i don't know beans

Here are a few language "tricks" we've come across lately.

We know that these are all legumes. Here they are all beans.

Here is a kacang kedelai = soybean

Here are some kacang tanah = dirt beans

 And a kacang panjang = yep, you guessed it - long bean

Cheap, Young and Easy

Whew! Watch out. These three words... yikes. I still don't get them straight. More than once I've told someone that they're cheap, when i really meant to reassure them about their age.

Cheap= murah (say moo-raH)

Young= muda (say moo-da)

Easy= mudah (say moo-daH)

There is no shortage of words like these, but that seems to be the least of our problems these days. We are working on grammar (yuck), and apparently a root word can mean one thing, and when changed with an affix can mean something COMPLETELY different... occasionally dangerous to mix them up.

 

For example:

 tinggal = root word verb to reside

meninggalkan = verb to leave (that seems to be the opposite?)

ketinggalan = adjective to be left behind (oooookaaaaaay)

meninggal = verb to die (WHAT?!? how did we make that jump?!)

kotor = rood word adjective for dirty

mengotorkan= to make dirty, contaminate

kotoran = noun for poop (OF COURSE!)

Sometimes our heads hurt (not to mention our egos... or our friends' feelings). Feel free to pray for us as we work to get this language.