The versatile -nya suffix

By Speak Indo, from the Speak Indo Indonesian course.

-nya can mark a third-person possessor, a known referent, or build several common discourse and adverbial forms.

How it works

-nya has several common jobs: 1. Third-person possession, rumahnya besar = his/her/their house is big 2. A known or contextually specific referent, makanannya enak = the food is delicious 3. Evaluation or exclamation, panasnya! = how hot it is! 4. Established adverbial forms, akhirnya = finally, biasanya = usually It is not simply a direct equivalent of English 'the'. Context determines both the referent and the best translation.

Examples

• Saya suka bajunya.
  I like his/her shirt. OR: I like the shirt.
• Akhirnya dia datang!
  Finally he came!
• Enaknya makan di sini.
  How nice it is to eat here.