Originally posted by: Rick392366 https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/29750500
adalah /ada·lah/ v
1 identik dengan: Pancasila -- falsafah bangsa Indonesia;
2 sama maknanya dengan: Desember -- bulan kedua belas;
3 termasuk dalam kelompok atau golongan: saya -- pengagum Ki Hajar Dewantara
Translation of the KBBI definition:
"identik dengan" = "identical to"
"sama maknanya dengan" = "same meaning as"
"termasuk dalam kelompok atau golongan" = "included in a group"
All three example sentences can be translated with "to be":
"Pancasila is the philosophy of the Indonesian nation."
"December is the twelfth month."
"I am an admirer of Ki Hajar Dewantara."
"adalah" & "ialah" (copulas, linking verbs) are used in non verbal clauses, and the use is optional.
"ialah" can only be used for 3rd person subjects.
The subject and the predicate are usually nouns/noun phrases (see KBBI examples).
'adalah' is placed between the subject and predicate.
The word order is as follows : [subject] + "adalah" + [predicate]
"Pancasila falsafah bangsa Indonesia"
"Pancasila adalah falsafah bangsa Indonesia"
"Desember bulan kedua belas"
"Desember adalah bulan kedua belas"
"Saya pengagum Ki Hajar Dewantara"
"Saya adalah pengagum Ki Hajar Dewantara"
"adalah" is often replaced by "merupakan".
Please note that these two words do not have the exact same meaning.
One of the (but not all) meanings of merupakan is "adalah".
They are not completely interchangeable