Apakah kamu menyalakan televisi itu tadi malam?

Did you turn on that television last night?

Breakdown of Apakah kamu menyalakan televisi itu tadi malam?

• itu: that
• kamu: you
• menyalakan: to turn on
• televisi: the television
• apakah: question marker
• tadi malam: last night

Questions & Answers about Apakah kamu menyalakan televisi itu tadi malam?

What does apakah indicate in this sentence?

Apakah is a particle used to form yes/no questions in Indonesian. It doesn’t have a direct equivalent in English but serves the purpose of signaling that the sentence is a question, similar to how you might start an English question with “Do” or “Did.”

How is the pronoun kamu used, and what does it mean?

Kamu means "you" and functions as the subject of the sentence. It directly addresses the person being spoken to, without any formal or plural variations.

What is the role of menyalakan in the sentence, and why isn’t it conjugated for tense?

Menyalakan means "to turn on" (or "to switch on"). In Indonesian, verbs do not change form to indicate tense. Instead, temporal information is provided by time expressions elsewhere in the sentence. The prefix me- indicates an active, transitive action.

How does televisi itu function in the sentence, and what does itu signify?

Televisi directly translates to "television." The word itu means "that" and is used as a demonstrative pronoun to refer to a specific television. Together, they indicate which television is being mentioned.

What does the time phrase tadi malam mean, and how is it used?

Tadi malam means "last night" or "earlier last night." Tadi refers to a recent past time, and malam means "night." The phrase tells us when the action of turning on the television took place.

Why is the sentence structured without subject-verb inversion, unlike English questions?

In Indonesian, questions are typically formed by simply adding a question marker like apakah at the beginning. The sentence retains the standard subject-verb-object order used in statements, so there’s no need for inversion. The presence of apakah clearly signals that it is a question.