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Pagar rumah kami terbuat dari besi.

Pagar rumah kami terbuat dari besi.
The fence of our house is made of iron.

Breakdown of Pagar rumah kami terbuat dari besi.

rumah
the house
dari
from
terbuat
to be made
kami
our
pagar
the fence
besi
the iron
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Questions & Answers about Pagar rumah kami terbuat dari besi.

Why is it pagar rumah kami and not kami pagar rumah or rumah kami pagar?

In Indonesian noun phrases, the main noun (the thing itself) usually comes first, and describers/owners come after it.

  • pagar = fence (main noun)
  • rumah kami = our house (a phrase describing which fence)

So pagar rumah kami literally means “fence [of] our house” or “our house’s fence.”

Putting kami or rumah kami before pagar would sound wrong or very unnatural, because that would break the normal possessed → possessor pattern:

  • pagar kami = our fence
  • pagar rumah kami = the fence of our house
    But kami pagar rumah doesn’t follow any normal pattern in Indonesian.
What exactly does rumah kami mean, and why is kami after rumah?

Rumah kami means “our house” (but with a specific nuance of “our, not including you,” which I’ll explain in the next question).

In Indonesian, possessive pronouns usually come after the noun:

  • rumah saya = my house
  • rumah kami = our house (excluding the listener)
  • rumah kita = our house (including the listener)

So the order is noun + pronoun, unlike English “our house” (pronoun + noun).

Why is it kami and not kita in rumah kami?

Both kami and kita translate as “we / us / our”, but:

  • kami = we / our (excluding the person you are talking to)
  • kita = we / our (including the person you are talking to)

So:

  • rumah kami = our house (but not including you in that “our”)
  • rumah kita = our house, and you (the listener) are also part of this “our.”

In a typical family context talking to an outsider, pagar rumah kami is natural: “the fence of our (family’s) house,” with the listener excluded.

What does terbuat mean, and how is it formed?

Terbuat comes from:

  • prefix ter-
    • verb buat (to make)

Literally, terbuat is something like “be-made / in a made state.”
In this sentence, terbuat describes the state of the fence: it is made (of something), not the process of making it.

So:

  • Pagar rumah kami terbuat dari besi.
    = Our house’s fence is made of iron (focus on the current state/result).
What is the difference between terbuat dari, dibuat dari, and buat dari?

All can be related to “made of/from,” but with different focus and style:

  1. terbuat dari

    • Focus on the state / result: “is made of”
    • Common and neutral:
      • Pagar rumah kami terbuat dari besi.
        Our house fence is made of iron.

  2. dibuat dari

    • Passive describing the process: “(is) made from”
    • Slightly more process-oriented, sometimes more formal:
      • Pagar rumah kami dibuat dari besi.
        Our house fence is (was) made from iron (how it was constructed).

  3. buat dari

    • More informal / conversational, often with a subject:
      • Mereka buat pagar itu dari besi.
        They made that fence from iron.

In your sentence, terbuat dari is natural because you are describing what the fence is made of, not narrating the building process.

Why do we use dari in terbuat dari besi instead of dengan?

In Indonesian, when you say something is made of / made from a material, you normally use dari:

  • terbuat dari besi = made of iron
  • dibuat dari kayu = made from wood
  • kalung ini dari emas (informal) = this necklace is (made) of gold

Dari here means “from / of (material).”

Dengan usually means “with (using)” and is more about an instrument or tool:

  • Dia menulis dengan pensil. = He writes with a pencil.
  • Rumah itu dibangun dengan alat berat. = That house was built with heavy machinery.

So terbuat dari besi, not terbuat dengan besi.

Why isn’t there a word for “is” like “to be” in this sentence? Why not Pagar rumah kami adalah terbuat dari besi?

Indonesian often does not use a separate “to be” verb the way English does.

In this sentence, terbuat already functions as the verb/predicate:

  • Pagar rumah kami = subject
  • terbuat dari besi = predicate (saying what it is made from)

Using adalah here (Pagar rumah kami adalah terbuat dari besi) is incorrect or at least very unnatural, because:

  • adalah is typically used before a noun or a noun phrase:
    • Dia adalah guru. = He/She is a teacher.
  • terbuat is a verb form, so you don’t need adalah.
How do Indonesians know this means “the fence of our house” and not “a fence of our house”? There’s no “the” or “a”.

Indonesian has no articles like “a/an” or “the.”
The noun pagar on its own can mean:

  • a fence
  • the fence
    depending on context.

