sudah / udah

In Indonesian, markers like sudah and udah can clarify how an event or state relates to the reference point. They are not compulsory merely because there is no grammatical tense inflection.

1. Placement: These markers are placed before the predicate (the verb or adjective). For example, sudah makan (have eaten) or sudah besar (already big).

2. Register Differences:

• Sudah: This is the 'Baku' (standard) form. It fits essays and formal emails as well as ordinary conversation; it is not limited to formal or deferential speech.
• Udah: This is the 'Gaul' (colloquial) form. It is common in colloquial Indonesian, though regional preferences differ. The shorter conversational form dah also occurs.

3. Beyond 'Already':
Sudah can also mean 'enough' or 'stop.' If someone is bothering you, saying Sudah! means 'That's enough!' It is also used with adjectives to show a change in state (e.g., sudah siap means 'already ready' or 'has become ready').

4. Comparison with 'Telah':
You might see telah in literature or news. Telah is characteristic of formal or literary usage and commonly marks a completed event. In a neutral short answer to Sudah makan?, use Sudah; standalone Telah is not the ordinary response pattern. Deliberately literary or quoted speech is a different context.

Register and Experience: Saya telah makan, teman is interpretable but literary beside conversational Aku udah makan. Pemerintah udah membuat aturan baru is conversational; edited news normally uses sudah. Neither contrast is a universal grammatical ban. Saya sudah ke Bali sepuluh tahun yang lalu can be meaningful with a suitable past reference point. Pernah ke Bali explicitly presents a prior visit as an experience; it is not a correction that justifies deleting the original ten-years-ago information. Sudah does not mean recent, and can combine with pernah.