Kami melakukan penelitian kecil di kelas.

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Breakdown of Kami melakukan penelitian kecil di kelas.

• kami: we
• kecil: small
• kelas: the class

Questions & Answers about Kami melakukan penelitian kecil di kelas.

What is the difference between kami and kita, and why is kami used here?

Indonesian has two words for we:

• kami = we (excluding the person you’re talking to)
  → the listener is not part of the group.
• kita = we (including the person you’re talking to)
  → the listener is part of the group.

In Kami melakukan penelitian kecil di kelas, the speaker is saying that they and their group did the research, but the listener was not part of it.

If the listener had joined the research, you would say:

• Kita melakukan penelitian kecil di kelas.
  = We (you and I / all of us here) did a small research project in class.

Does this sentence mean “we did”, “we are doing”, or “we do” a small research project?

Indonesian verbs generally do not show tense (past, present, future) the way English verbs do. The verb melakukan stays the same, and tense is understood from context or from time words.

So Kami melakukan penelitian kecil di kelas can mean:

• We did a small research project in class. (past)
• We are doing a small research project in class. (present, ongoing)
• We do a small research project in class. (habitual, e.g., every semester)

To make the time explicit, you add time expressions:

• Kemarin kami melakukan penelitian kecil di kelas.
  = Yesterday we did a small research project in class.
• Sekarang kami melakukan penelitian kecil di kelas.
  = Right now we are doing a small research project in class.
• Besok kami akan melakukan penelitian kecil di kelas.
  = Tomorrow we will do a small research project in class.