telah

Telah is a grammatical particle used in Indonesian and Malay to mark a completed action or the perfective aspect. It is not a verb by itself and does not conjugate for tense. Telah is most commonly found in formal, literary, or journalistic writing, where it signals that an event has been completed relative to a reference time.

Telah typically precedes the main verb, as in saya telah makan, which translates to I have eaten or I ate. The expression conveys that the action was finished before the reference point in time. It contrasts with sudah, which is more common in everyday speech and implies a completed action without the same formal nuance, and with baru, which emphasizes that something happened recently. Telah can appear in both transitive and intransitive constructions, and it is also used in passive voice, e.g., surat itu telah ditulis (that letter has been written).

In practice, the choice between telah and other markers often reflects formality, register, or emphasis. Telah is typical in news reports, official documents, and literary prose, where a precise sense of completed action is desired. Etymologically, telah is a native particle found across Malayic languages, with its exact historical origins not always specified. In everyday Indonesian, many speakers opt for sudah or other alternatives depending on rhythm, region, and formality.