Monday, January 10, 2011

The wrong usage of 'dari'

Last Sunday, I was travelling by bus to Balik Pulau. Inside the bus, I happened to catch sight of a notice bearing these words 'Kami mengalu-alukan sebarang cadangan / maklum balas dari anda untuk meningkatkan perkhidmatan RapidPenang.' [We welcome any suggestion / feedback from you to upgrade RapidPenang's service.]

The preposition 'dari' is wrongly used here. 'Dari' (from) can only be used for Arah (Direction), Tempat (Place) and Masa (Time). The following are sentences showing its correct usage.
1 Angin kencang bertirup dari timur ke barat. [Strong wind blew the east to the west.]
2 Lelaki itu datang dari Ipoh. [The man came from Ipoh.]
3 Pekerja itu bekerja dari hari Isnin hingga hari Jumaat. [The worker works from Monday to Friday.]

In the above notice, 'anda' (you) is a person. Hence, the correct preposition to be used is 'daripada' which can be used for persons.

The corrected notice should have been worded as follows:
'Kami mengalu-alukan sebarang cadangan / maklum balas daripada anda untuk meningkatkan perkhidmatan RapidPenang.]

No comments: