Eh Meaning In Indonesian

Halo semuanya, apa kabar? Ketemu lagi dengan saya, Iman Prabawa. This time, I'm going to talk about the meaning of the word [eh] in the Indonesian language. As always, we will watch scenes from Indonesian movies where this word [eh] is spoken to better understand this word's meaning.

If you have any questions regarding the Indonesian language, you can ask me directly. You can see how to do that on my About Me page. 

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!

The Meaning of Eh In the Indonesian Language

[Eh] in the Indonesian language can have a few meanings. The first meaning of [eh]. [Eh] is usually used to get someone's attention. For example, if you want to talk a someone, then you can begin with this word [eh]. It's like [oi] or [hey] in English. 

Example sentence:

Eh, gue mau ngomong sama loe deh. (Hey, I want to talk to you about something.)

Here is the audio version from the sentence above.

The second meaning of [eh]. [Eh] is used when you suddenly remember something to add when you're talking or writing. We can see the example like in this photo below.

He said, "Eh, satu lagi.." and then he continues the sentence. In this example, it means that he suddenly remembered something.

Eh, satu lagi... Ada yang tanya, "Kalau ada kerjaan lain yang lebih fun, mau nggak pindah? (One more thing... There is someone who asks, "If there is another job, that's more fun. Do you want to move?)

Let's hear the audio version below.

The third meaning of [eh]. [Eh] is used when we are surprised by something or there is something that surprises us. We can see this in the photo below.

The sentence in the picture above with English translation is as follows.

Lagi enak makan, eh.. dikerjain habis sama Ferdians. (Just enjoying the food, but then they got pranked by Ferdians.)

And here is the audio version of the sentence.

So, from these examples, we can see that [eh] is actually has no meaning.

How to Pronounce Eh

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

Next, we're going to watch scenes from movies where this [eh] is spoken.

Eh In Movie Scenes

The first scene is taken from a famous movie in Indonesia called Dilan 1990. Let's watch the scene down below.

The conversation in the scene above with English translations is as follows.

Milea: Eh, kamu tahu ngga? Masa tadi pagi aku diramal sama anak yang pake motor? (Hey, you know what? This morning, there was a boy riding a motorbike, and he told me my fortune.)

Rani: Diramal gimana? (Telling your fortune how?)

Milea: Katanya bakal ketemu dia di kantin. (He said that I'm going to meet him at the cafeteria.)

Rani: Siapa? (Who?)

Milea: Ngga kenal. (I don't know.)

Rani: Jadi ke kantin ngga nih? (So, you wanna go to the cafeteria or not?)

Milea: Ngga ah. (I don't think so.)

As you can see in this scene, Milea says [eh] before she said something to Rani. She was trying to get Rani's attention by saying [eh]. It's like [hey] in English, in this case.

     Read also: Enak Aja Meaning In the Indonesian Language

So, I think this is all for now. If I find another scene from another movie, Insha Allah, I will update this article again. If you have any questions regarding this topic, just put it in the comment section down below, and I'll be happy to answer your questions. Bye now.