"Apakah ini apel?"
Translation:Is this an apple?
21 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
What function does the word 'apakah' play here? I think the fact that it has the word 'what' in it is making it more confusing
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Apakah makes it a closed-question (yes or no) question. And also function as 'is' at the same time. It all depends on the context / content of the question.
I translate it in my mind as "What is this? an apple?" It helps me to fix the Apakah in the sentence. Maybe in fact there is not "is" in Indo as we use in English and it confuses us.
- 1267
A good mnemonic, if it works for you. True, there’s no ”is” in Indo. Not in Hawaiian, either. Can’t wait for Māori! Austronesian rocks
- 1267
You thought about ”adakah”, SilverR05? Apakah doesn’t mean ”is”, but this sentence means ”Is this an apple?”
Just how yes/no questions are built in Indonesian.
Apa is ”what”—always ”what”—in Malayo-Polynesian languages, it says, all Austronesian languages outside of Taiwan. Although how they use that “what” can differ from English.
Only slight phonological variations to it (aha in Polynesian, peuë in Acehese, and so on, most commonly just “apa”).
That -kah part is an interrogative suffix, it makes a question—somebody says it’s strange, because “apa” is a question word already. I won’t say it’s strange, in Finnish we can also add an interrogative -kö to mikä/mitä (what).
There’s no “is” in Indo, so why does anyone downvote jr.m4rks? Austronesian gets along without any ”to be”. Not even ”ada” is ”is”; you cannot say ”Apakah itu ada merekah” or ”Apakah itu ada Granny Smith”... Ada is more like ”exist”
Great explanation.. Yup, there's no such "to be" as verb in indo. Some other languages i found in duo also doesn't always using "to be" as in English.
- 1304
Is 'apakah'the equivalent of هل in Arabic and 'est-ce que' in French: beginning a yes-no answerable question?
I really like the conceptualization of "est-ce que". It really helps me to understand.
- 1536
''Look, there's an apple!'' ''No it's not, it's a peach!'' Just came to my mind. Whatever.
I'll try to use it in a sentence. Mohon, correct this if its wrong. Terima kasih.
Apakah milik kamu? Is this yours?
That's correct. You can also say "Apakah ini milikmu?" or even just "Ini milikmu?".
"Is it an apple?" should be accepted, right? I mean, I know "ini" means "this". But in my view the meaning (of my answer) is the same as "Is this an apple?" At least in English. In fact, I can't think of another way to translate "Is it..." without ini. Anyway, I just want to confirm if others share the same thoughts as me. I've already reported btw, I hope not wrongly.
