Questions & Answers about Kancing baju saya hilang.
In Indonesian, the typical pattern for possession or description is:
Head noun + modifying noun/pronoun
So:
- kancing = button (head noun)
- baju saya = my shirt (modifier that tells you which button)
kancing baju saya literally means the button of my shirt.
If you said baju saya kancing, it would be interpreted more like my shirt is buttoned (up), with baju saya as the subject and kancing trying (awkwardly) to act like a predicate. It doesn’t mean my shirt’s button.
baju can mean either:
- shirt/top (most common in everyday speech when context is clear), or
- clothing in a more general sense (but pakaian is more neutral for “clothes”).
In kancing baju saya hilang, the most natural reading is:
- baju saya = my shirt (or my top), so the whole sentence is The button of my shirt is missing.
Context decides whether baju is “shirt” or “clothes”, but with kancing, most people will imagine a shirt or blouse.
Indonesian normally shows possession by putting the possessor after the thing possessed:
- rumah saya = my house
- motor dia = his/her motorbike
- buku mereka = their book(s)
So:
- baju saya = my shirt, literally shirt I
You don’t say saya baju for my shirt; saya before a noun is usually the subject (Saya baju... would sound ungrammatical here).
You can say kancing dari baju saya hilang, and it will be understood as the button from my shirt is missing.
Difference in nuance:
kancing baju saya hilang
– Most natural and concise.
– Uses the usual noun–noun pattern to show possession: button (of) my shirt.kancing dari baju saya hilang
– Adds dari = from.
– Sounds a bit more explicit or explanatory, like the button from my shirt (not from something else) is missing.
– Still correct, just a bit longer and sometimes slightly more “spoken” or explanatory in feel.
For simple possession, Indonesian prefers the noun + noun/pronoun construction: kancing baju saya.
Indonesian often doesn’t use a separate verb for to be (like is/are) in simple descriptions.
Pattern:
Subject + adjective / stative verb
Examples:
- Dia sakit. = He/She is sick.
- Makanan itu enak. = That food is tasty.
So:
- Kancing baju saya = my shirt button
- hilang = missing, gone
Kancing baju saya hilang. = My shirt button is missing.
There is no separate is; hilang itself works as the predicate (“missing / has disappeared”).
In Indonesian, many words can function both like adjectives and like stative verbs. hilang is one of them.
- As a state or result: Dompet saya hilang. = My wallet is missing / has disappeared.
- As an event of disappearing: in some contexts it can mean to disappear, as in Tiba-tiba dia hilang. = Suddenly he disappeared.
In Kancing baju saya hilang, it mainly expresses the state/result:
- The button is gone / is missing.
You don’t need to decide “adjective vs verb” too strictly; what matters is that hilang functions as the predicate describing the situation.
Indonesian verbs and stative words like hilang are not marked for tense. Time is usually indicated by:
- Context, or
- Time words/particles such as tadi, kemarin, nanti, sudah, baru saja, etc.
So Kancing baju saya hilang could mean:
- My shirt button is missing. (present state, noticed now)
- My shirt button went missing. (past event, but result still relevant)
If you need to be explicit:
- Tadi kancing baju saya hilang. = My shirt button went missing earlier.
- Sudah hilang kancing baju saya. = My shirt button is already gone / has already gone missing.
By default, people infer the time from context.
The form kancing by itself is number-neutral:
- It can mean button or buttons, depending on context.
If you want to be precise:
- Satu kancing baju saya hilang. = One button of my shirt is missing.
- Beberapa kancing baju saya hilang. = Several buttons of my shirt are missing.
- Semua kancing baju saya hilang. = All the buttons of my shirt are missing.
- Kancing-kancing baju saya hilang. (or kancing baju saya semuanya hilang.) = The buttons of my shirt are missing (emphasis on plurality).
Without any marker, Kancing baju saya hilang is often understood as one or an unspecified number, depending on the situation.
Both can be translated as something like I lost the button of my shirt, but the focus is different.
Kancing baju saya hilang.
- Literal: The button of my shirt is missing/has disappeared.
- Focus: the button and its state (it is gone).
- More neutral, more about the object.
Saya kehilangan kancing baju saya.
- kehilangan = to suffer a loss / to lose (stative/experiential verb).
- Literal: I have lost the button of my shirt.
- Focus: I as the experiencer of losing something.
- Slightly more personal or dramatic: emphasizes your experience of the loss.
In everyday speech, Kancing baju saya hilang is more common for this simple situation.
yang introduces a relative clause or marks something as the item being specified.
- kancing baju saya yang hilang on its own means the button of my shirt that is missing.
It is usually part of a larger sentence, for example:
- Itu kancing baju saya yang hilang. = That is the button of my shirt that is missing.
- Tolong cari kancing baju saya yang hilang. = Please look for the button of my shirt that is missing.
Using yang changes hilang from being the main predicate into part of a clause that describes kancing baju saya.
So:
- Kancing baju saya hilang. = full sentence (The button is missing.)
- kancing baju saya yang hilang = noun phrase that needs a larger sentence.
saya is the neutral/formal word for I / my. You can swap it with other pronouns depending on formality and dialect:
- kancing baju saya hilang – neutral/polite
- kancing baju aku hilang – informal, friendly
- kancing baju gue hilang – very informal Jakarta slang
- kancing baju kita hilang – our button (inclusive “we”), context-dependent
The structure stays the same:
kancing + baju + [pronoun]
The change is mainly in register (formal vs informal) and regional flavor, not in grammar.