Di kandang sebelah, kami melihat buaya besar yang berbaring diam di air.

In the enclosure next door, we see a big crocodile lying still in the water.

Breakdown of Di kandang sebelah, kami melihat buaya besar yang berbaring diam di air.

• sebuah: a
• di: in
• kami: we
• yang: who
• besar: big
• melihat: to see
• air: the water
• diam: still
• kandang: the enclosure
• sebelah: next door
• buaya: the crocodile
• berbaring: to lie (down)

Questions & Answers about Di kandang sebelah, kami melihat buaya besar yang berbaring diam di air.

What does di kandang sebelah literally mean, and why is it at the start of the sentence?

Di = in/at/on (preposition)
kandang = cage, pen, enclosure (for animals)
sebelah = next/adjacent; can also mean “side”.

So di kandang sebelah literally is “in the next/adjacent enclosure” (or “in the enclosure next to us/this one”).

Putting this phrase at the start sets the scene first (location), just like in English: “In the next enclosure, we saw …”. You could also say Kami melihat buaya besar … di kandang sebelah. That is still correct, but sounds a bit less “scene‑setting” and more neutral in style. The comma just marks this initial location phrase as an introductory part of the sentence.

Is there a difference between kandang sebelah and sebelah kandang?

Yes, they usually mean different things:

• kandang sebelah ≈ “the next/adjacent enclosure (pen/cage)”
  
  • Think: one of several enclosures in a row; “the one next to this one”.
• sebelah kandang ≈ “beside the enclosure / next to the enclosure”
  
  • sebelah here is more like “beside / by the side of”.

So:

• Di kandang sebelah, … = “In the next enclosure, …”
• Di sebelah kandang, … = “Beside the enclosure, …” (i.e., outside, next to it)

What is the nuance of sebelah in this sentence? Could I use samping instead?

Here sebelah means “adjacent / the one next to (this)” in a more general, slightly neutral/standard way.

You could say di kandang samping, and many Indonesians would understand it as “the enclosure next to this one”, but:

• sebelah is the more common and standard choice in this sort of “the next [room / house / cage]” meaning.
• samping often focuses more on the side position, like “at the side”.

Both can overlap in casual speech, but kandang sebelah is the more natural, textbook-like phrase here.

What’s the difference between kami and kita, and why is kami used?

Both mean “we / us”, but:

• kami = “we (not including the listener)” → exclusive
• kita = “we (including the listener)” → inclusive

In the sentence, kami implies “we” as a group that does not necessarily include the person being spoken to. For example, we went to the zoo and now we’re telling you about it: kami is appropriate.

If the speaker wants to include the listener (e.g., describing something you both saw together), they would say kita melihat buaya besar ….

Why is it melihat and not some other form like terlihat or dilihat?

Melihat is the active verb “to see”:

• kami melihat = “we saw / we see”

Other related forms:

• terlihat = “to be visible / to appear (to be seen)”
  
  • Buaya itu terlihat besar. = “The crocodile looks/appears big.”
• dilihat = passive: “to be seen / to be looked at (by someone)”
  
  • Buaya itu dilihat kami. = “The crocodile was seen by us.”

Here, we want an active sentence with we as the subject doing the action, so melihat is correct.

Why is it buaya besar, not besar buaya like in English “big crocodile”?

In Indonesian, adjectives usually come after the noun:

• buaya besar = “big crocodile”
• rumah besar = “big house”
• kucing hitam = “black cat”

So the pattern is: noun + adjective, unlike English adjective + noun.

Besar buaya would not mean “big crocodile”; it would read as something like “the crocodile’s size” or sound just wrong in this context.

What is the function of yang in buaya besar yang berbaring diam di air?

Yang here introduces a relative clause, describing the noun before it.

• buaya besar = “the big crocodile”
• yang berbaring diam di air = “that was lying still in the water”

So the full chunk buaya besar yang berbaring diam di air =
“the big crocodile that was lying still in the water.”

Yang is similar to English “that / which / who” in such relative clauses, but it doesn’t change form (no gender or number changes).

Could we omit yang and just say buaya besar berbaring diam di air?

