Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Acara tahunan keluarga kami diadakan di rumah nenek. - Our family's annual event is held at grandma's house.

acara = event
tahunan = yearly / annual (from tahun “year” + suffix -an)
keluarga = family
kami = we / us / our (exclusive: not including the listener)
keluarga kami = our family
acara tahunan keluarga kami = our family’s annual event
diadakan = is held / is organized (passive form of mengadakan “to hold, to organize”)
di = at / in / on (location preposition)
rumah = house / home
nenek = grandmother / grandma
di rumah nenek = at Grandma’s house

So a smooth translation is:
“Our family’s annual event is held at Grandma’s house.”

Why is “keluarga kami” and not “kami keluarga”?

In Indonesian, the possessor normally comes after the noun:

keluarga kami = our family (literally “family our”)
rumah saya = my house (literally “house my”)
teman dia = his/her friend (literally “friend his/her”)

So:

keluarga (family) + kami (we/our) → keluarga kami (“our family”)

“kami keluarga” would sound more like “we (are) a family” and isn’t how you say “our family” as a noun phrase.

Why is “kami” used instead of “kita”?

Indonesian distinguishes two kinds of “we”:

kami = we / our, excluding the listener
kita = we / our, including the listener

Here, keluarga kami refers to the speaker’s family, normally not including the person being spoken to. That’s why kami (exclusive) is used, not kita.

If you said keluarga kita, it would imply that the listener is also part of that family (e.g., you are talking to a sibling or spouse who belongs to the same family).

What is the function of “tahunan” here, and how is it different from “setiap tahun”?

tahunan is an adjective meaning “annual” or “yearly”. So:
- acara tahunan = annual event
setiap tahun is an adverbial phrase meaning “every year”:
- Acara keluarga kami diadakan setiap tahun. = Our family event is held every year.

Both express regular yearly occurrence, but:

acara tahunan = emphasizes the type of event (an annual event).
diadakan setiap tahun = describes how often it happens.

You can even combine them:
Acara tahunan keluarga kami diadakan setiap tahun di rumah nenek.
“Our family’s annual event is held every year at Grandma’s house.”

What does “diadakan” mean exactly, and what is its base form?

“Diadakan” is the passive form of the verb “mengadakan”.

mengadakan = to hold / to organize (an event)
- Keluarga kami mengadakan acara tahunan.
  = Our family holds an annual event.
diadakan = is held / is organized (by someone)
- Acara tahunan keluarga kami diadakan di rumah nenek.
  = Our family’s annual event is held at Grandma’s house.

Structure:

base verb: ada (exist) → mengadakan (to put on/hold something)
passive prefix: di- → diadakan (“to be held”)

Why is the passive “diadakan” used instead of the active “mengadakan”?

In Indonesian, the passive voice is very common, especially in more neutral or formal sentences, when:

you want to focus on the event or the object, not on who does it; or
the doer is obvious or unimportant.

Compare:

Keluarga kami mengadakan acara tahunan di rumah nenek.
“Our family holds an annual event at Grandma’s house.”
→ Focus on the family as the doer.
Acara tahunan keluarga kami diadakan di rumah nenek.
“Our family’s annual event is held at Grandma’s house.”
→ Focus on the event itself.

Both are correct; the given sentence just chooses to highlight the event.

Can this sentence be rewritten in a more “active” or conversational way?

Yes. A very natural active version is:

Keluarga kami mengadakan acara tahunan di rumah nenek.
“Our family holds an annual event at Grandma’s house.”

Both sentences are fine. The active version often sounds:

a bit more everyday / conversational,
more focused on “our family” as the subject.

The original passive version sounds slightly more neutral or formal, or like part of a written description.

What is the role of “di” in “di rumah nenek”?

Here di is a preposition of place, meaning “at / in / on” depending on context. In this sentence it’s best translated as “at”:

di rumah = at home / at the house
di rumah nenek = at Grandma’s house

Important:

di as a preposition is written separately:
- di rumah, di kantor, di Jakarta
di- as a prefix for passive verbs is attached to the verb:
- diadakan, dibuat, ditulis

So: diadakan (one word) vs di rumah (two words).

Why is it just “rumah nenek” and not “rumah nenek kami”?

In Indonesian, when talking about close family members, it’s common to omit the possessive pronoun if it’s clear from context.

rumah nenek in this context will be naturally understood as “Grandma’s house”, and, by default, that’s the speaker’s grandma.

You can say “rumah nenek kami”:

Acara tahunan keluarga kami diadakan di rumah nenek kami.
“Our family’s annual event is held at our grandmother’s house.”

This is grammatically correct, but often not necessary unless you want to be very explicit (for example, to contrast with someone else’s grandmother).

Does “nenek” mean “grandmother” or “grandma”? Is it formal or informal?

Nenek literally means “grandmother”, but it can function like “Grandma” (a form of address) depending on context.

As a kinship term / title:
- Saya pergi ke rumah Nenek.
  = I’m going to Grandma’s house.
  (Here Nenek acts almost like a name, capitalized.)
As a generic noun:
- Dia seorang nenek.
  = She is a grandmother.
  (Generic, not a title; usually lowercase.)

In your sentence, rumah nenek is best read as “Grandma’s house”, natural and neutral in tone.

What is the grammatical subject of this sentence?

The subject is:

Acara tahunan keluarga kami
= our family’s annual event

If you mark the parts:

Subject: Acara tahunan keluarga kami
Verb (passive): diadakan
Place phrase: di rumah nenek

So the structure is:
[Subject] + [passive verb] + [location]
“Our family’s annual event is held at Grandma’s house.”

Why isn’t there a verb like “to be” (is/are) in the Indonesian sentence?

Indonesian usually does not use a separate “to be” verb like English “is/are” before adjectives or in simple nominal sentences. In this case, the verb is already present:

diadakan itself is the verb: “is held / is organized”

So you don’t need an extra “is”.
You just say:

Acara tahunan keluarga kami diadakan di rumah nenek.
not
✗ Acara tahunan keluarga kami adalah diadakan di rumah nenek. (incorrect)

Could the word order be changed, like “Acara tahunan keluarga kami di rumah nenek diadakan”?

That word order is technically understandable but sounds unnatural and awkward in standard Indonesian.

The default, natural order is:

Acara tahunan keluarga kami diadakan di rumah nenek.

You generally want:

Subject → Verb → Place/time information

Shifting “di rumah nenek” in front of “diadakan” is not common in this kind of sentence. You could front the location for emphasis, but then you’d usually change the structure more:

Di rumah neneklah acara tahunan keluarga kami diadakan.
(Adds -lah for emphasis on the location – sounds more literary/marked.)

Is “acara tahunan” singular or plural? Does it mean one event or many events?

Indonesian usually does not mark plural with an ending like English “-s”.

acara tahunan often refers to one recurring annual event (e.g., one family gathering that happens every year).

If you really wanted to stress multiple annual events, you could say:

acara-acara tahunan = annual events (plural, by repetition)
or be explicit with numbers: beberapa acara tahunan (several annual events)

In your sentence, the natural reading is a single annual family event that happens every year at Grandma’s house.