Saturday, December 5, 2009

The difference between 'pertambahan' and 'penambahan'

Students of the Malay language often get confused when it comes to the usage of 'pertambahan' and 'penambahan'. In this post, I will try to enlighten readers how to remember and differentiate them.

The first word 'pertambahan' (the increase)has connection with 'bertambah' which is an intransitive verb. For example, "Kes kemalangan di jalan raya semakin bertambah." [Accient cases on the road keep increasing.]As a noun, 'pertambahan' can be replaced with 'bertambahnya' (the additionn of 'nya' turns 'bertambah' into a noun) Look at the following sentences:
a) Pertambahan kes demam denggi membimbangkan penduduk di sana. [The increase of dengue fever cases worries the people there.]
b) Bertambahnya kes demam denggi membimbangkan penduduk di sana. [The increase of dengue fever cases worries the people there.]

As for 'penambahan' which means 'addition', it has connection with the transitive verb 'menambah' (to increase)

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