You can say Buaya besar berbaring diam di air, but then the structure feels slightly different:

• Buaya besar berbaring diam di air. → “The big crocodile lay still in the water.”
  (Simple sentence: subject + verb.)

• Buaya besar yang berbaring diam di air itu sangat menakutkan.
  → “The big crocodile that was lying still in the water was very scary.”
  (Relative clause describing that particular crocodile.)

In your original sentence, kami melihat buaya besar yang berbaring diam di air, yang clearly marks the whole berbaring diam di air part as a descriptive clause attached to buaya besar. Without yang, the rhythm and focus change; it’s more like reporting an action rather than specifying which crocodile you saw.

What does berbaring mean, and how is it different from tidur?

• berbaring = to lie down / be in a lying position
• tidur = to sleep

So berbaring says how the body is positioned, not whether the animal is actually asleep.

In this sentence, yang berbaring diam di air suggests the crocodile is lying still in the water, possibly awake, just not moving much. If you said yang sedang tidur di air, it would mean “that was sleeping in the water.”

Why do we have both berbaring and diam? Aren’t they redundant?

They give different kinds of information:

• berbaring = body is in a lying position
• diam = not moving; still; silent

Together, berbaring diam describes how the crocodile is lying: it’s not just lying down; it’s lying motionless.

You could use either word alone, but using both paints a more precise picture, like “lying perfectly still”.

What does di air mean exactly? Is it “in the water” or “on the water”?

Di air literally is “at/in the water”; di just marks location and doesn’t specify “in” vs “on” as strictly as English.

The actual image depends on context and world knowledge: crocodiles usually lie partially submerged, so we naturally understand it as “in the water”.

If you want to emphasize “inside” the water, you can say di dalam air (“inside the water”), but di air is already natural and common.

Why is there no past tense marker like “-ed”? How do we know melihat means “saw” and not “see”?

Indonesian verbs usually don’t change form for tense. Melihat can mean:

• “see” (present)
• “saw” (past)
• even “will see” (future), depending on context.

We get the time information from context, adverbs, or separate time words:

• Kemarin kami melihat buaya besar … = “Yesterday we saw a big crocodile …”
• Besok kami akan melihat buaya besar … = “Tomorrow we will see a big crocodile …”

In your sentence, if it’s part of a past story (e.g., about a trip to the zoo), English naturally translates it as “we saw”.

Should there be a classifier like seekor before buaya besar?

You can add it: seekor buaya besar = “a/one big crocodile” (literally, “one [animal] big crocodile”).

• ekor is a classifier used for animals.
• se‑ is “one”, so seekor ≈ “one animal”.

Both sentences are grammatically correct:

• kami melihat buaya besar …
• kami melihat seekor buaya besar …

Adding seekor makes the number (one) explicit and sounds a bit more careful or descriptive, but it’s often dropped in everyday speech when the number isn’t crucial or is obvious from context.

How would I say “several big crocodiles lying still in the water” using this structure?

You can mark the plural with beberapa (“several / some”):

• beberapa buaya besar yang berbaring diam di air
  = “several big crocodiles that were lying still in the water”

Full sentence example:
Di kandang sebelah, kami melihat beberapa buaya besar yang berbaring diam di air.

Could I add sedang to show a continuous action, like “were lying”?

Yes. Sedang marks an ongoing or continuous action, similar to English “is/are/am ‑ing” or “was/were ‑ing”.

You could say:

• Di kandang sebelah, kami melihat buaya besar yang sedang berbaring diam di air.
  = “In the next enclosure, we saw a big crocodile that was (in the middle of) lying still in the water.”

The original without sedang is still perfectly natural; Indonesian often leaves this aspect marker out unless you want to emphasize that the action is in progress at that specific moment.

Is di here a preposition or the passive prefix di‑?

Here di is a preposition meaning “in/at/on”, because:

• It is written separately from the noun: di kandang, di air.
• The structure is di + noun (no verb following it).

The passive prefix di‑ attaches directly to verbs without a space, e.g.:

• dilihat (di‑ + lihat) = “to be seen”
• dibaca (di‑ + baca) = “to be read”

So di kandang sebelah and di air both use prepositional di, not the passive prefix.