Breakdown of Guru seni berkata, “Tambahkan sedikit detail di mata harimau itu,” sambil menunjuk kanvas saya.
Questions & Answers about Guru seni berkata, “Tambahkan sedikit detail di mata harimau itu,” sambil menunjuk kanvas saya.
Yes. Guru seni literally means “teacher (of) art”, which we translate as “art teacher”.
In Indonesian, the usual pattern is:
- head noun + modifier
- guru seni = teacher + art → art teacher
- buku sejarah = book + history → history book
So seni comes after guru because it’s modifying the kind of teacher.
All three relate to “say”, but they differ in formality and pattern:
berkata – fairly neutral/formal, often used in narrative writing.
- Pattern: Subject + berkata, "…"`
- Example: Guru seni berkata, "Tambahkan …"
mengatakan – also formal, but usually needs an object (what is said).
- Pattern: Subject + mengatakan bahwa … / mengatakan sesuatu
- Less natural directly before a quote in this exact structure.
bilang – informal/colloquial “say, tell”.
- Pattern: Dia bilang, "…" (very common in speech).
In a written, somewhat neutral sentence like this, berkata is very appropriate. In casual conversation, someone might instead say:
- Guru seni bilang, "Tambahkan sedikit detail…"
Very similar, yes:
A comma is normally used before direct speech:
- Guru seni berkata, "Tambahkan sedikit detail …"
Quotation marks ("… " or sometimes «…» in some styles) are used to mark what is spoken.
Minor differences:
- Indonesians sometimes put punctuation outside the closing quote when typing casually, but formal writing usually keeps it consistent, much like English usage.
- Opening quotes are usually followed by a capital letter if it starts a full sentence, just like here: "Tambahkan…".
Tambah is the base verb “to add”.
Tambahkan is the imperative form using the -kan suffix, often making it sound more:
- directed toward affecting an object or recipient
- complete/polished as an instruction
Here it functions as a polite or neutral command:
- Tambahkan sedikit detail… = “Add a bit of detail…”
You can sometimes hear Tambah sedikit detail…, but Tambahkan sounds more natural and slightly more careful/polite in this context, especially in a teacher’s instruction.
- sedikit = a little, a bit, a small amount (focus on quantity).
- beberapa = several, a few (items) (focus on number of items).
In sedikit detail, the teacher is emphasizing a small amount of detail, not necessarily counting them.
If you said beberapa detail, it would sound more like “several details” (plural, countable items), not just a light touch of extra detail. The nuance changes.
Indonesian usually does not change the noun form for plural. Context shows whether it’s singular or plural.
- detail can mean “detail / details” depending on context.
Reduplication (like detail-detail) is possible, but:
- It’s often used to emphasize variety or plurality.
- Here, the phrase sedikit detail already suggests “a small amount of (some) details”, so reduplication is unnecessary and would sound odd.
So sedikit detail is natural and means “a bit of detail / some detail”.
Yes, di is a preposition for location: in, at, on.
Here, di mata harimau itu literally means “on/in the eyes of that tiger” → “in the tiger’s eyes”.
Using di with body parts is very common when you’re talking about location on the body:
- di mata = in/on the eye
- di kepala = on the head
- di pipi = on the cheek
You could also say pada mata harimau itu, which is more formal/literary. Di is more natural in everyday speech.
The structure is:
- mata = eyes
- harimau = tiger
- itu = that / the (definite marker)
Order: head noun + modifier + determiner
- mata harimau itu = “the eyes of that tiger” / “that tiger’s eyes”
Breaking it down:
- mata harimau = tiger’s eyes (literally “eyes [of the] tiger”)
- mata harimau itu = the tiger’s eyes (a specific tiger already known in the context).
In Indonesian, itu usually comes after the noun phrase it describes.
Yes, you can say matanya:
- mata = eye(s)
- -nya = his/her/its/their (third-person possessive)
matanya = its eyes / his eyes / her eyes / their eyes (context decides).
Difference in nuance:
- mata harimau itu = clearly “that tiger’s eyes” (explicit: tiger).
- matanya = “its eyes” but doesn’t repeat “tiger”; you must know from context that “it” = the tiger.
If the tiger was already very clear from the context, a natural variant would be:
- Tambahkan sedikit detail di matanya.
sambil means “while (at the same time, doing two actions together)” and usually links two actions by the same subject.
Here:
- Main action: Guru seni berkata (the art teacher said)
- Simultaneous action: (guru itu) menunjuk kanvas saya (pointed at my canvas)
So sambil menunjuk kanvas saya = “while pointing at my canvas.”
Comparison:
sementara = while/whereas; often contrasts two subjects or situations.
- Saya melukis sementara dia membaca. = I paint while he reads.
ketika = when (at the time that).
- Ketika guru seni berkata… = When the art teacher said…
sambil specifically highlights doing two actions at once by the same person.
In Indonesian, menunjuk already directly takes the thing you’re pointing at as its object, without a preposition:
- menunjuk kanvas = to point at the canvas
- menunjuk jam = to point at the clock
So:
- sambil menunjuk kanvas saya = “while pointing at my canvas”
You don’t say *menunjuk ke kanvas saya in this kind of basic structure; ke is not needed. (You might see menunjuk ke arah… = “point towards…”, but that includes arah “direction”.)
Yes, all of these show possession, with different levels of formality:
kanvas saya
- Noun + saya
- Neutral/standard: my canvas
kanvasku
- Noun + -ku
- More informal/intimate, often in stories, songs, or casual speech: my canvas
kanvas milik saya
- Literally “canvas belonging to me”
- More explicit and slightly formal/emphatic.
In this sentence, kanvas saya is the most natural and neutral choice.