Thursday, March 25, 2010

The difference between 'menemui' and 'menemukan'

For today's post, I would like to discuss the difference between 'menemui' and 'menemukan'. Both words come from 'temu' which means 'meet'. You can write sentences such as the following with 'temu' and its prefixes.
1 Saya ingin bertemu dengan abangmu. [I would like to meet your brother.]
2 Krishnan menemui adiknya di pasar malam. [Krishnan met his younger brother at the night market.]

The word 'menemui' as in sentence 2 above means 'meet'. However, 'menemukan' does not mean 'meet'. It means 'discovered'. For example, you can write two sentences such as the ones below using the word 'menemukan'.
1 Pihak polis menemukan mayat itu di balik semak itu. [The police discovered the corpese behind the bushes.]
2 Ahli arkeologi menemukan alat yang diperbuat daripada tembikar di tempat itu. [Archeologist discovered tools made of porcelain at the place.]

To sum up, 'menemui' which means 'meet' is used for people whereas 'menemukan' which bears the meaning of 'discover' is used with things and corpse.

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