Breakdown of Teman perempuan saya memakai gaun biru di pesta ulang tahun.
Questions & Answers about Teman perempuan saya memakai gaun biru di pesta ulang tahun.
It usually means a female friend (non-romantic). For a romantic partner, use:
- pacar (gender-neutral, the standard word for boyfriend/girlfriend)
- cewek saya (very colloquial for my girlfriend; cewek = girl)
- kekasih (formal/literary, lover)
So:
- Teman perempuan saya... = My female friend...
- Pacar saya... = My girlfriend/boyfriend...
- If you must specify gender: pacar perempuan saya (my girlfriend), though most people just say pacar saya and let context clarify.
In Indonesian, possessive pronouns typically follow the noun. So:
- teman saya = my friend
- teman perempuan saya = my female friend
You can also attach the clitic -ku for my:
- temanku = my friend
- teman perempuanku = my female friend
Note the difference:
- teman perempuan saya = my female friend (female is part of the noun phrase)
- teman saya perempuan = my friend is female (perempuan functions more like a predicate here)
- temanku perempuan is usually understood as my friend is female (predicate), not my female friend
All can mean wear, but register and nuance differ:
- pakai: informal/colloquial. Example: Dia pakai gaun biru.
- memakai: neutral and common in speech and writing. Example: Dia memakai gaun biru.
- mengenakan: more formal or written style; also used in news. Example: Dia mengenakan gaun biru.
Do not use menggunakan for clothes (use for tools/devices/rules). For clothing, prefer memakai or mengenakan.
Add time or aspect markers:
- Past/completed: sudah, tadi, kemarin
- Tadi dia memakai gaun biru. (Earlier, she wore…)
- Progressive: sedang (neutral), lagi (colloquial)
- Dia sedang memakai gaun biru. (She is/was in the middle of wearing…) Context often makes tense clear without markers.
Adjectives generally follow nouns in Indonesian:
- gaun biru = blue dress Use yang to single out or contrast:
- gaun yang biru = the one that is blue (as opposed to other colors)
- gaun = dress (one-piece, often more formal or full-length, but can be general)
- baju = a top/shirt; also a broad term for clothing in some contexts (e.g., baju tidur = pajamas)
- rok = skirt
So a blue dress is best as gaun biru.
- di pesta = at the party (location; your sentence uses this, which is natural)
- ke pesta = to the party (destination). You can say Dia memakai gaun biru ke pesta (She wore a blue dress to the party), which is also idiomatic.
- pada pesta = at the party in a more formal style; more common with time expressions (pada hari Senin).
Indonesian has no articles. Use context or demonstratives:
- di pesta ulang tahun = at a/the birthday party (ambiguous)
- di pesta ulang tahun itu = at the birthday party (that specific one)
- di pesta ulang tahun ini = at this birthday party
If it’s your party:
- di pesta ulang tahun saya If it’s her party:
- di pesta ulang tahunnya
Use reduplication or a quantifier:
- teman-teman perempuan saya = my female friends
- beberapa teman perempuan saya = some of my female friends
- para teman perempuan saya = my female friends (formal/collective)
The verb stays the same (no plural agreement): Teman-teman perempuan saya memakai gaun biru...
It’s a regular meN- prefix assimilation rule:
- meN- + pakai → memakai (the initial p of the root drops; the prefix becomes mem-) Other examples:
- meN- + tulis → menulis (t drops)
- meN- + baca → membaca (b stays; prefix becomes mem-)
Yes. yang introduces a relative clause:
- Teman perempuan saya yang memakai gaun biru di pesta ulang tahun... = My female friend who wore a blue dress at the birthday party... This structure expects more information after it (e.g., ...mendapat banyak pujian = ...received many compliments).
Similar meaning but different register:
- teman perempuan saya: neutral, widely used
- teman wanita saya: more formal/bureaucratic tone
- teman cewek saya: casual/slang In Indonesia, wanita tends to be formal; cewek is colloquial. Stick with perempuan for neutral everyday speech.
Use pacar and add the possessor for the party:
- Pacar saya memakai gaun biru di pesta ulang tahun saya.
Yes, with a slightly literary/descriptive feel:
- Dia bergaun biru = She is dressed in a blue dress. It’s common in captions or descriptive writing. For everyday speech, memakai/mengenakan gaun biru is more neutral.
Both mean I/my, but register differs:
- saya: polite/neutral. Teman perempuan saya...
- aku: informal/intimate. Possessive forms:
- teman perempuanku (my female friend)
- teman perempuan aku (colloquial, two-word possessive)
- gaun: the diphthong au sounds like the ow in now; roughly “gow-oon” in two quick beats.
- ulang: oo-lahng (g is hard if present; here it ends with ng)
- tahun: tah-hoon (h is pronounced; u as in “put” but a bit longer)
- memakai: meh-mah-kai (ai like eye)