Ayah membelikan saya es krim di supermarket.

My father buys me ice cream at the supermarket.

Breakdown of Ayah membelikan saya es krim di supermarket.

• di: at
• ayah: the father
• supermarket: the supermarket
• saya: me
• es krim: the ice cream
• membelikan: to buy for

Questions & Answers about Ayah membelikan saya es krim di supermarket.

What is the difference between membeli and membelikan here?

Membeli = to buy (something).
Membelikan = to buy (something) for someone.

So:

• Ayah membeli es krim di supermarket.
  = Father bought ice cream at the supermarket. (No explicit “for whom”)

• Ayah membelikan saya es krim di supermarket.
  = Father bought me ice cream at the supermarket. (clearly for me)

The suffix -kan on membelikan marks that the action is done for someone’s benefit (a “benefactive” meaning).

How is the verb membelikan formed from the base word?

The base (root) is beli (to buy).

Formation:

• meN- prefix + beli → membeli (to buy)
  
  • The N in meN- assimilates to mb before b, giving mem
    • beli → membeli.
• membeli
  • -kan → membelikan (to buy for someone)

So morphologically: beli → membeli → membelikan.

Why is it “membelikan saya es krim” and not “membelikan es krim saya”?

Word order changes the meaning:

• Ayah membelikan saya es krim.
  = Father bought me ice cream.
  (Subject – Verb – indirect object (saya) – direct object (es krim))

• Ayah membelikan es krim saya.
  = Father bought my ice cream.
  Here, es krim saya is understood as “my ice cream” (a possessed noun phrase), not “ice cream for me”.

So:

• To say “bought me ice cream”, put the person right after membelikan:
  membelikan saya es krim
• If you put saya after the noun, it usually means possession:
  es krim saya = my ice cream

Can saya be omitted in this sentence?

Grammatically, yes, but the meaning becomes less specific.

• Ayah membelikan saya es krim di supermarket.
  = Father bought me ice cream.

• Ayah membelikan es krim di supermarket.
  = Father bought ice cream at the supermarket (for someone, or in general; the beneficiary is not stated).

Because membelikan naturally suggests doing it for someone, listeners may guess the “someone” from context, but if you want to be clear it’s you, keep saya.

Can I use aku, -ku, or untuk saya instead of saya? What changes?

Yes, you can, with differences in formality and style:

1. Aku (informal pronoun)

   • Ayah membelikan aku es krim di supermarket.
     Informal, sounds like you’re talking to friends/family.

2. -ku (attached to the verb or noun)

   • Ayah membelikanku es krim di supermarket.
     Very natural and quite common in speech and informal writing.
     Literally: “Father bought-for-me ice cream …”

3. Using untuk

   • pronoun
   • Ayah membeli es krim untuk saya.
   • Ayah membeli es krim untukku.
     Here the verb is just membeli, and untuk saya/untukku means “for me”.

Compare:

• Ayah membelikan saya es krim.
• Ayah membeli es krim untuk saya.

Both mean nearly the same (“Father bought me ice cream”), just different structures.
Saya is more formal; aku/-ku more informal/intimate.

Why do we say di supermarket and not ke supermarket?

• di = at / in (location where something happens)
• ke = to (movement towards a place)

In Ayah membelikan saya es krim di supermarket, di supermarket tells us where the buying took place.

If you focus on the movement, you’d say:

• Ayah pergi ke supermarket untuk membelikan saya es krim.
  = Father went to the supermarket to buy me ice cream.

So:

• Action location → di supermarket
• Direction / destination → ke supermarket

Does Ayah here mean “my father”? Why is it capitalized?

Yes, in this sentence Ayah functions like “Father / Dad”, referring to your own father, not just any father.

In Indonesian:

• When a kinship term is used like a name or title, it is often capitalized:
  • Ayah, Ibu, Bapak, Mama, Kak, etc.
• When it’s used as a common noun, it’s usually lowercase:
  • ayah saya = my father
  • ayahnya = his/her father

So:

• Ayah membelikan saya es krim.
  ≈ “Father bought me ice cream.”

• Ayah saya membelikan saya es krim.
  More explicit: “My father bought me ice cream.” (here ayah is often lowercase in practice, but Ayah saya is also seen)

Could I say “Ayahku membelikan saya es krim di supermarket” instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, that’s correct:

• Ayahku membelikan saya es krim di supermarket.
  = My father bought me ice cream at the supermarket.

Differences:

• Ayah (capitalized, standing alone) already implies “my father” in many contexts.
• Ayahku is explicitly “my father” (ayah
  • -ku = my father), a bit more personal/possessive.

Both are natural; context and style decide which feels better. In conversation, both are common.

Is es krim one word or two? And what does es mean by itself?

Standard Indonesian writes it as two words: es krim.

• es = ice
• krim = cream (from English cream)

So literally “ice cream”, just like English.

Other common es combinations:

• es teh = iced tea
• es kopi = iced coffee
• es jeruk = iced orange drink

You may sometimes see eskrim as one word informally (brand names, ads), but standard spelling is es krim.

How do we know this sentence is in the past? There’s no tense marker.

Indonesian verbs usually do not change form for tense. Membelikan itself has no past/present/future form.

The time is understood from:

• Context (what you’re talking about)
• Time words, if needed:
  • tadi = earlier, a moment ago
  • kemarin = yesterday
  • nanti = later
  • besok = tomorrow

Examples:

• Tadi Ayah membelikan saya es krim di supermarket.
  = Earlier, Father bought me ice cream at the supermarket.

• Besok Ayah akan membelikan saya es krim di supermarket.
  = Tomorrow Father will buy me ice cream at the supermarket.

Without extra words, Ayah membelikan saya es krim di supermarket is often understood as past or habitual, depending on context.

Can this sentence be made passive? How would it sound and what changes in nuance?

Yes. Common passive versions:

1. Saya dibelikan es krim (oleh Ayah) di supermarket.
   = I was bought ice cream (by Father) at the supermarket.

   • Focus is now on saya (the one who benefits).
   • oleh Ayah can be omitted if obvious:
     Saya dibelikan es krim di supermarket.

2. Less common but possible if you focus on the ice cream:

   • Es krim dibelikan Ayah untuk saya di supermarket.
     = The ice cream was bought by Father for me at the supermarket.

Nuance:

• Active (Ayah membelikan saya es krim) focuses on what Father did.
• Passive (Saya dibelikan es krim oleh Ayah) focuses on what happened to me / what I received.

Are there other verbs like membelikan that mean “do X for someone” with -kan?

Yes. Many meN- + root + -kan verbs have a benefactive meaning: “do something for someone”. For example:

• memasakkan

  • Ibu memasakkan saya nasi goreng.
    = Mom cooked fried rice for me.

• membuatkan

  • Dia membuatkan saya kopi.
    = He/She made me coffee.

• menuliskan

  • Dia menuliskan saya sebuah surat.
    = He/She wrote me a letter.

• mencarikan

  • Teman saya mencarikan saya apartemen.
    = My friend looked for an apartment for me.

Membelikan fits the same pattern: beli → membelikan = buy (something) for someone.