Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Ruang tamu kami terasa damai setelah rapat keluarga selesai. - Our living room feels peaceful after the family meeting is finished.

In ruang tamu kami, the speaker is talking about “our living room” but not including the listener as one of the owners.
If the listener is also part of the family that owns that living room, then ruang tamu kita would be more appropriate.

What exactly does terasa mean, and how is it different from merasa?

Both come from the root rasa (feeling, sense, taste).

merasa is usually used with a person as the subject:
- Saya merasa lelah. = I feel tired.
terasa describes how something feels/is perceived (often more passive/stative):
- Ruang tamu kami terasa damai. = Our living room feels peaceful.

So:

merasa = “to feel” (what someone feels)
terasa = “to feel / to be felt” (how something comes across or is experienced)

You normally wouldn’t say “Saya terasa lelah”; you’d say “Saya merasa lelah.”

Is damai here an adjective (“peaceful”) or a noun (“peace”)?

In this sentence, damai functions like an adjective: “peaceful.”

Indonesian doesn’t always mark adjectives differently from nouns, so the same word can play both roles depending on context:

As an adjective:
- Suasana ini damai. = This atmosphere is peaceful.
As a noun:
- Kami menginginkan damai. = We want peace.

In terasa damai, it clearly means “feels peaceful.”

How does the clause setelah rapat keluarga selesai work grammatically?

Break it down:

setelah = after
rapat keluarga = family meeting
selesai = finished / over

The structure is:

setelah + [noun phrase] + selesai

Literally: “after the family meeting finished / was finished.”
Here, rapat keluarga is the subject, and selesai is a stative verb meaning “is finished”:

Rapet keluarga selesai. = The family meeting is finished.

So the whole clause is a time clause: “after the family meeting was finished.”

Could I also say setelah selesai rapat keluarga instead? Is that correct?

Yes, setelah selesai rapat keluarga is grammatically possible and understandable, but it sounds a bit less smooth and less common in neutral written style.

More natural alternatives include:

setelah rapat keluarga selesai (your original sentence)
setelah rapat keluarga berakhir (after the family meeting ended)
setelah selesai rapat keluarga itu (after that family meeting was finished) – adding itu can make it clearer.

The version in your sentence, setelah rapat keluarga selesai, is very idiomatic and probably the best choice in most contexts.

How is past tense expressed here? There’s no past marker, but the English is “after the family meeting had finished.”

Indonesian usually doesn’t mark tense with verb changes. Time relationships are often shown by:

context
time words like kemarin (yesterday), besok (tomorrow)
conjunctions like setelah (after), sebelum (before)

In setelah rapat keluarga selesai, the word setelah already implies that the finishing happened before the peaceful feeling in the living room.

So even though there’s no explicit past marker like “had,” the natural English translation becomes:

“…after the family meeting had finished.”

Can I drop kami and just say Ruang tamu terasa damai setelah rapat keluarga selesai?

Yes, you can.

Ruang tamu terasa damai… still means “The living room feels peaceful…”
It just doesn’t specify who owns the living room.

Indonesian often omits pronouns if they’re clear from context. If the context already makes it obvious whose living room it is, leaving out kami is fine and natural.

If you need to emphasize ownership (for example, contrasting with someone else’s living room), ruang tamu kami is better.

What’s the difference between ruang and ruangan? Why not ruangan tamu kami?

Both come from the same root, but there’s a nuance:

ruang = space / room (more general; can be abstract)
ruangan = a concrete room, usually an enclosed physical space (with walls, etc.)

However, ruang tamu is a fixed, very common expression for “living room” or the area used to receive guests. People virtually always say:

ruang tamu (not ruangan tamu) for “living room.”

You might see ruangan tamu in some specific contexts, but for normal Indonesian, ruang tamu is the natural collocation.

Is there any difference between rapat keluarga and pertemuan keluarga?

Yes, there’s a nuance:

rapat keluarga = family meeting with a sense of formal discussion / decision-making
(e.g., discussing inheritance, important family issues, planning a wedding, etc.)
pertemuan keluarga = family gathering/meeting in a more general or social sense
(e.g., a family reunion, get‑together)

In your sentence, rapat keluarga suggests the family was having some kind of formal or serious meeting, and the living room felt peaceful after that was over.