Breakdown of Saya membaca pesan itu sekilas, lalu mematikan telepon.
Questions & Answers about Saya membaca pesan itu sekilas, lalu mematikan telepon.
Both are possible, but they sound different.
- Saya membaca pesan itu… uses the meN- verb form (membaca), which is the most neutral/formal “standard” way to say to read in Indonesian.
- Saya baca pesan itu… (without meN-) is common in casual speech and feels more conversational.
So this sentence uses the more standard written/spoken form.
pesan itu literally means that message.
Indonesian demonstratives usually come after the noun:
- pesan ini = this message
- pesan itu = that message
Placing itu after the noun is the normal pattern (unlike English).
sekilas means something like briefly / at a glance / quickly.
It often answers “how” an action is done:
- membaca … sekilas = to read … quickly / skim-read
- It implies you didn’t read in detail, just glanced over it.
You can place sekilas after the verb phrase like here, and it sounds natural.
They’re very close.
- sekilas = at a glance, briefly (very common)
- sepintas = briefly, in passing (also common)
In many contexts, membaca … sekilas and membaca … sepintas both work, with only a small nuance difference (speaker preference and style).
lalu means then / after that and links the two actions in sequence:
Saya membaca… sekilas, lalu mematikan telepon.
= I skimmed the message, then (after that) I turned off the phone.
It’s a very common connector for chronological steps.
Indonesian often omits the repeated subject when it’s clearly the same person doing both actions.
So:
- Saya membaca…, lalu mematikan telepon. (natural)
- Saya membaca…, lalu saya mematikan telepon. (also correct, slightly more explicit)
The subject is understood to continue across the clause.
It can be ambiguous without context.
- mematikan telepon literally means turn off the phone (power off).
- For hang up, many speakers prefer:
- menutup telepon (end the call)
- memutuskan panggilan (disconnect/end the call)
- menutup panggilan (end the call)
So if the meaning is “hang up,” Indonesians often choose a different verb; if it’s “power off,” mematikan telepon is straightforward.
Because mati is typically intransitive (“to die / to be off”), while mematikan is transitive/causative (“to turn something off / to cause to die/off”).
- Teleponnya mati. = The phone is off / dead.
- Saya mematikan telepon. = I turned off the phone.
The meN- -kan form here expresses causing the phone to be off.
- telepon can mean telephone generally (could be a phone in general, sometimes a landline, sometimes a mobile depending on context).
- ponsel is specifically mobile phone (more formal).
- HP (said like “ha-pe”) is very common for mobile phone in everyday Indonesian.
So this sentence is fine, but if you want to be very clear it’s a mobile, you might see mematikan HP or mematikan ponsel.
Indonesian doesn’t mark tense the way English does. The sentence can be understood as past because it describes a sequence of completed actions, often from context.
If you want to make the past explicit, you could add a time marker:
- tadi = earlier (today)
- kemarin = yesterday
- barusan = just now
Example:
- Saya tadi membaca pesan itu sekilas, lalu mematikan telepon.
But the original sentence is already natural without explicit tense marking.
The comma is a writing choice to separate two clauses/actions, similar to English:
- First action: Saya membaca pesan itu sekilas
- Second action: lalu mematikan telepon
In informal writing, people might omit the comma; in more careful writing, it helps readability.
Yes, but it changes tone.
- Saya = neutral/polite/formal; safe in most situations
- Aku = more casual/intimate; common with friends, family, partners, or in narratives
So:
- Aku membaca pesan itu sekilas, lalu mematikan telepon. is natural in a casual setting.