Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Teman saya salah mengerti tujuan rapat. - My friend misunderstood the purpose of the meeting.

Saya teman is not correct for my friend. If you say saya teman, it sounds like a fragment, roughly I (am) a friend, and it’s still not a natural phrase on its own.

Can teman saya mean my friends as well as my friend?

Yes. Indonesian usually doesn’t mark plurals when it’s obvious from context.

teman saya can mean:
- my friend (one person), or
- my friends (more than one)

If you really want to emphasize plural, you can say:

teman-teman saya = my friends (clearly plural)

In neutral conversation, teman saya is fine, and listeners use context to know if it’s one or more people.

What exactly does salah mengerti mean? Is salah an adverb here?

Salah mengerti is a verb phrase that means to misunderstand.

salah = wrong, incorrect
mengerti = to understand

Literally: to understand wrongly → to misunderstand.

Grammatically, many learners think of salah here as an adverb (wrongly), but Indonesian grammar doesn’t separate adjectives and adverbs as clearly as English does. Practically, you can remember:

salah + verb → doing that action incorrectly
- salah mengerti = misunderstand
- salah lihat = mis-see (to see incorrectly)
- salah kirim = send to the wrong person/place

So salah mengerti is one chunk you can learn as “to misunderstand.”

Is there a difference between salah mengerti and salah paham?

They are very close in meaning and often interchangeable:

salah mengerti = misunderstand
salah paham = misunderstand; have a misunderstanding

Nuance:

salah mengerti focuses slightly more on the act of understanding something wrongly.
salah paham can sound more like there is a misunderstanding or we/they are not on the same page.

Both are commonly used in everyday speech:

Teman saya salah mengerti tujuan rapat.
Teman saya salah paham tentang tujuan rapat.

Both are natural.

Could I say Teman saya salah paham tujuan rapat instead? Do I need tentang?

You can say:

Teman saya salah paham tujuan rapat.
Teman saya salah paham tentang tujuan rapat.

Both are understood and used.

Patterns:

salah paham + (object)
salah paham tentang + (topic)

Adding tentang (about) makes the relationship explicit, but it’s not strictly required in casual speech. With salah mengerti, people also sometimes add tentang:

Teman saya salah mengerti tentang tujuan rapat.

All of these variants are acceptable.

What’s the structure of tujuan rapat? Is it like purpose of the meeting?

Yes. Tujuan rapat is a noun–noun phrase:

tujuan = goal, purpose
rapat = meeting

In Indonesian, the second noun often functions like “of X” in English. So:

tujuan rapat ≈ purpose of the meeting
peserta rapat ≈ participants of the meeting
jadwal rapat ≈ schedule of the meeting

So the structure is: head noun + modifier noun
Here, tujuan is the head; rapat specifies what purpose.

What’s the difference between rapat and pertemuan?

Both can translate as meeting, but there is a nuance:

rapat
- Often used for more formal, structured meetings (office, organization, committee, school).
- Has a “business/official” feel.
pertemuan
- More general: a gathering or a meeting (of people).
- Can be formal or informal, depending on context.

In a sentence about tujuan rapat, rapat is the natural choice, especially if it’s a work or official meeting.

How do we know this sentence is in the past (misunderstood) if there is no past tense marker?

Indonesian usually doesn’t mark tense on the verb. The time is understood from context or from time words.

Teman saya salah mengerti tujuan rapat.
By itself, it simply states a fact; it could be:

My friend misunderstood the purpose of the meeting. (past)
My friend is misunderstanding the purpose of the meeting. (present, in the right context)

To make the time clearer, you can add time expressions:

Tadi pagi teman saya salah mengerti tujuan rapat.
= This morning my friend misunderstood the purpose of the meeting.
Kemarin teman saya salah mengerti tujuan rapat.
= Yesterday my friend misunderstood the purpose of the meeting.

So the verb form doesn’t change; you add time words instead.

Is the sentence formal, informal, or neutral? Would it be okay in an office email?

The sentence is neutral and is acceptable in many situations, including office contexts:

Teman saya salah mengerti tujuan rapat.

For more formal writing (e.g., very polite email or report), you might sound a bit more formal by using:

Rekan saya salah mengerti tujuan rapat.
(rekan = colleague, more formal than teman)

Or:

Beliau tampaknya salah mengerti tujuan rapat.
(beliau = respectful he/she, used for seniors/respected people)

Can I drop saya and just say Teman salah mengerti tujuan rapat?

You can, but it changes the feel and can create ambiguity.

Teman saya salah mengerti tujuan rapat.
= My friend misunderstood the purpose of the meeting.
Teman salah mengerti tujuan rapat.
Could mean:
- The/our friends misunderstood the purpose of the meeting.
- Friends (in general) misunderstood the purpose of the meeting.

Without saya, we don’t know whose friend(s) you mean. In normal conversation, Teman saya… is much clearer if you specifically mean my friend.

Are there other natural ways to say My friend misunderstood the purpose of the meeting?

Yes, some common alternatives:

Teman saya salah mengerti tujuan rapat.
Teman saya salah paham tentang tujuan rapat.
Teman saya salah paham soal tujuan rapat.
- soal = regarding / about (informal–neutral)

Slightly more formal:

Teman saya keliru memahami tujuan rapat.
- keliru = mistaken
- memahami = to understand (deeper sense of understand)

All are natural; the original sentence is already perfectly good and commonly used.