Aja Meaning In Indonesian

Halo semuanya, apa kabar? This time, I'm going to talk about the meaning of the word [aja] in the Indonesian language. As always, we're going to watch a scene from a movie where this word [aja] is spoken.

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If you are a beginner in the Indonesian language, you can learn step by step with My Lesson Here.

So, without further ado, let's dive in!

Aja In the Indonesian Language

[Aja] is a common reduction for [saja]. It means only, just, merely. You will hear [aja] being spoken a lot in daily conversation in Indonesia. In daily conversation, native Indonesian speakers tend to drop letters or words; in this case, [saja] becomes [aja].

Sometimes [aja] doesn't have any meaning at all. It functions only to emphasize. I will give you an example sentence for this. But first, I will explain the situation. Imagine you want to buy clothes, for example, and then you are confused between the two choices in front of you, and then you ask your friend which one you should pick.

You: Menurut loe yang mana? Ini apa yang itu? (What do you think? This or that?)

Your friend: Yang ini aja. Kalau gue ya. (This one. If I were you.)

In this situation, actually [aja] means nothing. Its function is just to emphasize that you should choose this one instead of that one.

How to Pronounce Aja

Let's hear how to pronounce [aja] in the video below.

Next, we will watch clips where this word [aja] is spoken.

Examples of Aja In Use

The first clip we are about to watch is from a serial TV called Tetangga Masa Gitu (2014-2017). Let's watch the clip below.

What he said in the clip with English translations is as follows.

Bastian: Hari libur di rumah aja nih, mas? (Just staying in the house on holiday like this, mas?)

In this scene, Bastian and Adi are neighbors. On the weekend, when they don't go to work, Bastian goes outside his house and sees Adi is there, and then Bastian says the sentence above to Adi.

As you can see in the scene, Bastian drops the letter [s] in [saja] and just pronounces it [aja] instead of [saja].

Vocabulary Explanations

[Hari] = day

[Libur] = holiday, day off.

[Rumah] = house.

[Nih] is usually used when you are giving something to someone. It's like saying [there you go] in English, but in this scene, [nih] has no meaning at all. You can just omit it, and the meaning doesn't change.

[Mas] is an honorific title that addresses men older than us. You can read more about this in this article, Mas Meaning In the Indonesian Language.

So, I think that's all for now, and if I find another scene where this word [aja] is spoken, Insha Allah, I will update this article again so that you can see other sentences that use the word [aja]. Bye now.