These sentences 1-22 below give reading practice in all the colloquial features introduced so far. An Answer Key is at the end of the section.
1. (talking admiringly about a palace).
Gua ga pernah ngeliat bangunan segede en seindah itu.
2. (explaining what has happened to her mobile phone)
HP-nya nggak ada. Ada temen yang minjem cuma buat liat- liat tapi kebawa pulang.
3. (Susi’s father gave her younger sister a present, but not her. As a result:)
Susi cemburu dan ngerasa bokapnya lebi sayang ama adiknya.
4. (complaining to a person who makes a lot of noise coming into the house)
Kenapa sih kalo nutup pintu ngga bisa pelan-pelan?
• pelan-pelan = slowly, softly [Not colloquial]
• ignore the sih for now: particles like this are explained shortly
5. (explaining why wasn’t able to go to a concert on the day he wanted).
Gue langsung ke site yang ngejual tiket murah tapi ternyata tiket buat tanggal itu uda abis semua.
6. Gue lagi ngebaca satu textbook yang gue dapet dari perpus kampus.
7. Dia ngebantu gw pas gw ngerjain skripsi gw.
• skripsi = dissertation [Not colloquial]
8. (asking someone about their free time)
Gimana cara lo ngisi waktu di saat ga ada kerjaan?
9. Kayaknya gampang aja ngurus SIM sekarang, gak kayak dulu harus make calo.
• SIM = driving licence (surat izin mengemudi). [Slightly colloquial]
• calo is a tout, a go-between, an intermediary [Not colloquial]
10. (talking about help she gets from her family at home)
Nyokap gue nawarin nyuci piring kalo gue banyak PR.
11. (discussing a romantic dilemma she is in)
Tapi gue tetep sayang ama tuh cowok en gak mau putus.
12. Gua udah lama pengen nyoba bikin pavlova tapi nggak punya resep bagus untuk bikin sendiri.
13. (talking about a job she once had)
Pas tinggal di Australi gue kerja di stadion olahraga. Kerjanya gue cuman periksa tiket aja dan juga ngebantuin bersihin.
• Australi/ Ustrali are colloquial forms for Australia
14. Main drum ni siapa bilang susah? Gampang kok.
• ignore the kok for now: particles like this are explained shortly
15. Gue gak bakal minta duit lagi ke ortu, kan udah dewasa.
• ortu:“orang tua” [colloquial]]
• kan means roughly “as you know”. Particles like this are explained shortly.]
16. (talking about the love life of a girl she knows)
Si Lisa kan akhirnya putus ama cowok tu. Emang mending gitu kali, ya.
• kan means roughly “as you know”. Particles like this are explained shortly.
17. Kita bikin promosi lewat website aja, biar gak usah ngabisin duit buat bikin selebaran segala.
• selebaran = leaflets
18. Lo pernah gak sih nulis surat cinta buat cewek?
• ignore the sih for now: particles like this are explained shortly.
19. (to acquaintance in street, who’s sitting on his motorbike)
Mo ke kampus? Bisa ikut nggak? (“Bisa”. ) Ya, makasih.
20. Dia nggak banyak ngomong apalagi kalo bareng orang yang gak deket.
21. Ibunya Fivi ngasih dia boneka beruang yang gede banget.
22. (salesperson in market)
Ada yang lebi murah tapi nggak kayak gini.
Answer Key to Sentences 1-22 above
1. I’ve never seen a building as big and as beautiful as that.
2. I don’t have my mobile phone. A friend borrowed it just to have a look but s/he accidently took it home.
• HP-nya nggak ada = literally: “The mobile phone is not present”.
• kebawa’: = colloquial for ‘terbawa’: to be accidently taken
3. Susi was jealous and felt that her dad was more fond of her younger sibling.
4. Why when you close the door can’t you do it softly?
5. I went directly to the site which sells cheap tickets, but it turned out the tickets for that date had all gone already.
6. I’m reading a textbook which I got from the campus library.
7. S/he helped me when I was writing my dissertation.
• ngerjain = literally: “doing dissertation.”
8. What’s your way of filling in the time, when you don’t have any work?
• gimana cara?’ = literally: ‘How is the way?”.
• ga ada kerjaan= literally: “there isn’t work”
9. It seems as though it’s easy to arrange your driving licence now – not like in the past when you had to use a tout.
• ngurus: to arrange or manage sth (i.e. formal mengurus)
10. My mum offers to wash the dishes if I’ve got a lot of homework.
11. But I’m still fond of that guy and I don’t want to break up.
12. I’ve wanted to make pavlova for a long time but I didn’t have a good recipe to make it myself.
13. When I was in Australia I worked at a sports stadium. My work was just checking tickets and also helping to clean up.
14. Playing drums: who says it’s hard? It’s easy!
• main drum ni”= literally: “this playing drums”
15. I’m not going to ask for money from my parents any more. I’m already an adult.
16. Lisa’s finally broken up with that guy. It really is better like that maybe.
17. We did all the promotion just through a website, so that we wouldn’t need to spend money on making leaflets and everything.
• buat bikin selebaran = literally: “for making leaflets”
18. Have you ever written a love letter to a girl?
• gak = literally: “(or) not”
19. Are you going to campus? Can I come with you? (“Yes”). Yep, thanks.
• nggak = literally: “(or) not”
20. He (or she) doesn’t talk much, especially if he’s with people he’s not close to.
• yang gak deket = literally: “who are not close”
21. Fivi’s mother gave her a really large toy bear.
22. There are cheaper ones, but not like this.
