Prefix me- and the Sound Changes

Last updated on January 8, 2024

Smoothing The Transition

A prefix is attached before the base or root word. A number of sound changes occur when the following prefixes are combined with root words in order to facilitate a smooth transition in pronunciation. What the sound will be in a particular word depends on the first sound of the root word following the prefix.

First Letter	Root Word	Inflection	Example	Meaning
l	lihat	me + root	melihat	to see
m	masak	me + root	masak	to cook
ny	nyanyi	me + root	menyanyi	to sing
r	rusak	me + root	merusak	to destroy
w	wabah	me + root	mewabah	to become epidemic

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First Letter	Root Word	Inflection	Example	Meaning
Vowel	alir	me+ng+root	mengalir	to flow
g	gali	me+ng+root	menggali	to dig
h	hapus	me+ng+root	menghapus	to erase

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First Letter	Root Word	Inflection	Example	Meaning
c	cuci	me + n	mencuci	to wash
d	didik	me + n	mendidik	to educate
j	jual	me + n	menjual	to sell

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First Letter	Root Word	Inflection	Example	Meaning
b	buat	me + m	membuat	to make
f	fokus	me + m	memfokus	to focus
v	vonis	me + m	memvonis	to sentence

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First Letter	Inflection	Root Word	Example	Meaning
k	me+ng+drop the ‘k’	kenang	mengenang	to remember
t	me+n+drop the ‘t’	tulis	menulis	to write
s	me+ny+drop the ‘s’	sapu	menyapu	to sweep

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First Letter	Inflection	Root Word	Example	Meaning
p	me+m+drop the ‘p’	pilih	memilih	to choose
p*	me+m+root word+suffix ‘i’	punya pengaruh	mempunyai mempengaruhi	to have, to own to influence

*) In this case first letter or initial ‘p’ is retained.

Single Syllable Bases

With single syllable bases, which are all borrowings from other languages, me– optionally becomes menge-. In this case initial p. t. s and k are not lost as forms without them would sometimes be difficult to interpret.

Monosyllabic	Inflection	Example	Meaning
cat	me + nge	mengecat	to paint
pel	me + nge	mengepel	to mop
bom	me + nge	mengebom	to bomb

Prefix me- can also be combined with any nouns, any adjective, numbers, and even verbs themselves to form another verb. Click here to see how it works.

Reference:
Indonesian: A Comprehensive Grammar (Routledge Grammars) by James Neil Sneddon(Dec 26, 1996)
Understanding Indonesian Grammar: A Student’s Reference and Workbook by James Neil Sneddon (Mar 2008)

About the author: James Neil Sneddon, PhD. was Associate Professor in the School of Languages and Linguistics at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. He has many years’ experience in the teaching of Indonesian language and linguistics. He studied Linguistics and Indonesian at the University of Sydney. He obtained his PhD in Linguistics in 1974 at the Australian National University. His thesis topic was “Tondano Phonology and Grammar”.