English - Indonesian translation

Making English promises and instructions precise in Indonesian

Say whether ‘we’ includes the reader

English we can include the person receiving a message or refer only to the sender’s group. Indonesian makes that difference explicit with kita and kami. The choice changes who is being invited, instructed or represented. In a customer email, ‘we will contact you’ usually describes the company’s action; it is not a joint action by the company and the customer.

‘We will call tomorrow’ can be ‘Kami akan menelepon besok’ when your group will make the call and the reader is outside that group. A message proposing something you and the reader will do together instead calls for inclusive kita. Before translating a project update, label the team mentally: does the recipient belong to this particular we? Organizational membership alone is not enough if the sentence refers only to a smaller working group.

Keep English time information in the message

Indonesian does not conjugate a verb into an English-style past form. Time words and constructions expressing completion, progress or intention help locate an action. A translated verb can therefore look unchanged even when the message clearly describes yesterday. Do not add a different word merely because you cannot find an equivalent of English -ed.

The distinction between not and not yet is especially important in updates. ‘The package has not arrived yet’ can be ‘Paketnya belum tiba.’ Belum leaves the arrival outstanding, rather than simply making a timeless negative statement. In a support reply, retain words such as already, still, yet and tomorrow when they communicate the stage of an expected action. Removing them from the English original can change whether a customer should wait, follow up or assume the process has finished.

Do not carry English noun order across mechanically

A simple Indonesian descriptive phrase commonly places the noun before its adjective. ‘A new book’ can be ‘buku baru’. The change in order is normal and does not reverse which thing is new. Longer descriptions need the same attention: determine the central noun before judging which words describe it.

Possession can also follow the noun. A reference to your account, someone’s invoice or the company’s address should retain the correct owner even when the words occur in a different order. This matters when an English sentence contains two people’s documents. If several successive uses of his, her or their could refer to different owners, replace the ambiguous English pronoun with the intended name before translating.

Choose a relationship, not only a dictionary equivalent of ‘you’

Saya and aku, or Anda and kamu, do not have identical social uses. A familiar pronoun can sound different from the neutral or respectful tone intended in a first professional message. Indonesian may also address someone using an appropriate title or name rather than repeating a pronoun as often as English does.

For customer correspondence, keep the form of address consistent with the existing exchange. Do not turn every English you into the most casual available word. Review the recipient, the inclusive or exclusive group and the outstanding action together; those choices determine who is expected to do what, even when the English version sounded unambiguous to its writer.