Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Pegawai perpustakaan membantu murid pinjam buku sejarah. - The library employee helps a student borrow a history book.

After verbs like membantu (to help), Indonesian normally uses the bare (root) verb for the action that follows. It’s similar to English “help someone do something” rather than “help someone to do something.” If you really want the meN- form, you must insert untuk:
• membantu murid pinjam buku sejarah
• membantu murid untuk meminjam buku sejarah

Can I include untuk before pinjam, and does that change anything?

Yes. Adding untuk makes the infinitive more explicit and more formal. When you do this, the verb after untuk needs the meN- prefix:
• membantu murid untuk meminjam buku sejarah
Without untuk, you stick with the bare root: pinjam.

Why aren’t there articles like “the” or “a” before pegawai or buku?

Indonesian has no grammatical articles. Context tells you whether something is definite or indefinite. So buku sejarah can mean “a history book,” “the history book,” or “history books” depending on the situation.

How do I show plural for murid or buku?

Nouns remain unchanged for number. To emphasize plurality, you can:
• Reduplicate: murid-murid (students), buku-buku (books)
• Use quantifiers: beberapa murid (several students), banyak buku (many books)

What is pegawai perpustakaan? Can I just say perpustakawan?

Pegawai perpustakaan literally “library employee/staff” (pegawai = employee, perpustakaan = library).
Perpustakawan is the standard word for “librarian.”
Both are correct; the first emphasizes the employment role, the second is the professional title.

Why is it buku sejarah and not sejarah buku?

In Indonesian, the head noun comes first, followed by its modifier. So buku (book) is the head and sejarah (history) modifies it: “history book.” Adjectives and noun modifiers always follow the noun they describe.

What tense is this sentence in, and how do I express past or future?

Indonesian verbs don’t change for tense. The default is neutral/present. To specify time, add time markers:
• Past: sudah (already) → Pegawai perpustakaan sudah membantu…
• Future: akan (will) → Pegawai perpustakaan akan membantu…

How would I turn this into a yes-no question?

Place apakah at the start or add a question tone:
• Apakah pegawai perpustakaan membantu murid pinjam buku sejarah?
You can also simply raise intonation at the end in speech.

What affixes appear in pegawai, perpustakaan, and membantu?

• Pegawai = root gawai (obsolete) + suffix -i → agent noun “employee.”
• Perpustakaan = root pustaka (book/literature) + prefix per- + suffix -an → “library.”
• Membantu = prefix meN- + root bantu → “to help.”

How do I say “The librarian helped the students borrow their history books”?

You can expand the sentence with plural/emphasis and a possessive pronoun:
Perpustakawan membantu murid-murid meminjam buku-buku sejarah mereka.
Here murid-murid and buku-buku show plurality; mereka means “their.”