Asking Questions

By Speak Indo, from the Speak Indo Indonesian course.

Question words can stay in place. No word reordering needed.

How it works

Indonesian questions are easy: keep the sentence order, just add a question word. For yes/no questions, often just add a rising intonation (or begin with apakah). Question words: • apa, what • siapa, who • di mana, where • kapan, when • berapa, how much / how many • bagaimana, how • kenapa / mengapa, why

Examples

• Apa ini?
  What is this?
• Siapa dia?
  Who is he/she?
• Kamu tinggal di mana?
  Where do you live?
• Kenapa kamu sedih?
  Why are you sad?
• Apakah kamu lapar?
  Are you hungry?