Saya memutar video pendek di komputer.

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Breakdown of Saya memutar video pendek di komputer.

• saya: I
• pendek: short
• di: on

Questions & Answers about Saya memutar video pendek di komputer.

What does memutar mean exactly, and what is its base form?

Memutar is a verb that literally comes from the base verb putar, which means to turn / to rotate something.
With the prefix me-, memutar often means:

• to turn something (physically), or
• to play media (a video, a song, a film) by “turning”/running it.

So in this sentence, memutar means to play (a short video) on a device.
The me- prefix makes it an active verb: Saya memutar… = I play / I am playing…

Why is the prefix me- written as mem- in memutar, not just meputar?

Indonesian adjusts the me- prefix depending on the first letter of the root word:

• Before p, me- becomes mem-, and the p is usually dropped.

Base form: putar
With me-: me- + putar → memutar (not meputar and not *mep*utar).

So memutar is just the regular, phonetic form of me- + putar.

What is the difference between memutar video and menonton video?

Both can appear in similar contexts, but they focus on different actions: