Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Kami menanam cabai di halaman belakang supaya anak-anak melihat bagaimana sayur tumbuh. - We plant chilies in the backyard so the children see how vegetables grow.

Both mean “we,” but kami excludes the listener, while kita includes the listener. The sentence uses kami to mean “we (not including you).” If you wanted to include the listener (e.g., “we all, including you”), you’d use kita.

Is there any tense in menanam? How do I say this happened in the past or is happening now?

Indonesian verbs don’t inflect for tense. Use time words:

Past: Kemarin kami menanam cabai… (Yesterday we planted…)
Progressive/ongoing: Kami sedang menanam cabai…
Completed: Kami sudah menanam cabai…

Why is it di halaman belakang and not ke halaman belakang?

Di marks location (“in/at/on”), while ke marks movement (“to/toward”). Planting happens at a location, so di is correct: menanam … di halaman belakang.

Do I need to say rumah (house) as in di halaman belakang rumah?

Not necessarily. Halaman belakang is often understood as “the backyard (of our place)” from context. You can add rumah for clarity: di halaman belakang rumah. Another natural option is di belakang rumah.

Does cabai mean one chili or many chilies? How do I show plurality?

Number is usually left to context. Cabai can mean one or many. To be explicit, use words like sebuah/seekor (not used for plants), or better, quantifiers like beberapa cabai (several chilies) or tanaman cabai (chili plants). In gardening contexts, menanam cabai naturally means planting chili plants.

Is cabe wrong? I often see both cabai and cabe.

Both are widely used. Cabai is the standard spelling; cabe is very common in everyday writing and speech. Pronunciation is the same initial sound: Indonesian c = “ch” in “church.”

What does supaya mean, and can I use agar, biar, untuk, or sehingga instead?

Supaya means “so that / in order that” and introduces a purpose clause. Near-synonyms:

Agar: more formal.
Biar: informal/colloquial. Avoid sehingga here: it expresses a result (“so that/therefore”) not purpose. Untuk is used with a verb phrase sharing the same subject (e.g., untuk melihat), not with a different subject.

Why not say untuk anak-anak melihat?

When the subject is different (main clause subject ≠ subordinate clause subject), use supaya/agar + [clause], not untuk + [clause]. Correct: … supaya anak-anak melihat …. If you want untuk, restructure to share the subject: Kami menanam cabai … untuk memperlihatkan kepada anak-anak….

Should I add bisa: supaya anak-anak bisa melihat?

Both are fine. Supaya anak-anak melihat = so that the children see. Supaya anak-anak bisa melihat adds an idea of ability/opportunity (“so that the children can see”). Use bisa if you want to stress enabling them.

What does anak-anak mean, and why the hyphen?

Anak = child; reduplication (anak-anak) marks plurality: children. The hyphen is the standard way to write reduplication. Avoid para anak-anak (redundant). You can say para anak in some formal contexts, but anak-anak is the most natural here.

Do I need a comma before supaya?

Not when the purpose clause follows the main clause: Kami menanam … supaya … (no comma). If you front the purpose clause, use a comma: Supaya anak-anak melihat bagaimana sayur tumbuh, kami menanam cabai …

Is melihat bagaimana … an embedded question? Do I need -kah, bahwa, or yang?

Yes, it’s an embedded question (“see how …”). You do not add -kah inside embedded questions, and you don’t use bahwa there. Yang isn’t needed either. … melihat bagaimana sayur tumbuh is correct.

Can I say bagaimana tumbuhnya sayur instead of bagaimana sayur tumbuh?

Yes. Bagaimana sayur tumbuh is straightforward. Bagaimana tumbuhnya sayur nominalizes “grow” with -nya and can feel a bit more formal or stylistically marked. Both are acceptable.

Should it be sayur, sayuran, or sayur-sayuran?

All can work:

Sayur: generic “vegetable(s)”; also “vegetable dish” in some contexts.
Sayuran: “vegetables” as a category; often clearest here.
Sayur-sayuran: emphasizes a variety of vegetables. In this sentence, sayuran is a safe, clear choice, but sayur is fine.

Can I reorder or use passive? For example, Cabai kami tanam … or Cabai ditanam …?

Yes:

Topicalized patient (short passive-like): Cabai kami tanam di halaman belakang supaya … (more emphasis on “chilies”).
Passive: Cabai ditanam di halaman belakang supaya anak-anak melihat … (agent omitted). All are grammatical; choose by focus.

Why menanam, not menanamkan?

Menanam = to plant (literal plants). Menanamkan means to instill/implant abstract things (e.g., menanamkan nilai = instill values). For plants, use menanam.

Should it be memperlihatkan instead of melihat?

Different meaning. Melihat = to see (what the children do). Memperlihatkan = to show (what we do to them). If you mean “so that we can show the children,” say: Kami menanam cabai … supaya kami dapat memperlihatkan kepada anak-anak bagaimana sayur tumbuh.

Any spelling tip for di? I’ve seen di attached to words.

Write di separately when it’s a preposition: di halaman. It’s attached only when it’s the passive prefix: ditanam. So: di halaman but ditanam.