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Setelah sarapan, saya menggulung selimut dan menaruh bantal di lemari.

Setelah sarapan, saya menggulung selimut dan menaruh bantal di lemari.
After breakfast, I roll up the blanket and put the pillow in the cupboard.
FromLesson 14inHardcore Indonesian
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Questions & Answers about Setelah sarapan, saya menggulung selimut dan menaruh bantal di lemari.

What does Setelah mean, and is it interchangeable with Sesudah?
Setelah is a preposition meaning after, used to introduce a time clause. Sesudah has exactly the same meaning (“after”) and can be used interchangeably. Native speakers often perceive setelah as slightly more formal or written, whereas sesudah feels a bit more colloquial—but both work in everyday speech.
Why is there a comma after Setelah sarapan?
When an introductory time phrase appears at the beginning of a sentence, Indonesian writers often insert a comma to signal a pause between that phrase and the main clause. It’s optional—not a strict rule—but the comma makes the structure clearer, especially in written text.
In Setelah sarapan, is sarapan a noun or a verb? Should it be bersarapan?
Here sarapan functions as a noun (“breakfast”). Indonesian often uses root verbs as nouns without extra marking. If you want the verb “to have breakfast,” you can say bersarapan or simply saya sarapan. In this adverbial phrase, the noun sarapan is most concise: Setelah sarapan = “after breakfast.”
What does the prefix meN- do in menggulung and menaruh, and how do you choose among mem-, men-, meny-, meng-, or me-?

The prefix meN- marks an active transitive verb (“to do something to an object”). It adapts to the initial sound of the root verb according to these general rules:
• Before b, p, f → mem- (mem​baca, mem​pek)
• Before t, d, c, j, z → men- (men​ulis, men​ata)
• Before s → meny- (drop the s in the root; meny​apu)
• Before g, k, h → meng- (drop k in k-roots; meng​irim)
• Before vowels, l, m, n, r, w, y → me- (me​nangis, me​nyanyi)

  • menggulung = meng- + gulung (g → mengg)
  • menaruh = men- + taruh (t retained)
Why is it menggulung selimut and not menggulungkan selimut?
The suffix -kan adds a causative or benefactive nuance (“to cause something to be rolled up”). In everyday usage menggulung already means “roll up (something),” so you don’t need -kan. Menggulungkan selimut would sound awkward unless you specifically want to emphasize “make someone else’s blanket get rolled up.”
Why isn’t saya repeated before menaruh bantal?
Indonesian omits repeated subjects in coordinate structures. Since saya is clearly the subject for menggulung, it automatically carries over to menaruh. You could say … saya menggulung selimut dan saya menaruh bantal—it’s grammatical but redundant.
How do you know that di in di lemari is a location preposition and not a passive voice prefix?
A locative di always stands separately before a noun (di lemari, “in/at the closet”). A passive-voice di- attaches directly to a verb root (no space), as in diletakkan (“was placed”). Here the space and placement signal that di marks location.
Why is it di lemari and not ke lemari or ke dalam lemari?
  • di lemari states the static location (“in/inside the wardrobe”).
  • ke lemari would highlight direction (“toward the wardrobe”).
  • ke dalam lemari explicitly means “into the wardrobe.”

Since menaruh already implies placing something into a container, di lemari is concise and idiomatic. If you want to stress movement into, you can use menaruh bantal ke dalam lemari or menaruh bantal ke lemari without much change in meaning.

How do you know these actions happened in the past? Indonesian verbs don’t change like English ones.
Indonesian verbs are tenseless; they don’t inflect for past, present, or future. Instead, you rely on time markers. Setelah sarapan tells you the actions occur after breakfast, so the listener infers past time. If needed, you can add sudah or telah (“already”) to stress completion (e.g., saya sudah menggulung selimut), but context usually suffices.
What’s the difference between menaruh and meletakkan? Both mean “to put.”

They’re near-synonyms:
• menaruh is more general and colloquial (“put/place”).
• meletakkan derives from letak (“position”) and often suggests a deliberate or careful placement.

In casual conversation you’ll hear menaruh more often; meletakkan shows up in slightly more formal or written contexts but is interchangeable in meaning.

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