Why "She Teacher" Is Wrong: The Am/Is/Are, There Is/There Are, and Adjective Order Cheat Sheet

Take a look at this sentence: "She teacher." Does it sound reasonable to you? If it does, that's completely understandable — in Indonesian, "Dia guru" doesn't need a verb at all. But in English, that sentence is wrong. The correct version is "She is a teacher."

This is one of the most common mistakes Indonesian speakers make, and the reason makes perfect sense: Indonesian has no "to be" verb. English does, and you're required to use it in almost every sentence. This article covers three basic rules connected to "to be" — am/is/are, there is/there are, and adjective order — in a cheat-sheet format you can reopen any time you forget.

1. Am, Is, Are — The Verb That Must Be There

In Indonesian, "Saya lapar" (I hungry) needs no connecting verb. In English, you must add am/is/are — the sentence "I hungry" is not grammatically correct; it has to be "I am hungry."

Subject	Affirmative	Negative	Question
I	I am	I am not / I'm not	Am I...?
He / She / It	he is	he isn't / he's not	Is he...?
You / We / They	you are	you aren't / you're not	Are you...?

Examples: I am a student. She isn't tired. Are they at home?

💡 Memory trick for Indonesian speakers: any time your Indonesian sentence has NO verb — usually the "Saya [adjective/noun]" pattern, like "Saya lapar," "Dia guru," "Mereka siswa" — that's your signal English needs am/is/are filling that exact slot. When in doubt, imagine inserting "adalah" into the Indonesian sentence ("Saya adalah lapar" sounds odd, but the trick helps you notice there's a verb slot English requires you to fill).

2. There Is / There Are — Saying Something Exists

In Indonesian, the word "ada" is used the same way whether you're talking about one thing or many: "Ada kucing di taman" and "Ada tiga kucing di taman" both use "ada." English splits this into two forms based on how many things there are.

Form	Used for	Example
There is	one thing, or something uncountable	There is a cat in the garden.
There are	more than one thing	There are three cats in the garden.
There isn't	negative, singular	There isn't any milk.
There aren't	negative, plural	There aren't any eggs.
Is there...?	question, singular	Is there a bank near here?
Are there...?	question, plural	Are there any shops nearby?

💡 Memory trick: every time you're translating "ada" into English, count first — one (or uncountable, like "milk" or "sugar") → there is. More than one → there are. For negatives and questions with plural or uncountable nouns, add "any": "There aren't any apples."

3. Adjective Order and Position

This is the part that often makes a sentence sound "backwards" to a native ear — because the order really is the reverse of Indonesian.

In Indonesian, adjectives come after the noun: "mobil merah besar" (car → red → big). In English, the order is completely flipped: adjectives come before the noun, and their internal order is reversed too: "a big red car" (big → red → car).

a big house (adjective before the noun) The house is big. (adjective after "to be" — a different sentence pattern)

Basic order with two or more adjectives: opinion → size → age → color a beautiful small old red car

Most common in everyday speech: size before color. a big red car ✅ sounds natural a red big car ❌ sounds unnatural to a native ear

💡 Memory trick: picture your Indonesian sentence, then flip the whole order — the adjective moves in front of the noun, and if there are two adjectives, their order flips too. "Mobil besar merah" → flip everything → "big red car." Also, English adjectives never change form for plural: "three big cars," not "three bigs cars" — unlike some other languages where the adjective also takes a plural marker.

Cheat Sheet — Save This

• Am/is/are: required in every sentence that has no verb in Indonesian (I am, he/she/it is, you/we/they are).
• There is / there are: there is for one thing or something uncountable, there are for more than one. Use "any" for negatives/questions.
• Adjectives: placed before the noun, order completely reversed from Indonesian. Size before color. Never change form for plural.

If you're writing or speaking English and a sentence feels "empty" or "backwards," check these three rules first — the answer is usually right here.