Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Anak-anak menunggu di depan stan kerajinan bambu. - The children wait in front of the bamboo crafts booth.

para is usually used with human nouns that are not reduplicated, often slightly formal:
- para guru = the teachers
- para tamu = the guests

With anak, the natural options are:

anak-anak (normal, neutral)
para anak (possible, but sounds formal/literary and much less common)
para anak-anak (generally avoided; feels redundant and clumsy)

For everyday Indonesian, just use anak-anak.

What’s the difference between menunggu and tunggu? When would I use each?

Both come from the same root tunggu (“wait”), but they are used differently:

menunggu = to wait (conjugated verb form, used as the main verb)
- Anak-anak menunggu di depan… = The children are waiting in front of…
- Saya menunggu dia. = I’m waiting for him/her.
tunggu alone is:
- An imperative (command): Tunggu! = Wait!
- A bare root, used in dictionaries or some fixed phrases.

In a normal declarative sentence with a subject, you almost always use menunggu, not bare tunggu:

✅ Saya menunggu di sini.
❌ Saya tunggu di sini. (sounds wrong unless it’s a specific pattern like saya tunggu kamu di sini “I’ll wait for you here”)

So in this sentence, menunggu is the correct choice.

Does menunggu mean “are waiting” (present continuous) or “waited” (past)? How do we know the tense?

Indonesian verbs, including menunggu, do not change form for tense. The tense is understood from context or from time words.

Menunggu can mean:

are/were/will be waiting

To make tense/time explicit, Indonesians add adverbs:

tadi = earlier
- Anak-anak tadi menunggu di depan stan… = The children were waiting earlier…
sedang = in the process of (right now)
- Anak-anak sedang menunggu di depan… = The children are (currently) waiting…
akan = will
- Anak-anak akan menunggu di depan… = The children will wait…

In your sentence, without such markers, it’s context-dependent and often interpreted as “are waiting” or “wait (as a general habit)”.

Could we add sedang in this sentence? Would Anak-anak sedang menunggu di depan… be better?

You can add sedang, and it’s perfectly correct:

Anak-anak sedang menunggu di depan stan kerajinan bambu.

This:

Emphasizes that the waiting is happening right now (progressive aspect, like “are currently waiting”).

However, in everyday Indonesian:

sedang is often omitted when it’s obvious from context that the action is happening now.
The original sentence without sedang is already natural and common.

So both are correct; adding sedang just makes the “ongoing right now” meaning explicit.

Why is di separate from depan? I’ve seen people write didepan online. Which is right?

In standard Indonesian, di as a preposition of place is always written separately:

di depan = in front of
di rumah = at home
di sekolah = at school

So the correct spelling is:

✅ di depan
❌ didepan (non-standard; common in informal text/typos, but considered wrong in proper writing)

The confusion comes from the fact that di- can also be a prefix for passive verbs:

ditulis = written
dibeli = bought

As a rule of thumb:

If di means “at/in/on”, write it separately.
If di- is part of a verb (passive), write it together.

Could we say just depan stan without di?

In this sentence, di is needed because it marks a location:

menunggu di depan stan… = wait in front of the stand

If you drop di, it becomes ungrammatical as a location phrase after menunggu:

❌ Anak-anak menunggu depan stan kerajinan bambu. (sounds wrong)

You can say depan stan in some other structures:

Di depan stan kerajinan bambu ada anak-anak. = In front of the bamboo craft stand, there are children.
Depan stan itu ramai. = The front of that stand is crowded.

But when using it as a place where they wait, after menunggu, you should use di depan.

What exactly does stan mean here? Is it the same as English “stand”? Are there other words I could use?

Stan is a loanword (from English stand), and in Indonesian it usually means:

A booth / stall / small stand, often at a fair, exhibition, bazaar, etc.

In this sentence, stan kerajinan bambu = a booth/stand that sells or displays bamboo crafts.

Other words with similar meaning (with slight nuances):

kios = kiosk (often more permanent, small shop)
warung = small food stall / small shop
lapak = spot/stall (often informal, street vendors)
gerai = outlet / branch (shops, franchises)

If you change the word, the nuance of place changes slightly:

di depan kios kerajinan bambu – in front of the bamboo craft kiosk (sounds more permanent)
di depan lapak kerajinan bambu – in front of the bamboo craft stall (street-market feel)

Stan is very natural for booths at events, fairs, or exhibitions.

How should I interpret the phrase stan kerajinan bambu? Which word modifies which?

Indonesian noun phrases usually go head noun first, then modifiers.

Here:

stan = head noun (“stand/booth”)
kerajinan bambu = a noun phrase modifying stan

And kerajinan bambu itself breaks down as:

kerajinan = craft(s)
bambu = bamboo

So the structure is:

stan [kerajinan bambu]
= a stand for bamboo crafts
≈ “a bamboo-craft booth / a booth of bamboo crafts”

You do not say stan bambu kerajinan; that would sound wrong. The order is always:

general place/thing → more specific description.

Does kerajinan here mean “diligence” or “craft”? How can I tell?

The noun kerajinan has two common meanings:

craft / handicraft / craftwork
- kerajinan tangan = handicrafts
- pameran kerajinan = craft exhibition
diligence / industriousness
- kerajinan belajar = diligence in studying

In kerajinan bambu, the only natural reading is “bamboo crafts / bamboo handicrafts” because:

You normally don’t say “diligence of bamboo”.
The collocation kerajinan + material (bambu, kayu, rotan) almost always refers to physical crafts.

So context and typical word combinations tell you it’s “crafts”, not “diligence”, here.

Do we need a word like sebuah (“a”) before stan? Why is it just di depan stan kerajinan bambu, not di depan sebuah stan…?

Indonesian usually does not require an explicit word for “a/an”. Often the noun alone is enough:

Saya punya buku. = I have a book / I have books (context decides)

In your sentence:

di depan stan kerajinan bambu can mean:
- in front of a bamboo craft stand
- in front of the bamboo craft stand

If you add sebuah:

di depan sebuah stan kerajinan bambu

This:

Stresses that it’s one stand, but otherwise is still natural.
Is more likely when you’re introducing this stand for the first time or emphasizing quantity.

In everyday speech, people often drop sebuah unless they really need to highlight “one”.

Is there any formality or register issue with these words? Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral?

The sentence is overall neutral and can be used in spoken or written Indonesian without problems.

anak-anak – neutral, common
menunggu – neutral standard verb
di depan – standard prepositional phrase
stan – loanword, but very common in everyday and even semi-formal contexts (events, exhibitions)
kerajinan bambu – neutral, often appears in tourism, culture, and craft contexts

For a very formal text (government reports, academic writing), some writers might prefer alternatives like gerai or stand pameran, but stan kerajinan bambu is still acceptable in many semi-formal contexts (posters, brochures, news).

How is anak-anak pronounced with the double anak? Do we fully pronounce both k sounds?

Anak-anak is pronounced as two separate words:

anak
- anak

Pronunciation tips:

Each anak ends with a glottal stop-like k sound.
You do articulate a closure at the end of each anak, but in fast speech, the boundary between the two may feel very quick:
- /a-nak a-nak/ (roughly “ah-nak ah-nak”)

It’s not merged or lengthened; you just say anak twice, smoothly but distinctly. The hyphen in writing simply marks the reduplication; it doesn’t change syllable count.