Learning Bahasa Indonesia

13. Question Tag

Hi, apa kabar? I hope you're doing fine.

Okay, so here we will learn about the question tag in Bahasa Indonesia.

As we are all know in English, if the sentence is positive, the question tag must be negative and vice versa. In Bahasa Indonesia there's no rules like that. We didn't use things like positive and negative sentences, but we use these kind of words down bellow :

Formal question tag

Benar begitu bukan?
Benar tidak?

Informal question tag

Kan?
Iya, kan?
Benar nggak?

Those terms are used same like the question tag in English, we put it in the end of sentence, but with no specific tenses. And can be mean as Isn't it? and also Right?

Let's take a look at these examples!

Gerbang sekolahmu dibuka setiap jam 6 pagi, benar tidak? = Your school gate opens every 6 am, isn't it?
Kamu selalu berangkat sekolah dengan motor, benar begitu bukan? = You always go to school by motorcycle, don't you?
Itu hadiah dari Tifa, kan? = It's a gift from Tifa, isn't it?
Kamu Tifa, kan? / Kamu Tifa, iya kan? = You're Tifa, right? / You're Tifa, aren't you?
Kamu tidak suka makan manis, iya kan? = You don't like sweet foods, do you?
Ini punyamu, benar nggak? = This is your, right?

FYI Benar tidak? and Benar nggak? have the same meaning, it's Isn't it?.

Nggak means Not for informal way, and Tidak means Not for formal way.

Also, Benar begitu bukan? can be mean as Don't you think?

Well it's enough for this chapter, i hope you can understand it well. feel free to ask me in the comment section if there's a thing you don't get it. Semangat!