be glad to receive it. 8 I am going to move from this town. 9 I have lived here for thirteen years. 10 You ought to look for a well on this hill. 11 I have looked, but have not yet found one. 12 This is the man who went into your house the day before yesterday. 13 I have not looked for it yet.
LESSON X.
The Verb “ada.”
50. The verb ada is not by any means the exact equivalent of the English verb “to be.”
We have already seen that when the verb “to be” is the copula, and has no other value than to assert some attribute of the noun, it is not expressed in Malay.
Whenever the verb “to be” asserts presence or existence it must be expressed by ada, as,
ada orang dalam rumah, there is a man in the house.
51. Owing to the fact that ada has this somewhat restricted meaning, it is sufficient in itself to express presence, where in English it is necessary to use such words as “here” or “present”; thus, “Your carriage is here,” should be translated simply tuan punya kreta ada.
52. Ada is often used impersonally where in English the verb “to have” is used; for instance, “if you have a knife” should be translated kalau ada pisau, literally "if there is a knife"; “I have a knife,” pisau ada, etc. If it is necessary to express the pronoun or the noun, the same construction may be used with the addition of the preposition pada, thus, ada dua pasang kasut pada-ya, he has two pair of shoes. Colloquially sama is often used in place of pada, as, surat itu ada sama tuan, you have the letter.
53. When used as an auxiliary verb, ada expresses continuance of action, as,
orang ada datang, people are coming.
54. Ada introduces a subject, and is then placed at the beginning of the sentence, and means “there was,” “it happened that,” and so forth.
ada dua orang yang pergi itu,
there were two men who went.
