Actors usually appear before the verb in SVO order; voice morphology can shift focus.

In basic English clauses, the actor is usually before the verb and can trigger subject-verb agreement.

Events are usually expressed by verbs that do not inflect for tense or person.

English events are centered on verbs, often supported by auxiliaries for tense, aspect, voice, or questions.

Targets normally follow the verb, but passive-like forms can place the target first.

English usually identifies the affected target by position after the verb, with pronoun case still visible in forms like him and her.

Participants are usually uninflected nouns or pronouns; articles, gender and case are not required.

English participants are usually expressed as noun phrases or pronouns, often with articles and number marking.

Present-tense states often use no visible copula; ada marks existence or presence.

English usually requires the verb 'be' for states, locations, existence, and many descriptions.

Identity can use no copula, while adalah is used for clearer or more formal classification.

English identity and classification commonly use 'be', often with an article before singular count nouns.

Indonesian often uses topic-comment style without a separate topic marker.

English has topic-comment patterns, but ordinary subject-verb-object order is more common than strong topic marking.

Recipients may be expressed by word order, kepada/untuk, or verb morphology such as -kan.

English marks recipients with double-object order or with prepositions such as to and for.

Experiencers are often normal subjects, but feelings and states may use specific predicate patterns.

English often puts the experiencer as the subject, but some patterns use objects or prepositional phrases.

Instruments are commonly introduced with dengan; channels may use lewat or melalui.

English usually expresses instruments with prepositions, especially with.

Time is usually shown by time words or phrases, not by tense endings.

English uses time adverbs and prepositions such as at, on, in, for, and since to locate events in time.

Indonesian has no grammatical tense; past, present and future are inferred from markers like sudah or akan and context.

English finite verbs normally show present or past tense; future is usually expressed with auxiliaries or context.