Lesson 39 Untuk (For)  

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A second reading (by Muhammad Nor Ismat, a native speaker)

Ada surat untuk saya? - Ya, ini dia. Ini untuk siapa? - Untuk anda. Dia simpan wang untuk beli kereta baru.

Is there a letter for me? Yes, here it is. Who is this for? For you. He is saving money to buy a new car.

surat = a letter siapa = who simpan = to keep/save wang = money beli = to buy baru = new

Note that in the above answer Ya, ini dia don't try to see whether dia here stands for "he" or "she". It stands for neither as ini dia is an expression meaning "here it is" or "voilà" in French.

Further examples:
Saya ada hadiah untuk anda. (I have a gift for you.)
Surat ini untuk siapa? - Untuk dia. (Who is this letter for? - For him.)



In colloquial Malay the word untuk in all the above sentences where a person is the recipient can be replaced by bagi. So the above sentences become:
Ada surat bagi saya? (Is there a letter for me?)
Saya ada hadiah bagi anda. (I have a gift for you.)
Surat ini bagi siapa? - Bagi dia. (Who is this letter for? - For him.)

Note: bagi saya can also mean "as for me" eg. Bagi saya, perkara itu tidak berapa mustahak. (= As for me, that matter is not too important.)

Please note that you should not translate "for" (when indicating a period of time) by using the word "untuk" as you might think if you should translate it from English. Thus you should not translate "I have been studying Malay for 6 months" as Saya sudah belajar bahasa Melayu untuk enam bulan. In this case you should use "selama" for "for" when you are expressing a period of time. Thus the above sentence should be translated as Saya sudah belajar bahasa Melayu selama enam bulan.

ENGLISH	INDONESIAN	MALAY
He is saving money to buy a new car.	Dia simpan uang untuk beli mobil baru.	Dia simpan wang untuk beli kereta baru.
important	penting	mustahak

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