When to use it
Use it at a pharmacy (apotek) to ask whether a medicine is sold without a prescription.
The sentence in English — “Can I buy medicine without a prescription?”
"Can I buy medicine without a prescription?" moves "can" before "I" to ask, and "buy" follows without "to".
- Can
- auxiliary verbcan · tense: present · modal verb of ability or permission; it opens the question
- I
- pronounpersonal pronoun, always written with a capital letter
- buy
- verbbuy · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · main verb after "can"
- medicine
- noununcountable noun here, used in a general sense
- without
- prepositionpreposition
- a
- determinerindefinite article
- prescription
- nounnoun; a doctor's written order for medicine
The sentence in Indonesian — “Apakah saya bisa membeli obat tanpa resep dokter?”
"Apakah saya bisa membeli obat tanpa resep dokter?" keeps the normal order and adds "apakah" at the start to make it a question.
- Apakah
- particlequestion word that opens a yes/no question
- saya
- pronoun"I"
- bisa
- auxiliary verbbisa · form: root · "can"
- membeli
- verbbeli · form: mem- + beli · "buy"
- obat
- nounnoun: "medicine"
- tanpa
- preposition"without"
- resep
- nounnoun: "prescription"
- dokter
- nounnoun: "doctor"; "resep dokter" = doctor's prescription
English × Indonesian — What changes from one language to the other
English changes the word order to ask; Indonesian adds "apakah" and keeps the order. Indonesian says "resep dokter" (doctor's prescription) where English just says "prescription".
Example conversation
— Apakah saya bisa membeli obat ini tanpa resep dokter?
— Can I buy this medicine without a prescription?
— Bisa, obat ini dijual bebas.
— Yes, this one is sold over the counter.