Anak-anak mengumpulkan sampah di halaman belakang setelah hujan reda.

The children collect trash in the backyard after the rain lets up.

Breakdown of Anak-anak mengumpulkan sampah di halaman belakang setelah hujan reda.

• di: in
• setelah: after
• halaman belakang: the backyard
• anak: the child
• hujan: the rain
• reda: to let up
• sampah: the trash
• mengumpulkan: to collect

Questions & Answers about Anak-anak mengumpulkan sampah di halaman belakang setelah hujan reda.

What does the reduplication in anak-anak mean, and how is it different from just anak?

In Indonesian, reduplication is a common way to show plurality.

• anak = child (can be “a child” or “the child”, and sometimes even “children” if the context is clear)
• anak-anak = children (clearly plural)

So anak-anak explicitly means “children”.
Just anak can be plural too depending on context, but anak-anak makes the plural meaning clear and is often used when you want to emphasize that you’re talking about more than one child.

What is the structure and meaning of mengumpulkan? How is it related to kumpul?

The base word is kumpul, which means “to gather” (intransitive: people gather together).

mengumpulkan has:

• meN- prefix (verb-forming, often transitive)
• -kan suffix (often makes the verb causative or adds a “do X to something/someone” nuance)

So:

• kumpul = to gather (come together)
• mengumpulkan (sesuatu) = to gather something, to collect something

In the sentence:

• mengumpulkan sampah = to collect/gather the trash

Because of -kan, the verb clearly takes an object: you cause something to be gathered.

Why is sampah not repeated (like sampah-sampah) even though it’s “trash” in plural?

In Indonesian, you usually don’t need to mark nouns as plural with reduplication when it’s obvious from context.

• sampah can mean trash / garbage / rubbish in general (often uncountable).
• You could say sampah-sampah, but that usually emphasizes many individual pieces of trash, or sounds a bit more literary or descriptive.

In everyday speech, mengumpulkan sampah naturally means “collect the trash”, which is already understood as plural in this context.

How does Indonesian express past time here? There is no past tense marker like in English.

Indonesian does not change verb forms for tense (no collected / collects / will collect).

Past time is understood from:

• time words, such as setelah (after)
• the general context

In setelah hujan reda, the word setelah (“after”) implies that:

• the rain had already subsided/stopped,
• then the children collected the trash.

So the full sentence is naturally understood as past, even though the verb mengumpulkan looks the same as it would for present or future.

What exactly does sampah mean? Is it closer to “trash”, “garbage”, or “rubbish”?

sampah is a general word meaning trash / garbage / rubbish / waste.

• In American English, you might translate it as trash or garbage.
• In British English, you might say rubbish.

It covers most everyday meanings of thrown-away things (wrappers, leaves, plastic bottles, etc.).
More specific terms exist (e.g. limbah for industrial/chemical waste), but sampah is the standard everyday word.

What does di in di halaman belakang mean, and how is it different from ke or dari?

di, ke, and dari are basic prepositions of place/direction:

• di = at / in / on (location)
  • di halaman belakang = in/at the backyard
• ke = to / towards (movement to a place)
  • ke halaman belakang = to the backyard
• dari = from (origin, starting point)
  • dari halaman belakang = from the backyard

In the sentence, we’re talking about where the children collect the trash (location), so di is correct.

Does halaman belakang literally mean “back page”? I thought halaman means “page”.

halaman is a polysemous word; it has two common meanings:

1. page (of a book, website, etc.)
2. yard / courtyard / garden area (part of a house’s outdoor space)

In halaman belakang:

• halaman = yard/yard area
• belakang = back / behind

So halaman belakang means “backyard” or “the yard at the back of the house”, not “back page” in this context.
The meaning is clear to Indonesian speakers from the context and common collocations.

What does reda mean in setelah hujan reda, and how is it different from berhenti?

Both relate to rain stopping, but with slightly different nuances:

• reda = to subside, to ease off, to die down
  Often used with hujan (rain), badai (storm), amuk massa (mob violence), etc. It suggests:

  • intensity decreases,
  • the situation calms down.

• berhenti = to stop (more general verb)

So:

• hujan reda = the rain subsides/eases up (may strongly imply it essentially stopped or became very light).
• hujan berhenti = the rain stops.

You could also say:

• Setelah hujan berhenti, ... = After the rain stopped, ... Both are natural; reda sounds slightly more descriptive or nuanced.

Why is it hujan reda without “adalah” or “sudah”? Is reda an adjective or a verb here?

In Indonesian, many stative words function like both adjectives and verbs, and you don’t need a verb like “to be” between them.

• hujan = rain
• reda = to subside / to be subsided / to be calmed down

hujan reda can be understood as:

• “the rain subsides”
• “the rain has subsided” depending on context.

You don’t need adalah here.
Adalah is mostly used to link a subject to a noun phrase (e.g. Dia adalah guru = He is a teacher), not to adjectives/stative verbs.

You could add sudah for emphasis on completion:

• setelah hujan sudah reda = after the rain has (already) subsided, but it’s optional; the original is already natural.

Can we move setelah hujan reda to the front of the sentence? Would that change the meaning?

Yes, you can move the time clause to the front:

• Setelah hujan reda, anak-anak mengumpulkan sampah di halaman belakang.

This is very natural Indonesian.
The meaning is the same; you just change the focus/order:

• Original: Anak-anak mengumpulkan sampah di halaman belakang setelah hujan reda.
  → Focus starts with what the children did.

• Reordered: Setelah hujan reda, anak-anak mengumpulkan sampah di halaman belakang.
  → Focus starts with the time condition (“After the rain eased…”).

In writing, when the time clause comes first, it’s standard to put a comma after it, as shown.

Why is there no word for “the” or “a/an” in anak-anak and sampah? How do we know if it’s “the children” or “some children”?

Indonesian generally does not use articles like “a/an” or “the”.

• anak-anak can mean:
  • the children
  • children
  • some children
• sampah can mean:
  • the trash
  • trash
  • some trash

Which English article you choose depends on context and what sounds natural in English, not on a specific Indonesian word.

For this sentence, natural translations might be:

• The children collected trash in the backyard after the rain stopped, or
• The children collected the trash in the backyard after the rain stopped,
  depending on how specific you want to be in English. The Indonesian itself is neutral.