Singularity on the Plane

In bahasa Indonesia, “sana” literally means “there” like this sentence shows:

(1) Nanti malem aku bakal ke sana.
- I will go there tonight.

However, another of its important use is to make a casual yet strong command. Some example sentences:

(1) Kerjain PR sana!
- Go do your homework!

(2) Sana main di luar!
- Go play outside!

(3) Mandi dulu sana!
- Go take a bath first!

As can be seen, “sana” can be put either at the front or the end of the sentence. It has a sense of urgency, e.g. “do it immediately”. It also implies anger or annoyance on the speaker’s part, and the speaker won’t really accept a “no”. If you want to associate “sana” with its literal meaning “there”, you can remember it as having the connotation “go there and do what I told”.

It’s used when there is a very close relationship between the speaker and the one commanded, where such strong words are acceptable. Examples include a parent telling their child and a boy being angry towards his older sister.

- Jangan ngenet mulu, belajar sana!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 8:31 pm by Agro Rachmatullah and is filed under Bahasa Indonesia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.