Paying (for) basic needs

Posted by Pak Guru on November 17th, 2016 | 0 comments | bayar, coherence, IELTS, Indo English, speaking, writing

In Australia I will need a lot of money to pay my basic needs.

This is obviously a translation problem.

• If I pay the shopkeeper, I give money to the shopkeeper.
• If I pay for the bananas, I give money to the shopkeeper.
• If I pay the shopkeeper for the bananas, I give money to the shopkeeper.
• If I pay the bananas, I give money to the bananas!

Indonesian has different word forms to communicate different meanings – bayar, bayar kepada, bayari, and bayarkan. English, on the other hand, only has ‘pay’ and ‘pay for’:

1. Pay the man. ( bayar kepada)
2. Pay for the bananas. ( bayar)
3. Pay for my coffee, would you? ( bayari)
4. When you’re in town could you pay my electricity bill for me? Here’s the money. ( bayarkan)

In the first picture (below), a man is paying a woman for some vegetables:

In the next illustration, a man is paying some fruit and vegetables. He’s giving money to the fruit and vegetables: