Questions & Answers about Saya benar-benar lelah hari ini.
What does each word in Saya benar-benar lelah hari ini mean literally, and what’s a natural translation in English?
Word by word:
- saya = I / me (formal or neutral)
- benar-benar = really / truly / genuinely
- lelah = tired / exhausted
- hari = day
- ini = this
Literal structure: I really tired this day.
Natural English: I’m really tired today.
Where is the verb “am” in this sentence? Why is there no separate word for “am”?
Indonesian does not need a separate verb like “am/is/are” when linking a subject to an adjective.
- Saya lelah literally: I tired → means I am tired.
- In Saya benar-benar lelah hari ini, lelah functions as the “predicate” (what you are), so there’s no extra verb.
You can add adalah in some sentences (e.g. Saya adalah guru = I am a teacher), but adalah is not used before adjectives like lelah.
So no extra word is needed: the structure [subject] + [adjective] already means [subject] + “to be” + [adjective].
What exactly does benar-benar mean here, and how is it different from sangat, sekali, or banget?