Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Saya memanaskan air di panci kecil.

Indonesian verbs don’t change form for tense or aspect, so the sentence can mean “I heat” or “I am heating.” Use time/aspect markers if you need to be specific:

Right now (progressive): Saya sedang memanaskan air di panci kecil. (colloquial: Saya lagi memanaskan…)
Past: Tadi saya memanaskan air… / Saya sudah memanaskan air… / Saya barusan memanaskan air…
Future: Nanti saya akan memanaskan air… / Besok saya akan memanaskan air…

What does the verb “memanaskan” literally mean? How is it formed?

It’s formed from the adjective panas (hot) with the affixes meN- and -kan: meN + panas + -kan → memanaskan. The suffix -kan often makes a verb causative, so memanaskan means “to make something hot,” i.e., “to heat (something).”
Compare:

memanas (without -kan) = to get hot / heat up (intransitive). Example: Cuaca memanas.
memanaskan (with -kan) = to heat something (transitive). Example: Saya memanaskan air.

Could I say “memasak air,” “merebus air,” “mendidihkan air,” or “menghangatkan air” instead? What’s the difference?

memasak air = to “cook” water; very common idiom meaning to boil water.
merebus air = to boil water (bring it to a boil).
mendidihkan air = to make water boil; more explicit/technical (causative of “boil”).
menghangatkan air = to warm water (make it warm, not necessarily hot).
memanaskan air = to heat water (general; could be to warm or to make hot, context decides).

Why is it “di panci kecil”? Could/should I use “di dalam,” “ke,” or “dengan” here?

di marks location (“at/in”). With containers, di panci commonly means “in the pot” by context.
di dalam panci explicitly means “inside the pot,” a bit more specific/emphatic but not required.
ke is directional (“to/toward”), so use it for movement: Tuang air ke dalam panci.
dengan means “with” (as an instrument): Saya memanaskan air dengan kompor listrik (with an electric stove), not with the pot. The pot is where the water is, so use di panci.

Do I write “di panci” as one word (dipanci) or two?

Write it as two words: di panci. The separate di is a preposition meaning “at/in.”
When di- is a passive prefix, it attaches to the verb: dipanaskan (is/was heated).
Compare: Air dipanaskan di panci kecil vs. Saya memanaskan air di panci kecil.

Why is it “panci kecil” (adjective after the noun) and not “kecil panci”?

In Indonesian, adjectives usually come after the noun: panci kecil = “small pot.”
You can say panci yang kecil to emphasize or specify “the one that is small” (restrictive sense), but the neutral, default order is noun + adjective.

Do I need an article like “a”? How do I say “a small pot” or “one small pot”?

Indonesian has no articles, so di panci kecil already means “in a small pot” by default.
To emphasize quantity, you can say:

di sebuah panci kecil or di satu panci kecil = “in one small pot.”
For “the small pot,” use context markers like itu/tersebut: di panci kecil itu/tersebut.

Can I drop the subject “Saya”?

Yes. Subjects are often omitted when clear from context.
Example: Memanaskan air di panci kecil. (I’m heating water in a small pot.)

How do I say this in the passive voice?

Two natural options:

Agentless passive: Air dipanaskan di panci kecil. (The water is being heated in a small pot.)
“Short passive” with an expressed agent: Air saya panaskan di panci kecil. (The water I heat in a small pot.)
Using oleh
- agent (Air dipanaskan oleh saya) is grammatical but tends to sound formal/stiff in everyday speech.

Should I use “Saya,” “Aku,” or “Gue”?

Saya: neutral/formal; safe with strangers or in writing.
Aku: informal/intimate; friends, family.
Gue: very informal Jakarta slang.
So you could say: Aku memanaskan air… (informal) or Gue memanaskan/panasin air… (slang).

How do I pronounce tricky words like “air,” “panci,” and “memanaskan”?

air (water): two syllables, a-ir (like “AH-eer”), not like English “air.”
panci: PAHN-chee (c = “ch”).
memanaskan: meh-mah-NAHS-kahn (rough guide; Indonesian stress is relatively flat).

Does “air” mean “air” (the gas) in English?

No. Indonesian air means “water.”
“Air” (as in what we breathe) is udara.

What exactly is a “panci”? Is it a frying pan?

panci = pot/saucepan (vertical sides, for boiling/simmering).
Related cookware:

wajan/kuali = wok/frying pan (sloped sides, for frying/stir-frying).
periuk = pot (more common in Malay; also used regionally in Indonesia).

Is there a casual/slang version of the sentence?

Yes. In colloquial Indonesian, -kan often becomes -in and the meN- prefix may be dropped in speech. You might hear:

Gue panasin air di panci kecil.
Aku lagi panasin air di panci kecil.
Use this only in informal contexts.