Negation is a way to form a negative sentence. Generally the Indonesian language has two negations: tidak and bukan. But there are also belum and jangan. They are very important because its structure is used in everyday conversation.
Bukan
Bukan negates a noun; that is, it is used if the predicate centre contains a noun or noun phrase, example:
- Dia bukan guru. – She is not a teacher.
Bukan can replace tidak. As such it is emphatic, implying that a contradictory statement could follow, example:
- Dia bukan bodoh. – She is not stupid.
The contradiction can be expressed, for instance, as a clause beginning with melainkan(but rather), example:
- Dia bukan bodoh melainkan malas saja. – He’s not stupid but just lazy.
A number of prepositions, including karena(because), untuk(for), seperti(like), can be negated by either bukan or tidak. Examples:
- Kue ini bukan/tidak untuk kamu. – This cake is not for you.
- Alasannya bukan/tidak karena itu. – His/her reason is not because of that.
- Ini bukan/tidak seperti grup kita. – This isn’t like our group.
Tidak
Tidak negates all types of predicate other than nouns, including verbs, adjectives, prepositional phrases, examples:
- Dia tidak disini. – She is not here.
- Lalu lintas Jakarta tidak ramai saat Lebaran. – Traffic in Jakarta is not busy during Lebaran.
Several variants of tidak are tak and tiada. Tak has a literary flavour for most Indonesians. Tiada is a literary form meaning the same as tidak ada(there isn’t). Tiada is mostly used in poems or song lyrics. Examples:
- Tak ada dosa yang tak terampuni. – There are no sins which can not be forgiven.
- Tiada lagi harapan di hatiku. – There is no more hopes in my heart.
With some verbs tidak can be replaced by kurang(less) to indicate a lessened degree of negation or to soften the impact of the negation. Example:
- Aku kurang percaya akan kabar itu. – I didn’t really believe that news.
- Both tidak and bukan can be emphasized by sama sekali(not at all, definitely not) and sedikitpun(not even a little). Examples:
- Ini sama sekali bukan uang orang lain – This is definitely not other people’s money.
- Saya sama sekali tidak tergantung pada dia. – I’m not in the least dependent on him.
- Mereka sedikitpun tidak peduli pada orang lain. – They don’t in the slightest care about other people.
Both tidak and bukan can appear in one sentence.
- Dia bukan seniman. Dia sama sekali tidak pandai menulis atau melukis.
- He is not an artist. He is absolutely hopeless at writing or painting.
- Dia bukan montir. Dia tidak bekerja di bengkel.
- He is not a mechanic. He doesn’t work in a repair shop.
- Ini bukan rumah Ibu Daulat. Rumah Ibu Daulat besar. Rumah ini tidak besar.
- This house is not Mrs Daulat’s. Mrs Daulat’s house is big. This house is not big.
- Ibu Daulat bukan tukang masak. Dia pegawai negeri. Dia tidak pandai memasak.
- Mrs Daulat is not a cook. She is a civil servant. She can’t cook.
- Maaf, majalah ini tidak untuk Anda. Anda bukan mahasiswa.
- Sorry, this magazine is not for you. You’re not a student.
- Kalau Anda bukan pemain, Anda tidak boleh turun ke lapangan.
- If you’re not a player you can’t go to the sports ground.
- Anda berkunjung ke pulau yang mana? Batam? Bukan! Batam tidak menarik.
- Which island did you visit? Batam? No! Batam isn’t interesting.
Tidak never appears directly in front of any of these kinds of nouns. They are negated with bukan.
Although tidak is the usual negator for verbs, adjectives and prepositions, in certain contexts bukan can also be used to negate them. This happens most often when you want to emphasise a contrast, or when a contrast is implied.
- Warnanya bukan merah tetapi hijau.
- It’s not red, it’s green.
- Hadiah ini bukan untuk kamu. Untuk Tanti!
- This gift is not for you. It’s for Tanti!
- Dia bukan mengambil uang. Sebetulnya dia memberikan uang.
- She didn’t take money. In fact she gave money.
So it seems that bukan is a stronger, or more emphatic, negator than tidak, and for this reason can sometimes muscle its way into the negation of verbs, adjectives and prepositions, in addition to its normal function as a negator of nouns.