Questions & Answers about AC di kamar mati tadi malam.
How do Indonesians pronounce and understand AC here?
In Indonesian, AC means “air conditioner” and is pronounced as ah-seh (not like English “A.C.”). It’s the everyday word; the long forms (pendingin udara, penyejuk ruangan) are more formal or descriptive.
Why is there no word for “was” in the sentence?
Indonesian doesn’t use a copula like “is/was” before adjectives or stative verbs. Mati itself functions as the predicate “is/was off/dead,” and the past time is shown by tadi malam (“last night”). So AC di kamar mati tadi malam already means “The AC in the room was off last night.”
Does mati literally mean “dead”? Is it okay to use it for a machine?
Yes, mati literally means “dead,” and it’s perfectly normal for devices: it means “off/went off/stopped working.” For people, you’d normally use meninggal (or wafat in formal contexts), not mati.
How do I say “was turned off by someone” instead of “went off”?
Use the passive verb dimatikan (“to be turned off”):
- AC di kamar dimatikan tadi malam. = The AC in the room was turned off last night. Active voice is mematikan: Saya mematikan AC di kamar tadi malam. Colloquially you may hear dimatiin/matiin.