LCGC cars - enough expensive

When enough is too much

Owners of LCGC cars spend additional money on car tax which is expensive enough for middle income families.
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Enough, not enough, and too often get lost in translation from the Indonesian cukup, tidak cukup, and terlalu.

In English these words are used to evaluate situations that have either positive or negative outcomes, as shown in the examples below.

Negative Outcome

If you are female and wish to work as a flight attendant with Garuda, then you are required to be at least 163cm tall. If you are less than 163cm tall, then you are not tall enough for the job. What a pity - you are too short!
enough is too much

Positive Outcome

You are female, 164cm tall. You are tall enough to be a flight attendant with Garuda. If you attend interview, they will offer you the job.

Now lets review the positives and negatives:

  • enough - positive
  • not enough - negative
  • too - negative

If I say that car tax is expensive enough for middle income families then I'm making a positive evaluation about a negative situation.

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The problem is that in Bahasa Indonesia, enough can behave rather like very as a way to intensify an adjective.

In the car tax example, very would create a more negative evaluation of the situation, and that's what we need:

Owners of LCGC cars spend additional money on car tax which is very expensive for middle income families.

Many thanks to Desy and Ratih (photo) for agreeing to be photographed and for filling me in on the rules!