Tuan in the Indonesian Language

Halo semuanya. Apa kabar? Ketemu lagi dengan saya, Iman Prabawa. This time, I want to talk to you about the meaning of [tuan] in the Indonesian language, and as always, we will watch scenes from movies where the word [tuan] is spoken. 

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 talk about the meaning of the [tuan].

Meaning of Tuan in the Indonesian Language

[Tuan] is an honorific title to address someone who is a man who has people working for him or a man in charge of an organization or group.

[Tuan] sometimes collocates with other words, and then the meaning also changes. [Tuan] collocates with words such as tuan raja (the king), tuan ratu (the queen), tuan muda (the son of a man who has people working for him), tuan rumah (host), tuan tanah (landlord).

Examples of Tuan In Use

In this section, I will gather examples that I found spoken in movies, videos, and whatnot, so you can see for yourself how it is used in a sentence and in what kind of situations.

The first clip we are about to watch is taken from a movie called Sin (2019).

Conversation from the scene with English translations is as follows.

The man: Seperti yang nona tahu, tuan itu sangat mementingkan keamanan nona dan orang-orang di sekitar nona. Tuan telah memerintahkan saya untuk menjaga nona 24 jam penuh. (As you may know, master attaches great importance to the safety of you and the people around her. Master has commanded me to look after you 24/7.)

Metta: Gue bukan boneka tuan loe. Jadi, gue bakalan terus bikin masalah sampe tuan loe ngadep gue. (I'm not your master's puppet. So, I'm going to keep making trouble until your master shows up here in person.)

In this scene, this man was ordered by someone who pays him to look after her 24/7. So, the person that is called [tuan] here is a person who pays this man in this scene. He pays him to look after her. That's why he calls him [tuan].

Vocabulary From the Scene

[Seperti yang nona tahu..] = [Seperti yang Anda tahu..] = [Seperti yang Anda ketahui..] <--- This phrase is used to make sure that the person you are saying knows the fact.

[Mementingkan] = me+penting+kan = attach great importance to something. The base word here is [penting] which means important.

[Keamanan] = safety.

[Orang-orang] = people.

[Memerintahkan] = me+perintah+kan. [Memerintahkan] has the same meaning as [memberi perintah] = to give an order, to give a command. The base word here is [perintah], which means command.

[Menjaga] = me+jaga = to look after.

[24 jam penuh] = 24/7.

[Gue] is informal for [saya] = I. For more about this, you can read this article, Gue in the Indonesian Language.

[Loe] is informal for [Anda] = you. For more about this, you can read this article, Loe in the Indonesian Language.

[Bikin] is the colloquial way of saying [membuat] = to make.

[Sampe] is the colloquial way of saying [sampai] = until.

[Ngadep] is the colloquial way of saying [menghadap]. Menghadap = me+hadap. [Menghadap] means to meet in person.

So, I guess this is going to wrap up for now. If I find another scene where this word [tuan] is spoken, Insha Allah, I will update this article again. Bye now.