Breakdown of Kami merayakan ulang tahun nenek di rumah bersama keluarga besar.
rumah
the house
di
at
kami
we
bersama
with
merayakan
to celebrate
ulang tahun
the birthday
nenek
the grandmother
keluarga besar
the extended family
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Questions & Answers about Kami merayakan ulang tahun nenek di rumah bersama keluarga besar.
What’s the difference between kami and kita, and why is kami used here?
kami is the exclusive “we” (it excludes the person you’re talking to), whereas kita is the inclusive “we” (it includes the listener). In this sentence the speaker means “we” who celebrated grandma’s birthday, and the person hearing it wasn’t part of that celebration, so kami is appropriate.
What does merayakan mean, and how is it formed?
merayakan means “to celebrate.” It’s built from the root raya with the active prefix me- and the causative suffix -kan, which together turn it into a transitive verb: “to cause [something] to be celebrated.”
Why is it ulang tahun nenek and not just ulang nenek or merayakan nenek?
ulang tahun is the fixed phrase for “birthday.” Without tahun, ulang nenek doesn’t make sense, and merayakan nenek would more generally mean “celebrate grandmother,” not specifically her birthday.
Should we say hari ulang tahun nenek instead of ulang tahun nenek?
Both are correct. hari ulang tahun literally means “the day of the birthday,” but in everyday speech Indonesians often shorten it to ulang tahun. There’s no change in meaning.
Why is di rumah written as two words rather than dirumah?
In modern Indonesian orthography, prepositions like di, ke, and dari always stand alone. Writing dirumah as one word is non-standard and can be confusing to readers.
What does bersama keluarga besar mean, and could we use dengan instead of bersama?
bersama keluarga besar means “together with the extended family.” You can replace bersama with dengan (“with”), but bersama emphasizes the idea of being together as a group.
Example: dengan keluarga besar is grammatically correct, though slightly less vivid.
Can we swap di rumah and bersama keluarga besar? Is the word order flexible?
Yes. Indonesian allows flexible placement of adverbial phrases. You could say:
- Kami merayakan ulang tahun nenek bersama keluarga besar di rumah.
- Kami merayakan ulang tahun nenek di rumah bersama keluarga besar.
Both are natural; moving a phrase closer to the verb can subtly shift emphasis.
What exactly does keluarga besar mean?
Literally keluarga besar is “big family,” but it refers to the extended family—parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and sometimes grandparents—rather than just nuclear family.