The peN- family (people and roles)

By Speak Indo, from the Speak Indo Indonesian course.

The pe-/peN- family forms many nouns for people, roles, tools, or things associated with an action.

How it works

The pe-/peN- family forms many nouns associated with an action or quality: • kerja (work) → pekerja (worker) • tulis (write) → penulis (writer) • ajar (teach) → pengajar (instructor) • lari (run) → pelari (runner) • main (play) → pemain (player) The forms pe-, pem-, pen-, peng-, and peny- often parallel active meN- verbs, but there are lexical and spelling exceptions. Some nouns name tools or concepts rather than people, so the English '-er' analogy is only a starting point. Guru is a separate word for teacher, not a prefixed form of ajar.

Examples

• Pemain sepak bola itu terkenal.
  That soccer player is famous.
• Saya seorang penulis.
  I am a writer.
• Pekerja itu datang pagi.
  The worker arrived in the morning.