Breakdown of Kami baru duduk di kantin, sudah dipanggil lagi untuk rapat singkat.
Questions & Answers about Kami baru duduk di kantin, sudah dipanggil lagi untuk rapat singkat.
Baru and sudah describe different actions and help show the sequence and contrast:
- Kami baru duduk di kantin = We had just sat down in the canteen (the action of sitting down has only just happened; it’s very recent).
- sudah dipanggil lagi = we were already called again (the calling is already happening / has already happened, earlier than you would expect).
Putting baru in the first clause and sudah in the second gives a “no sooner … than … already …” feeling:
Kami baru …, sudah … = We’d only just…, (but) already…
So they don’t repeat the same idea; together they create the feeling of something happening too soon or unexpectedly quickly.
In this sentence, baru means “just (now)” / “have only just (done something)”.
- Kami baru duduk di kantin = We had just sat down in the canteen (very shortly before the next event).
Baru can also mean “only” in other contexts (e.g. Saya baru punya satu anak = I only have one child), but here it’s about recentness in time, not quantity.
You could also say baru saja for extra emphasis:
- Kami baru saja duduk di kantin – same meaning, a bit more explicit “just now”.
Sudah marks the action as completed / already happening.
- sudah dipanggil lagi = have already been called again.
- dipanggil lagi (without sudah) is also possible, but it feels a bit more neutral and less emphatic about how fast it happened.
With kami baru …, sudah dipanggil lagi …, the baru–sudah pairing strengthens the “too soon / already?!” feeling. Without sudah, that emotional contrast becomes weaker, though the basic meaning is still clear.
Lagi has two common meanings, depending on context:
- “again” (repetition)
- That’s the meaning here: sudah dipanggil lagi = were called again.
- “in the middle of / currently” (similar to “be -ing”)
- e.g. Saya lagi makan = I’m eating / I’m in the middle of eating.
In this sentence, because of sudah and the context of being called more than once, lagi clearly means “again” (not “still” or “currently”).
Dipanggil is the passive form of memanggil (“to call / summon”).
- Active: (Mereka) memanggil kami lagi. – They called us again.
- Passive: Kami sudah dipanggil lagi. – We were called again.
In Indonesian, the passive is very common when:
- the receiver of the action (here: kami) is the topic, and
- the doer (who called) is obvious from context or unimportant (maybe the boss, the meeting organizer, etc.), so it’s omitted.
So sudah dipanggil lagi sounds natural and neutral: the focus is on us being summoned, not on who summoned us.
Indonesian often drops the subject in the second clause when it’s the same as in the first clause and the meaning is clear.
- Full form: Kami baru duduk di kantin, kami sudah dipanggil lagi untuk rapat singkat.
- Natural spoken form: Kami baru duduk di kantin, sudah dipanggil lagi untuk rapat singkat.
Because it obviously still refers to kami, it’s not necessary to repeat it.
Both are grammatically correct; the version without the second kami is just more fluent and natural in everyday speech.
The comma here connects two closely related events and carries a “no sooner … than …” sense, often with a hint of complaint or surprise.
You could make this explicit with a connector, for example:
- Kami baru duduk di kantin, tapi sudah dipanggil lagi…
- Kami baru duduk di kantin, eh sudah dipanggil lagi… (very colloquial)
So the comma works a bit like a soft “but” / “and then already” in English narrative. Spoken Indonesian frequently just uses a pause (comma in writing) instead of a conjunction in this kind of structure.
- di = at / in (location, no movement)
- ke = to (movement / direction)
The verb here is duduk (“to sit”), and at the moment of sitting they are already at the canteen, not moving toward it.
- Kami pergi ke kantin. – We go to the canteen. (movement)
- Kami duduk di kantin. – We sit in/at the canteen. (location)
So di kantin is correct because it describes where they are sitting, not where they are going.
Both mean “we / us”, but:
- kami = we (not including the listener)
- kita = we (including the listener)
Here, kami is used, so the speaker is talking about a group that does not include the person being spoken to.
If the listener had also been part of the group that sat in the canteen and was called to the meeting, kita would be more natural:
- Kita baru duduk di kantin, sudah dipanggil lagi untuk rapat singkat.
In Indonesian, adjectives almost always come after the noun they describe:
- rapat singkat = short meeting
- rumah besar = big house
- baju baru = new clothes
Singkat rapat is wrong in standard Indonesian. The order is noun + adjective, so rapat singkat is the correct phrase.
Yes, you can say pertemuan singkat, but there is a nuance:
- rapat = a formal/office-type meeting, usually about work, organization, or official matters.
- pertemuan = a more general meeting/gathering, can be formal or informal.
In an office or organizational context, rapat singkat sounds more natural. Pertemuan singkat is correct Indonesian but slightly less specific; it could be used in broader contexts.
The sentence is in neutral–informal Indonesian, natural in everyday speech, especially between colleagues:
- Uses kami, baru, lagi in a very conversational way.
- No formal markers like bahwa, telah, etc.
- The comma structure (Kami baru…, sudah…) is typical of spoken storytelling or casual written Indonesian (messages, chat, informal email).
It’s perfectly fine for talking with coworkers, friends, or in informal writing; for very formal documents, you might rephrase slightly but the grammar is already correct.