Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Arsip rapat bulan lalu ada di laci bawah; arsip baru diunggah tadi pagi. - Last month’s meeting archive is in the bottom drawer; the new archive was uploaded earlier this morning.

Ada marks existence/presence and is the natural way to say “is/are located” in Indonesian. So ada di laci bawah means “(it/they) are in the bottom drawer,” emphasizing location/presence. Indonesian has no general copula like English “to be,” so you use:

ada for presence/location/existence
(no verb) or adalah for equating two nouns (see next Q)

You can’t use adalah to mean “is located.”

Why not say adalah di laci bawah?

Because adalah links a subject to a noun/noun phrase (equative), not to a prepositional phrase of place. Use:

Equative: Rapat itu adalah rapat bulanan. (That meeting is the monthly meeting.)
Location: Rapat itu ada di ruang utama. (The meeting is in the main room.)

So for place, use ada di, not adalah di.

Can I drop ada and just say Arsip … di laci bawah?

In casual speech, yes: Arsip rapat bulan lalu di laci bawah is common and understood. In careful or formal writing, keep ada.

What’s the difference between ada and berada?

Both indicate presence in a location. Berada is more formal/neutral and only for location; ada is more general (existence, availability, and location).

Formal: Berkas itu berada di server.
Neutral: Berkas itu ada di server. Only ada can mean “there exists/there is”: Ada kopi? (“Is there coffee?”) — you can’t use berada there.

I see both di laci and diunggah. Why is di sometimes separate and sometimes attached?

Two different things:

di (separate) is a preposition “in/at/on”: di laci, di Jakarta.
di- (attached) is the passive prefix on verbs: diunggah (“uploaded”), dibuka (“opened”). Rule of thumb: if it’s a place word, write di separately; if it’s a verb, attach di-.

Why is diunggah (passive) used instead of mengunggah (active)?

Indonesian commonly uses passive when the agent is unknown/irrelevant or to foreground the patient:

Passive: Arsip baru diunggah tadi pagi. (focus on the files)
Active: (Kami) mengunggah arsip baru tadi pagi. (focus on the doer) If you want to name the agent in passive, add oleh: diunggah oleh tim IT. Or use “passive type 2”: Arsip baru sudah kami unggah tadi pagi.

Do I need sudah in arsip baru diunggah tadi pagi?

Not required. The time phrase tadi pagi already makes the past time clear. Sudah adds emphasis on completion:

Neutral: … diunggah tadi pagi.
Emphatic/completed: … sudah diunggah tadi pagi.

Does baru mean “new” or “just (now)” here?

It can mean either, depending on placement and context:

Adjective “new”: arsip baru = “new files”
Adverb “just/recently”: baru diunggah = “has just been uploaded” In the sentence, the most natural parse is “new files were uploaded this morning.” To force the “just” meaning, write: Arsip itu baru diunggah tadi pagi. To emphasize “new,” you can say arsip yang baru.

If I want to say “has just been uploaded,” how can I avoid ambiguity?

Use any of:

Arsip itu baru diunggah tadi pagi.
Arsipnya baru diunggah tadi pagi.
Baru saja diunggah tadi pagi arsipnya. (colloquial)
Or switch to active: Saya baru mengunggah arsip itu tadi pagi.

How does the noun phrase arsip rapat bulan lalu hang together? Which word modifies which?

It’s left-to-right, tightest attachments first:

arsip rapat = “the meeting’s archive(s)”
rapat bulan lalu = “the meeting from last month” Together: [arsip [rapat [bulan lalu]]] = “the archive(s) of last month’s meeting.”

No preposition “of” is needed between Indonesian nouns.

Could I say arsip rapat yang bulan lalu?

No. Yang introduces a relative clause (with a verb), not a bare time phrase. You can say:

arsip rapat yang lalu = “the archive(s) of the previous meeting” (previous in sequence, not specifically last month)
arsip rapat bulan lalu = specifically “last month’s meeting archive(s)”

Is bulan kemarin okay instead of bulan lalu?

Yes in everyday Indonesian. Bulan lalu is slightly more neutral/formal; bulan kemarin is common in conversation. Both mean “last month.”

What’s the difference between tadi pagi, pagi ini, and pagi tadi?

tadi pagi = this morning (earlier today, definitely past)
pagi ini = this morning (the same morning; depending on current time, could be ongoing or just past)
pagi tadi = same as tadi pagi (also common), with a slightly different emphasis/order

Is arsip singular or plural here?

Indonesian nouns don’t inflect for number. Arsip can mean “archive/file(s).” Context or quantifiers clarify:

Plural explicitly: arsip-arsip, beberapa arsip, banyak arsip
Definite singular: arsip itu/arsipnya

How do I mark “the” or “a/an” in Indonesian?

There are no articles. Use:

itu (after the noun phrase) or -nya to mark definiteness: arsip itu, arsipnya
Numerals/quantifiers to mark indefiniteness: sebuah arsip (one file), beberapa arsip (some files)

What exactly does laci bawah mean, and how would I say “the bottom drawer”?

Laci bawah = “the lower/bottom drawer,” but it can be slightly ambiguous (any drawer that is lower). To say the very bottom one, use:

laci paling bawah (the bottommost drawer)
laci bagian bawah (the lower section drawer, often clear in context)

How do I say “in the drawer below (this one)”?

Use a relative phrase with yang and a locative:

di laci yang di bawah (ini/itu) = “in the drawer that is below (this/that one)” If you mean the physically lower drawer in a stack, di laci bawah often suffices; for precision, di laci paling bawah.

Is the semicolon normal in Indonesian, or should I use a period?

A semicolon (titik koma) is fine to link two closely related independent clauses. A period is also perfectly natural here. Avoid using just a comma without a conjunction (dan, tetapi, namun) between full clauses.

Are there common alternatives to diunggah in everyday Indonesian?

Yes. People often say:

Active: mengunggah (standard), or informally meng-upload/mengunduh is for download; careful: upload = unggah, download = unduh.
Passive type 2: sudah kami/saya unggah (very idiomatic) Standard writing favors unggah/unduh over English borrowings.

Could I replace rapat with something else like pertemuan?

Yes, with nuance. Rapat is a formal/official meeting (work, committee). Pertemuan is broader (“a meeting/meet-up/encounter”). So:

Work context: arsip rapat… is best
General gathering: arsip pertemuan… may fit, but “archives of a gathering” is less common outside formal contexts