even / bahkan

Posted by Pak Guru on February 29th, 2016 | 0 comments | bahkan, culture, grammar, Indo English, transportation, vocabulary

Motorcyclists in Bali don’t seem to care about their own safety or other people’s. They weave in and out of traffic without leaving room to manoevre. They cut in front of cars and then brake hard. They ride on the pavement and on the wrong side of the road. Even they don’t wear helmets.

As in the example above, bahkan is often translated as even. However, whereas in Indonesian bahkan is positioned at the beginning of the sentence, in English even (meaning bahkan) is positioned in front of the verb:

• They don’t even wear helmets.

If you put even (meaning bahkan) at the beginning of the sentence, the IELTS examiner will understand you but you will get a low score for grammar. Many people might also be confused, because even is used in English at the beginning of a sentence together with though:

• Even though it is illegal not to wear a helmet, Balinese motorcyclists take their helmets off whenever they can.

In this example, even is a part of even though, and no longer carries the meaning of bahkan.