When should articles be used in Bahasa Indonesia?
I am learning Indonesian and have a good understanding of how to use articles, such as the definite article "itu" and the many indefinite articles (sebuah, seorang, seekor, sebutir, etc.). However, I am not too clear on when they should be used. It seems as though they are used minimally in the language, but are there times when it is necessary to use them? I get that for a sentence such as "the man is standing", it should be "pria itu sedang berdiri", but it seems if I wanted to say "the man is standing on the table", I could simply say "pria itu sedang berdiri di atas meja", without using "meja itu". Also, if I want to say "he is riding a bike", I can say "dia sedang mengendarai sepeda" without saying "sebuah sepeda". Is it a matter of formal vs. informal speech or are there more subtle rules that I'm just not understanding?

Question

When should articles be used in Bahasa Indonesia?
I am learning Indonesian and have a good understanding of how to use articles, such as the definite article "itu" and the many indefinite articles (sebuah, seorang, seekor, sebutir, etc.).  However, I am not too clear on when they should be used.  It seems as though they are used minimally in the language, but are there times when it is necessary to use them?  I get that for a sentence such as "the man is standing", it should be "pria itu sedang berdiri", but it seems if I wanted to say "the man is standing on the table", I could simply say "pria itu sedang berdiri di atas meja", without using "meja itu".  Also, if I want to say "he is riding a bike", I can say "dia sedang mengendarai sepeda" without saying "sebuah sepeda".  Is it a matter of formal vs. informal speech or are there more subtle rules that I'm just not understanding?

Answer

its all just the same ( that bike matter ) , "sebuah ( a )" means there's only 1 object and " beberapa ( some ) " means there's many object , if u used it on "he is riding a bike" it means " dia mengendarai sepeda / dia mengandarai sebuah sepeda " both are right .because its just to stressed it if it just a bike not some bike , sorry for my bad english .

Answer

all you write is right and that's a formal one

Answer

actually "the table" not means " meja itu " its more like just "meja" , but if u used " meja itu" that will be " that table " not "the table"

Answer

Thank you for questions like this.  It opens my eyes to how deceptively difficult Bahasa Indonesia is to non-native and how I as a native speaker take it for granted.  When I learned english many moons ago, I found out quickly how important articles are in that language and my inofficial mentor (husband, native speaker) teased me because I put 'the' and 'a/an' in all the wrong places..  I still sometimes forget to use either.  For Indonesians, articles aren't particularly important unless you are trying to put an emphasis on a certain subject.  In your example above, you want to put 'itu' after 'pria' because you are not talking about any man in general.  In the formal indonesian, we use 'tersebut' as in 'pria tersebut' or, in english you use 'said man' - if that helps to clarify the difference of the view and use of articles from both languages.  Same thing with using seekor ayam as opposed to just ayam.  The use of 'seekor' emphasizes that there is only one chicken in particular instead of referring to chicken in general like .kucingku suka mengejar ayam' (my cat likes to chase chickens).  On another note... .Itu' can stand for verb is/are, like 'Bobby itu teman saya' (Bobby is my friend) - rarely/never do native Indonesia speakers use 'adalah' which is the direct translation of is/are.