Monday, March 14, 2011

How to use 'kita' and 'kami' correctly

In response to a reader's request, I shall deal with the difference between 'kita' and 'kami' in this post.

The pronoun 'kita' refers to the speaker, the person who listens to him and other people. You can remember it by the last letter 'a' for 'all'. For example, the world belongs to me, you and other people. Hence we can write a sentence such as the one below:

Dunia kita sedang mengalami pemanasan global.
[Our world is experiencing global warming.]

Look at another example as shown below.
Kita harus menghormati ibu bapa kita.
[We (all of us) should respect our parents.]

As for 'kami', you can remember its usage by this pneumonic: Kami -->The King and I
This pronoun refers to the speaker and other people other than the one who listens to him.

For example, if you are telling a friend of your experience climbing a mountain with your friends, then you would write something like this:
Kami mendaki Gunung Jerai pada minggu lalu.
[We (my friends and I) climbed Mount Jerai last week.]

Here is another example:

Semasa awak tiada di sini, kami sudah menyiapkan kerja ini.
[When you were not here, we (my friend s and I) had completed this job.]

I hope the above explanation and examples are useful in helping readers to use 'kita' and 'kami' correctly.

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