# Indonesian: Is there any difference between ...



## piotrekk_poland

Hi,

How can I translate this sentence into Indonesian:

- Is there any difference between the behaviour of English and Indonesian people?


Thank you!


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## Mauricet

Possibly _Apa ada perbédaan di antara kelakuan orang Inggeris dan orang Indonesia ?_

But this is word-to-word translation, wait for a better advice ?


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## stupoh

Mauricet said:


> Possibly _Apa ada perbédaan di antara kelakuan orang Inggeris dan orang Indonesia ?_
> 
> But this is word-to-word translation, wait for a better advice ?



I'm a native Indonesian speaker, but I came here to learn Korean, and was surprised to find this thread.

Anyway, Mauricet's translation is correct, except the word English in Indonesian is Inggris not Inggeris. And, to my ears it would be more natural if you remove 'di', and also you can use 'apakah' instead of 'apa' (slightly more natural for formal writing IMHO).

Apa(kah) ada perbedaan antara kelakuan orang Inggris dan orang Indonesia?

Finally, in daily conversation I would use one of these instead:

Apa ada bedanya antara kelakuan orang Inggris dan orang Indonesia?
Ada _nggak sih_ bedanya antara kelakuan orang Inggris dan orang Indonesia?

Hope that can be of any help.


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## piotrekk_poland

Thank you both. Just one question. Why did you add "nya" to "beda" in these two sentences?


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## stupoh

Suffix *-nya* has many usages, according to "Beginning Indonesian: through self-instruction (Buku 2)":

The basic meaning of -nya is "his, her, its, theirs" (but not "my, mine, yours or ours"):
Ini sterop nama*nya*. This is called sterop (lit. This, its name is sterop)
   Nama*nya* hotel Garuda. Its name is the Garuda Hotel.​
There are total six usages of -nya mentioned in this book. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to view the next page of this book and I myself can't think of any  I'm no linguist and to be honest back in high school I used to hate Indonesian Language classes 

But anyway, for those two sentences, the *-nya* in bedanya does act as possessive pronouns "theirs". So, literal translation would be "the behaviour of English and Indonesian people, what is *their* difference"?


It's nice to be able to help someone learning my native language. Feel free to ask more questions. Although I'm no linguist I'll try my best to help. Goodluck!


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## Mauricet

The question was _Is there any difference_ rather than _What is the difference_. Do you think _Apa ada béda antara kelakuan orang Inggris dan orang Indonésia_ would be less felicitous than with _bédanya_ ?


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## piotrekk_poland

stupoh, tank you very much for your help! I want to study Indonesian intensively from now on and I will surely ask some questions in this forum  Thank you!


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## stupoh

Mauricet said:


> The question was _Is there any difference_ rather than _What is the difference_. Do you think _Apa ada béda antara kelakuan orang Inggris dan orang Indonésia_ would be less felicitous than with _bédanya_ ?



No, it's just in daily conversation the bedanya versions sound more natural, to me at least. Especially the last one, but that one uses some (Jakarta) slang words _nggak_ and _sih_, maybe that's why.

And okay now I think about it again, I think my literal translation is wrong. I didn't translate _ada_, that's why it became "what is their difference" instead of "is there any difference". Sorry about that.

As I mentioned there are 6 usages of *-nya* according to an online book I found, but there's no way to view all of them. Well I got another reference about *-nya* here: kelas-bahasa.blogspot.com/2005/09/nya-nya-nya.html
According to that blog, the suffix *-nya* can also be used to indicate something specific, just like the word 'the' in English. In those two sentences, I think this is what it means.

Is there any difference between *the* behaviour of English and Indonesian people?


Hope it's correct this time..


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## Mauricet

Thank you very much stupoh ! (and piotrekk for the rare opportunity to discuss Indonesian).


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## henriyo

I don't think I agree with the translation 'kelakuan'. 'Kebiasaan' is more suitable.


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## *mezzaluna

*P*robably you would consider saying it this way "apakah terdapat perbedaan antara kelakuan Orang Inggris dengan Orang Indonesia ?"
*I*t still has the same meaning but just more formal than the last ones.

@henriyo *I* guess kelakuan is more suitable for behaviour since kebiasaan is usually for habit no?


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## xavierxavier

I think behavior is mostly translated as "tingkah laku" or "kelakuan". I agree with mezzaluna, "kebiasaan" means something habitual or a habit.

"What is the difference between ..." will be translated as "Apa perbedaan antara ..."
"Is there a difference between ..." will be translated as "Apa ada perbedaan antara ..."
The second sentence asks if there exists a difference between two things, while the first one asks what it is. However, we Indonesians are very rarely pedantic, don't worry 

Here's my translation (rather formal, but will pass in informal situations as well) :
_Apakah ada perbedaan antara kelakuan orang Inggris dengan orang Indonesia? _


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