VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Voice of Indonesia presents “Let’s Speak Bahasa Indonesia,” a lesson in the Indonesian language on the Radio. We introduce some Indonesian vocabulary and tips on how to use it in a conversation. This segment is a joint initiative of Voice of Indonesia and the Language and Book Development Agency of the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture.  Today’s topic is Boleh saya coba?  in English ‘May I try?’.

Read to this conversation about Boleh saya coba?  in English ‘May I try?’.

At the campus dance studio, Kevin sees Pak Darmaji playing the gamelan. Kevin is interested in asking Pak Darmadji to try to play it.

Now, I am going to introduce some vocabularies and expressions related to the topic today.

Usually, people in Indonesia ask for permission to someone by using the word boleh which means ‘may or can’.  The sentence, Boleh saya coba? Is used for spoken or informal language. If you want to say it politely, you can say Bolehkah saya mencoba? or Apakah saya boleh mencoba? which means may I try it?

To respond to the expression, you can say Tentu saja, which means you give the person permission to do it. While in a common situation, you can also  say Boleh, Boleh saja, Tentu saja boleh which means sure or  of course.

But if you want to refuse the permission, you can say Tidak boleh. More politely, you can say Maaf, tidak boleh which means ‘sorry, you may not’, sorry you can’t.

That was “Let’s Speak Bhs Indonesia”, a lesson in Bahasa Indonesia or the Indonesian language on the radio. Hopefully, this edition will be useful for those who want to know more about Bahasa Indonesia.