Indonesian and Malay
The active form of a multisyllabic verb with an initial stop consonant or fricative consonant is formed by prefixing the verb stem with meN-, in which N stands for a nasal sharing the place of articulation as the initial consonant.
- garuk → menggaruk (= to scratch), hitung → menghitung (= to count),
- beri → memberi (= to give), fitnah → memfitnah (= to accuse falsely),
- cari → mencari (= to search), dapat → mendapat (= to obtain), *jangkau → menjangkau (= to reach)
If the initial consonant is an unvoiced stop or s, it disappears, leaving only the nasal in its place.
- kandung → mengandung (= to contain or to be pregnant),
- putih → memutih (= to turn white),
- satu → menyatu (= to become one / to unite),
- tulis → menulis (= to write).
Applied to verbs starting with a vowel, the nasal is realized as ng .
Monosyllabic verbs add an epenthetic vowel before prefixing, producing the prefix menge-.
- bor (= boring tool / drill) → mengebor (= to make a hole with drill).
Verbs starting with a nasal or approximant consonant do not add the mutant nasal at all, just me-.
Read more about this topic: Consonant Mutation
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