by adding -nya at the end of the verb.
In other condition, -nya could also be used to talk about belongings. "I want its content to be filled with water" can be translated as "saya mau isinya (its content) diisi (to be filled) dengan air."
To differentiate whether to use -nya as the replacement of a the third party, or to use -nya to describe belongings, you should spot whether the word that is followed by -nya is a noun or a verb. 1. When -nya is attached to a verb, it works as the replacement of the third party. "Memakannya" -> eat it "Mengisinya" -> fill it "I want to fill it with water" -> "fill it", the word before "it", which is "fill" is a verb, therefore it translates as "mengisinya".
- When -nya is attached to a noun, it works to describe belongings. "Botolnya" -> Her bottle "Airnya" -> Its water "Rumahnya" -> His house
And sometimes, -nya could also be used to translate "the", and when it is, it translates similarly to when it is used to describe belongings. "The water is flowing (mengalir)" -> Airnya mengalir. "The house is big (besar)" -> Rumahnya besar.
Hope this answers your question after 11 months with no replies
I dont know why you dont have more likes. This is a great explanation on the function of the -nya suffix.
- 58
Because "it" doesn't translate as "dia". In fact, "dia" is more often and more common to be translated as "he/she" (or him/her) meanwhile "it" actually translates as "itu" (similar use and translation as "that").
So, "mengisi dia" is translated as "fill him/her". If you want other alternative besides "mengisinya", or you just don't want to use the suffix -nya, you can translate "fill it" as "mengisi itu", even tho this actually has closer meaning to "fill that" instead of "fill it". But it's similar.
- 58
In my opinion, yea you may use "itu", but maybe not "ini". Because itu can mean it or that in English, but ini means this, so yeah replacing -nya with itu is still possible. But i think -nya is still the correct way because that's how native speakers usually say it, if you replace it with itu then it kinda sounds as if the thing that you want to fill is not close to you (like, in English it would sound like "I want to fill that with water" instead of "fill it")
- 495
I like how you have to.figure out grammar without being explicitly taught on this site. Still get ambushed from time to time though
- 58
My best guess is because "memenuhinya" literally means "fulfill" (base word of memenuhi = penuh, which means full), so it makes it sound like you made it specific to fill it until it's full. Meanwhile fill means "mengisi" (base word = isi), it doesn't always mean to fill it until it's full.
I understand that in real life when you want to fill it until it's full, you would probably still use "fill" instead of "fulfill" anyway, but Duolingo might marked it incorrect because "fulfill" (memenuhi) is not the literal meaning.