Sentence: Getting into the ingredients - Bowl 3: Object

Object in Bahasa Indonesia consists of a noun or a pronoun. For example buku (book), meja (table), nasi (rice), sup (soup), es krim (ice cream), saya (I), kamu (you), mereka (they), etc. Those nouns or pronouns become object because they are given an action from the subject in a sentence. Let’s see these examples.

1.    Kucing makan ikan.

            cat       eat       fish

            S          P          O

In sentence (1) both kucing and ikan are nouns. Kucing has a role as a subject because it is the doer of the predicate makan, a verb which is a form of an action (eat). Ikan in this sentence is the one which the action makan happen to. Therefore, ikan become the object of the sentence.

2.    Ibu peluk kamu.

             mother            hug      you

            S                      P          O

In sentence (2) both ibu and you are pronouns. Ibu is the subject because ibu does the action of hug (peluk). Kamu in this sentence is the one whom ibu hug. Thus, kamu in this case has a role of object.

Object is not always placed at the end of the sentence or after the predicate. Object can also be at the beginning of a sentence. This is also can be one way to test whether the noun/ pronoun is the object. We can change the sentence into passive form. Both sentence (1) and (2) in passive form will be ikan dimakan kucing (the fish is eaten by the cat) and kamu dipeluk ibu (you are hug by mother). Although ikan and kamu are placed at the beginning of the sentence, their role in the sentence are still which the action of makan (eat) and peluk (hug) happens to. We called them, still as the object of the sentence.

Now, could you show us the object of your sentence?

Writtern By, 

Maftuhah Ismail 

Contributor to Bahasa Budaya Organization

Lingua Internacional