I love the simplicity of Indonesian.
There is no ‘the’.
If you want to say the word for a group of something, you can usually double up the noun.
Book = buku
Many books = buku-buku
There are no conjugations or tenses since it’s implied based on context.
Eg. Tadi pagi saya pergi ke pasar.
Literally translated as “This morning I go to market”. Since the morning occurs in the past, the past tense is implied and understood.
In informal conversations, you can also usually drop the subject if you’re talking about yourself.
Japanese also gets rid of the article, and the subject is very often dropped because it’s clear from context. Plural just does not seem to exist at all, because who cares if you have an apple or apples.
Sleep. (ねる。) For example can be a complete sentence. It’s also somewhat possible in English but it’s rare.
A: what did you do on the weekend? B: Sleep.
I love Japanese grammar, it’s fun to learn. But Indonesian seems to have fun and simple grammar too.
They also do the doubling for emphasis. I love the “Hati Hati” signs everywhere that tell you to drive extra careful.
Thai and Khmer do the same with tenses and just add tomorrow, yesterday, last year … as context.
One of my favorites in thai is that the common question “gin khaw/กินข้าว” means “Have you eaten?”, “do you want to eat” and “Come eat!” all at the same time and that its also most often meant this way. “Eat rice” in the past, present and future.
Indonesians have better “The” and it’s “Nya”, for example
“Where is the man at?” = “Dimana orang nya :3”
