Breakdown of Mereka berlibur bersama keluarga di akhir pekan.
mereka
they
di
on
keluarga
the family
akhir pekan
the weekend
bersama
with
berlibur
to go on vacation
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Questions & Answers about Mereka berlibur bersama keluarga di akhir pekan.
What does berlibur mean and why is it berlibur instead of liburan?
berlibur is an intransitive verb meaning “to go on vacation” or “to take a holiday.” The prefix ber- turns the root libur (“vacation/holiday”) into a verb. By contrast, liburan is a noun (“a vacation” or “the act of taking a holiday”), so you wouldn’t use it directly as the main verb without the ber- prefix.
Why is bersama used here instead of dengan?
Both bersama and dengan can translate as “with,” but there’s a slight nuance:
- bersama often emphasizes doing something together in the company of someone (more “together with”).
- dengan is more general “with” when linking things or people.
In this sentence, bersama keluarga highlights the idea of “spending the vacation together with (their) family.” You could say dengan keluarga and still be correct, but bersama is very common in spoken Indonesian for “together with.”
Why is the time expression di akhir pekan introduced with di, and could I use pada akhir pekan instead?
- di is the standard preposition to mark time (and place) in colloquial Indonesian: di akhir pekan = “on the weekend(s).”
- pada is also grammatically correct (“on”), but it sounds slightly more formal or literary.
So di akhir pekan is perfectly natural in everyday speech.
What’s the difference between di akhir pekan and setiap akhir pekan?
- di akhir pekan simply states the time frame “on the weekend(s),” which could be once or habitually.
- setiap akhir pekan explicitly means “every weekend,” clearly marking it as a habitual action.
Why doesn’t keluarga have a plural marker? Doesn’t it mean “families”?
keluarga is a collective noun that already refers to a family unit (singular or plural in English). You don’t need -s or reduplication. If you really wanted to talk about multiple families, you could say keluarga-keluarga, but here keluarga simply means “family” as a group.
Can I swap bersama keluarga and di akhir pekan in the sentence?
Yes. Indonesian is flexible with adverbial placement. You can say either:
- Mereka berlibur bersama keluarga di akhir pekan.
- Mereka berlibur di akhir pekan bersama keluarga.
Both are grammatically correct and mean essentially the same thing. Emphasis may shift slightly depending on your word order, but neither version is wrong.
Is it okay to drop the time phrase entirely and just say Mereka berlibur bersama keluarga?
Absolutely. Omitting di akhir pekan makes the sentence more general: “They go on vacation with their family” (without specifying when). It’s still a natural, complete sentence in Indonesian.