Di beberapa negara bersalju, anak-anak bermain salju di depan rumah.

In some snowy countries, children play in the snow in front of the house.

Breakdown of Di beberapa negara bersalju, anak-anak bermain salju di depan rumah.

• rumah: the house
• di: in
• di depan: in front of
• bermain: to play
• anak: the child
• beberapa: some
• negara: the country
• bersalju: snowy
• salju: the snow

Questions & Answers about Di beberapa negara bersalju, anak-anak bermain salju di depan rumah.

Why does the sentence start with di beberapa negara bersalju? Could we just say beberapa negara bersalju without di?

Di is a preposition meaning in/at/on.
The phrase di beberapa negara bersalju literally means in some snowy countries.

• Di beberapa negara bersalju = In some snowy countries (location phrase)
• Beberapa negara bersalju = Some snowy countries (just a noun phrase)

At the beginning of this sentence, we want to give the location context for the action, so we need the preposition di. Without di, it would sound like you are listing the subject “some snowy countries”, not giving the place where the children play.

Why is it beberapa negara and not beberapa negara-negara? Shouldn’t plurals be reduplicated?

In Indonesian, you normally do not combine beberapa (some/several) with reduplication:

• beberapa negara ✅
• negara-negara ✅ (many countries, in general)
• beberapa negara-negara ❌ (sounds wrong/unnatural)

Reason: beberapa already shows plurality, so reduplication is unnecessary and sounds incorrect here.

Use:

• negara-negara when you want to say countries in general, without a word like beberapa, banyak, semua, etc.
• beberapa negara when you say some/several countries.

What exactly is bersalju? Why not just negara salju?

Bersalju is formed from:

• ber- (a prefix) + salju (snow)

It means snowy / having snow / with snow.
So negara bersalju ≈ snowy country / country that has snow.

Negara salju is not natural Indonesian. It sounds more like “snow country” as a compound noun (and even then it’s strange). To express the idea “a country that has snow”, Indonesian normally uses:

• negara bersalju
• or negara yang bersalju (more explicitly “country that is snowy”)

So bersalju works like an adjective: snowy.

Could we say negara yang bersalju instead of negara bersalju? Is there a difference?

Yes, both are correct:

• negara bersalju = snowy country
• negara yang bersalju = country that is snowy / country that has snow

negara bersalju is a bit shorter and more compact.
negara yang bersalju sounds slightly more explicit or descriptive, but in most contexts the meaning is the same, and both are natural.

Why is there a comma after negara bersalju: Di beberapa negara bersalju, anak-anak…? Is it required?

The comma marks a fronted adverbial phrase (a location/time phrase placed at the beginning).

• Di beberapa negara bersalju, anak-anak bermain salju…
• Anak-anak bermain salju di beberapa negara bersalju… (no comma needed here)

When a di + place phrase comes before the main clause, it’s standard and clearer to separate it with a comma. It’s not absolutely mandatory in informal writing, but it is good style and typical in correct Indonesian.

Why is it anak-anak and not just anak? How does plural work here?

anak-anak is the reduplicated form of anak, and it usually means children (plural).

Indonesian plural is shown in several ways:

• Reduplication: anak-anak (children)
• Number words: tiga anak (three children)
• Context only: anak can mean a child or children depending on context

In this sentence, anak-anak makes it explicit that we are talking about children (plural). You could say anak bermain salju and it might still be interpreted as generic children in general, but anak-anak is clearer and more natural for “children”.

Is bermain supposed to be intransitive? How can we say bermain salju (literally “play snow”)?

In many cases bermain is intransitive (no object):

• Anak-anak bermain di taman. – The children play in the park.

But Indonesian also allows patterns like bermain + noun where the noun is what they play with or what they are playing:

• bermain bola – play ball / play football
• bermain gitar – play the guitar
• bermain salju – play (with) snow

So bermain salju is natural and means to play with snow / play in the snow. The noun after bermain is not a direct object in the strict English sense; it’s more like a complement indicating the kind of play.

Could we say bermain dengan salju instead of bermain salju? Is there any difference?

Yes, you can say both:

• bermain salju – very natural, compact, everyday
• bermain dengan salju – also correct; literally “play with snow”

Nuance:

• bermain salju is the usual pattern when talking about playing something (bermain bola, bermain kelereng, etc.).
• bermain dengan salju sounds a bit more explicit or slightly more formal/emphatic, but it’s not wrong.

In most contexts, bermain salju is the more natural choice for this sentence.

Why is it di depan rumah and not just di rumah? What’s the difference?

• di rumah = at home / in the house
• di depan rumah = in front of the house

depan means front (part). The structure is:

• di (at/in/on) + depan (front) + rumah (house)

So di depan rumah specifically locates the children outside, in the area in front of the house, not inside the house. The meaning in the sentence requires that distinction.

Why is rumah singular? Shouldn’t it be rumah-rumah to match anak-anak?

In Indonesian, a singular noun can often represent a generic or collective idea, especially when possession is understood from context.

Here, anak-anak bermain salju di depan rumah is understood as:

• The children play in front of their houses.

Indonesian does not need to mark every noun explicitly as plural or possessive. Some options:

• di depan rumah – in front of the house / their houses (generic, most natural)
• di depan rumah mereka – in front of their houses (more explicit about possession)
• di depan rumah-rumah – in front of the houses (emphasizes multiple houses; used only if you really need to stress that)

In a general descriptive sentence like this, di depan rumah is the most natural and normal wording.

What is the grammatical role of di depan rumah in the sentence?

Di depan rumah is a prepositional phrase indicating location:

• di – preposition “at/in/on”
• depan – noun “front”
• rumah – noun “house”

Together, di depan rumah functions as an adverbial of place modifying the verb bermain:

• Where do the children play? → di depan rumah.

Could we change the word order to Anak-anak bermain salju di depan rumah di beberapa negara bersalju? Would that still be correct?

Grammatically it’s not wrong, but it sounds awkward and heavy. The sentence would be harder to process because the long location phrase comes at the end.

Natural options:

• Di beberapa negara bersalju, anak-anak bermain salju di depan rumah.
• Anak-anak bermain salju di depan rumah di beberapa negara bersalju. (still okay, but emphasizes the children first)

Placing di beberapa negara bersalju at the beginning helps set the overall context right away, which is stylistically smoother in this kind of general statement.

Could we use pada instead of di in di beberapa negara bersalju?

In modern Indonesian, for physical locations, di is the normal preposition:

• di beberapa negara bersalju ✅
• pada beberapa negara bersalju ❌ (sounds wrong/unnatural for place)

pada is used more for:

• abstract things: pada kesempatan ini (on this occasion)
• people/pronouns in some formal styles: kepada mereka (to them)
• certain set phrases

For “in some snowy countries”, you should use di, not pada.