Apakah kamu pernah bertemu teman lama di stasiun?

Apakah kamu pernah bertemu teman lama di stasiun?
Have you ever met an old friend at the station?
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Questions & Answers about Apakah kamu pernah bertemu teman lama di stasiun?

Why does this sentence start with Apakah? What does Apakah do here?

Apakah is a question marker used for yes/no questions. It doesn’t translate directly into English but signals that you’re asking “Have/Has/Do/Does…?”. In more casual speech you can drop Apakah and rely on intonation:
Kamu pernah bertemu teman lama di stasiun?

What does pernah mean in this sentence? Could you omit it?

Pernah means “ever,” indicating a past experience.

  • With pernah: Apakah kamu pernah bertemu teman lama di stasiun? (“Have you ever met an old friend at the station?”)
  • Without pernah: Apakah kamu bertemu teman lama di stasiun? (“Did you meet an old friend at the station?”)
Why is the word order Apakah kamu pernah bertemu teman lama di stasiun?

Indonesian generally follows Subject–Predicate–Object order. The structure here is:
1) Apakah (question marker)
2) kamu (subject)
3) pernah (adverb of experience)
4) bertemu (verb)
5) teman lama (object)
6) di stasiun (prepositional phrase of location)

What’s the difference between bertemu, menemui, and jumpa?
  • bertemu (“to meet”) is neutral and common for chance meetings.
  • menemui (“to visit/meet up with”) often implies purpose or intention.
  • jumpa is informal/slang for “meet.”
Does teman lama mean an elderly friend?
No. Lama here refers to “long ago” or “for a long time.” So teman lama is “an old friend” in the sense of “someone you’ve known for ages,” not necessarily someone who is old in age.
Why is di used before stasiun? Could you use ke instead?
  • di stasiun marks the location where the meeting happened (“at the station”).
  • ke stasiun would indicate movement toward the station (“to the station”), not the place of meeting.
Why does the speaker use kamu instead of Anda?
kamu is the familiar 2nd-person pronoun, used among friends or peers. Anda is more formal or polite, often used in customer service, formal writing, or with strangers.