Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Kami menjaga kebersihan rumah setiap hari.

kami = we (but not you)
Used when the speaker is talking about their group and excluding the person being spoken to.
kita = we (including you)
Used when the speaker is talking about a group that includes the listener.

In the sentence Kami menjaga kebersihan rumah setiap hari, kami implies:

“We (in our group) keep the house clean every day, but you (the person I’m talking to) are not part of that ‘we’.”

If you wanted to say “You and I keep the house clean every day”, you would say:

Kita menjaga kebersihan rumah setiap hari.

Does menjaga mean “to clean” here, or something else?

Menjaga literally means to guard / to watch over / to keep.

In the phrase menjaga kebersihan rumah, it means to maintain / to keep up the cleanliness of the house, not just physically cleaning once.

So:

membersihkan rumah = to clean the house (do the cleaning act)
menjaga kebersihan rumah = to keep / maintain the house’s cleanliness (which includes cleaning, but also not making it dirty, having habits that keep it clean, etc.)

A natural English translation here could be:

We keep the house clean every day.

What is the root word of menjaga, and what does the prefix me- do?

The root word is jaga, which means to guard, watch, look after.

When you add the prefix me- (which becomes men- before j), you get menjaga.

jaga (root) – guard, watch, look after
menjaga – to guard, to watch over, to look after, to maintain

The prefix meN- (me-, men-, mem-, meng-, meny-) generally turns a root into an active verb (something like “to X” in English).

Other examples:

baca → membaca (to read)
tulis → menulis (to write)
masak → memasak (to cook)

What does kebersihan mean, and how is it related to bersih?

Bersih is an adjective that means clean.

Kebersihan is a noun that means cleanliness.

The pattern is:

bersih (clean) → kebersihan (cleanliness)

Morphologically:

ber-
- sih (root) → bersih (adjective)
ke-
- bersih
  - -an → kebersihan (abstract noun)

The ke- -an pattern often turns adjectives into abstract nouns:

sehat → kesehatan (healthy → health)
aman → keamanan (safe → safety / security)
bersih → kebersihan (clean → cleanliness)

So menjaga kebersihan = to maintain cleanliness.

How is kebersihan rumah structured? Why not rumah kebersihan?

Indonesian typically uses [head noun] + [modifier] word order.

In kebersihan rumah:

kebersihan = cleanliness (head noun)
rumah = house (modifier: whose cleanliness? the house’s)

So the phrase literally means:

cleanliness of the house

If you said rumah kebersihan, it would sound very odd; it could be interpreted as “a cleanliness house” (which is not normal Indonesian).

Other similar patterns:

pintu rumah – the door of the house
warna mobil – the color of the car
kebersihan kamar – the cleanliness of the room

Can setiap hari move around in the sentence, or must it go at the end?

Setiap hari (every day) is flexible in position. All of these are grammatical:

Kami menjaga kebersihan rumah setiap hari.
Kami setiap hari menjaga kebersihan rumah.
Setiap hari kami menjaga kebersihan rumah.

Differences are mainly in emphasis, not grammar:

End position (1) is very common and neutral.
Putting setiap hari near the start (2–3) can slightly emphasize the frequency (“Every day, we keep the house clean”), but it’s still natural.

There is no tense marking in the verb. How do we know this means “every day” in the present and not in the past?

Indonesian verbs generally do not change form for tense. Instead, tense and aspect are shown by:

Time expressions: kemarin (yesterday), besok (tomorrow), setiap hari (every day), etc.
Context

In Kami menjaga kebersihan rumah setiap hari:

setiap hari tells us it’s a habitual action.
In English, we naturally interpret this as a present habit:
We keep the house clean every day.

If we wanted to make it clearly past, we could say:

Dulu kami menjaga kebersihan rumah setiap hari.
“We used to keep the house clean every day.”

For future:

Mulai besok, kami akan menjaga kebersihan rumah setiap hari.
“Starting tomorrow, we will keep the house clean every day.”

Does rumah mean “house” or “home” here, and is it singular or plural?

Rumah can be translated as either house or home, depending on context. In this sentence, both “house” and “home” are possible.

Regarding number:

rumah can be singular or plural; Indonesian usually doesn’t mark plural on the noun.
Plural is understood from context.

So rumah here can mean:

the house (one)
the houses / our houses (if context implies more than one)

If you want to emphasize plurality, you can say:

rumah-rumah (houses)
semua rumah (all the houses)

But Kami menjaga kebersihan rumah setiap hari is perfectly natural for “We keep the house clean every day.”

Could we omit the subject kami and just say Menjaga kebersihan rumah setiap hari?

Yes, it is possible to omit kami if the subject is clear from context. Indonesian often drops pronouns when they’re understood.

Kami menjaga kebersihan rumah setiap hari. (full, explicit)
Menjaga kebersihan rumah setiap hari. (subject implied)

However:

The version without kami sounds more like a slogan, instruction, or general statement, e.g., in a poster:
- “(We must) Maintain cleanliness of the house every day.”

If you’re clearly talking about what you and your group do, including kami is clearer and more natural in normal conversation or writing.

How formal or informal is this sentence? Would people say this in everyday conversation?

Kami menjaga kebersihan rumah setiap hari is:

Neutral to slightly formal in tone.
Grammatically standard and suitable for:
- essays
- presentations
- written reports
- polite conversation

In casual speech, people might say:

Kami jaga kebersihan rumah setiap hari. (dropping the me- prefix sounds a bit more conversational)
Kami bersihin rumah tiap hari. (using bersihin = colloquial for membersihkan, and tiap instead of setiap)

But the original sentence is very standard and widely acceptable.

Can we say Kami membersihkan rumah setiap hari instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

Kami membersihkan rumah setiap hari.

Difference in nuance:

Kami membersihkan rumah setiap hari.
Focus: the activity of cleaning the house (sweeping, mopping, etc.).
Literal: “We clean the house every day.”
Kami menjaga kebersihan rumah setiap hari.
Focus: maintaining the house’s cleanliness (not just cleaning, but keeping it clean, not making it dirty, having habits to keep it tidy).
Natural English: “We keep the house clean every day.”

Both are correct; choose based on whether you want to stress the action of cleaning or the state of being clean / cleanliness.

Is menjaga kebersihan a fixed expression? Where else can I use it?

Yes, menjaga kebersihan is a very common collocation (word combination) in Indonesian. It’s widely used in public signs, campaigns, and everyday speech.

You can use it in many contexts:

Menjaga kebersihan lingkungan – to maintain the cleanliness of the environment
Menjaga kebersihan kamar mandi – to keep the bathroom clean
Menjaga kebersihan diri – to maintain personal hygiene
Menjaga kebersihan sekolah – to keep the school clean

So menjaga kebersihan rumah fits perfectly into this pattern.

Is setiap hari the only way to say “every day”? Are there casual alternatives?

Setiap hari is the standard phrase for every day.

Casual alternatives include:

tiap hari – very common in spoken Indonesian; slightly more informal
tiap hari kami jaga kebersihan rumah (more conversational word order and diction)

So you could say:

Kami menjaga kebersihan rumah setiap hari. (neutral/standard)
Kami menjaga kebersihan rumah tiap hari. (slightly more casual)