Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Kegiatan keluarga di ruang tamu malam ini santai. - The family activity in the living room tonight is relaxed.

an adjective: santai (relaxed), lelah (tired), ramai (crowded)
or a noun: guru (teacher), pelajar (student) – though adalah can appear here

In Kegiatan keluarga di ruang tamu malam ini santai, the pattern is:

Subject: Kegiatan keluarga di ruang tamu malam ini
Predicate (adjective): santai

Indonesians simply put the adjective after the subject. You don’t need a separate word for is/are here.

So Kegiatan keluarga di ruang tamu malam ini santai ≈ “The family activities in the living room tonight are relaxed,” without needing are in Indonesian.

Can I say Kegiatan keluarga di ruang tamu malam ini adalah santai?

That sounds unnatural to most native speakers.

adalah is mainly used when the predicate is a noun phrase, e.g.
- Dia adalah guru. – “He/She is a teacher.”

With adjectives like santai, adalah is usually not used. If you really want to use adalah, you’d normally add a noun:

Kegiatan keluarga di ruang tamu malam ini adalah kegiatan yang santai.
“The family activities in the living room tonight are relaxed activities.”

But in everyday speech, people would almost always just say:

Kegiatan keluarga di ruang tamu malam ini santai.

What exactly does santai mean here? Is it “relaxed,” “relaxing,” or “casual”?

Santai covers a few related ideas, and the exact English word depends on context:

Atmosphere / event: relaxed, casual, laid-back
- Suasananya santai. – “The atmosphere is relaxed/casual.”
Style / dress code: casual, informal
- Pakaiannya santai. – “The clothing is casual.”
Person’s attitude: easygoing, chill
- Dia orangnya santai. – “He/She is easygoing.”

In Kegiatan keluarga di ruang tamu malam ini santai, it most naturally means:

“The family activities in the living room tonight are relaxed/casual.”

So both relaxed and casual are reasonable translations, depending on how you imagine that family time.

What is the subject of this sentence? Is it kegiatan keluarga or the whole phrase with di ruang tamu malam ini?

Grammatically, the core subject is:

kegiatan keluarga – “family activities”

The rest adds information about place and time:

di ruang tamu – “in the living room” (location)
malam ini – “tonight” (time)

So the internal structure is:

Subject:
- kegiatan keluarga di ruang tamu malam ini
  (“the family activities in the living room tonight”)
Predicate (adjective):
- santai

You can see kegiatan keluarga as the subject, with di ruang tamu malam ini modifying it (telling you which activities).

Can I change the order of malam ini and di ruang tamu?

Yes, Indonesian word order for time and place is quite flexible. All of these are possible and natural, with only slight differences in emphasis:

Kegiatan keluarga di ruang tamu malam ini santai.
Neutral, very natural.
Kegiatan keluarga malam ini di ruang tamu santai.
Slight emphasis on malam ini (tonight’s family activities, specifically).
Malam ini, kegiatan keluarga di ruang tamu santai.
Clear fronting of the time; “Tonight, the family activities in the living room are relaxed.”
Di ruang tamu malam ini, kegiatan keluarga santai.
Emphasis on the setting di ruang tamu malam ini.

Meaning stays essentially the same; you’re just shifting what you highlight.

Is kegiatan keluarga singular or plural? Does it mean “family activity” or “family activities”?

In Indonesian, nouns usually do not change form for singular vs plural. Context tells you whether it is one or more.

kegiatan keluarga can be:
- “a family activity”
- “family activities”

In this sentence, most English speakers would naturally translate it as “family activities”, because “family activity in the living room tonight is relaxed” sounds odd in English.

If you want to make plural clearer in Indonesian, you can say:

berbagai kegiatan keluarga – various family activities
kegiatan-kegiatan keluarga – family activities (reduplication for plural, often written with a hyphen)

But kegiatan keluarga alone is already fine and commonly used.

What does di mean in di ruang tamu, and how is it different from ke?

di and ke are both very common prepositions, but they have different functions:

di = in / at / on (location; where something is)
- di ruang tamu – in the living room
- di sekolah – at school
ke = to / toward (direction; where something is going)
- ke ruang tamu – to the living room
- ke sekolah – to school

In our sentence:

di ruang tamu means “in the living room” (the place where the activities happen).

You cannot use ke here, because you’re describing where the activities are, not where they’re going.

What’s the difference between kegiatan keluarga and acara keluarga?

Both involve things you do, but they differ in nuance:

kegiatan keluarga
- Literally “family activities”
- Often more general and everyday
- Can be small or routine things: watching TV together, playing games, talking
acara keluarga
- Literally “family event/program”
- Often sounds more specific, planned, or formal
- Could be: a family gathering, reunion, birthday event, wedding, etc.

So:

Kegiatan keluarga di ruang tamu malam ini santai.
Suggests relaxed family time, perhaps watching TV or chatting.
Acara keluarga malam ini santai.
Sounds more like “The family event tonight is relaxed (not formal).”

How would I say “Our family activities in the living room tonight are relaxed”?

You can add a possessive to keluarga:

Kegiatan keluarga kami di ruang tamu malam ini santai.

Notes on possessives:

keluarga kami – “our family” (excluding the listener)
keluarga kita – “our family” (including the listener)
keluarga saya – “my family”

So depending on who you include:

Kegiatan keluarga kami di ruang tamu malam ini santai.
“Our family’s activities in the living room tonight are relaxed.”
Kegiatan keluarga kita di ruang tamu malam ini santai.
“Our (including you) family activities in the living room tonight are relaxed.”