So Pagar rumah kami terbuat dari besi can be understood as:

  • “The fence of our house is made of iron”
    or, if context somehow makes sense,
  • “A fence of our house is made of iron”

Usually, context (earlier sentences, shared knowledge) makes it clear which meaning is intended. If you need to be explicit, you can add words like sebuah (a/one), satu, itu, ini, etc., but they are not required here.

Does pagar mean one fence or multiple fences? How do you make it plural?

By default, pagar is number-neutral: it can mean fence / fences, depending on context.

If you really want to emphasize plural, you have a few options:

  • pagar-pagar rumah kami = the fences of our house (reduplication to show plural)
  • semua pagar rumah kami = all the fences of our house
  • banyak pagar = many fences

But in everyday speech, people often just say pagar rumah kami and let context show whether it’s one or more. In most real-world situations, a house has one obvious fence, so singular is the natural interpretation.

Can I say Pagar kami instead of Pagar rumah kami? What’s the difference?

Yes, both are grammatical, but they are not identical in meaning:

  • Pagar kami terbuat dari besi.
    = Our fence is made of iron.
    (It’s just “our fence,” without specifying that it surrounds our house.)

  • Pagar rumah kami terbuat dari besi.
    = The fence of our house is made of iron.
    (Specifically links it to our house.)

Use pagar rumah kami when you want to clarify that it’s the house fence, not, for example, the school’s fence that your family owns, or some other fence.

Is it okay to drop terbuat and just say Pagar rumah kami dari besi?

Yes, Pagar rumah kami dari besi is common in informal or conversational Indonesian and is easily understood as “Our house fence is (made) of iron.”

Style and nuance:

  • Pagar rumah kami terbuat dari besi.
    – Slightly more complete and neutral; good in writing or more careful speech.

  • Pagar rumah kami dari besi.
    – Shorter, more casual; often used in everyday conversation.

Both are correct; terbuat dari is just a bit more explicit and formal.

How would I say “The fence around our house is made of iron”? Is pagar rumah kami the same?

Pagar rumah kami normally already implies the fence belonging to / surrounding our house, so in many contexts it is equivalent to:

  • “the fence of our house”
  • “the fence around our house”

If you want to be very explicit about “around,” you can say:

  • Pagar di sekitar rumah kami terbuat dari besi.
    = The fence around our house is made of iron.

But in everyday use, pagar rumah kami is usually enough to convey the idea of the house’s surrounding fence.

Could I say Rumah kami punya pagar dari besi instead? What’s the difference?

You can say Rumah kami punya pagar dari besi, and it’s grammatically fine:

  • Rumah kami punya pagar dari besi.
    = Our house has a fence made of iron.

The difference in nuance:

  • Pagar rumah kami terbuat dari besi.
    – Focuses on the fence itself and what it is made of.
    – Subject = the fence.

  • Rumah kami punya pagar dari besi.
    – Focuses on the fact that our house has / possesses such a fence.
    – Subject = the house.

Both are correct; choose depending on what you want to spotlight: the fence or the house’s having a fence.

How do Indonesians know this is present tense (“is made of iron”) and not past (“was made of iron”)?

Indonesian verbs usually do not change form for tense (past, present, future).
So terbuat itself is tenseless; it can mean:

  • is made of
  • was made of
  • (sometimes in context) will be made of

The actual time is understood from context or extra words:

  • dulu pagar rumah kami terbuat dari kayu.
    In the past our house fence was made of wood.

  • Sekarang pagar rumah kami terbuat dari besi.
    Now our house fence is made of iron.

Without such markers, Pagar rumah kami terbuat dari besi is usually taken as a general, present fact about the fence.

How do you pronounce pagar rumah kami terbuat dari besi?

Approximate pronunciation, using English-like hints (stressed syllables in CAPS):

  • pagar → PAH-gar

    • pa as in “pa” in “papa”
    • gar with hard g (like “gar” in “garden”), rolled or tapped r

  • rumah → ROO-mah

    • ru like “roo” in “kangaroo”
    • mah like “ma” in “mama”

  • kami → KAH-mee

    • ka like “car” without the r
    • mi like “me”

  • terbuat → ter-BOO-at

    • ter like “tur” in “turban” but shorter
    • bu like “boo”
    • at like “art” but without the r (short “a” + t)

  • dari → DAH-ree

    • da like “duh” but with clear “a”
    • ri like “ree”

  • besi → buh-SEE

    • be like “beh / buh”
    • si like “see”

Spoken naturally, it flows as:

PAH-gar ROO-mah KAH-mee ter-BOO-at DAH-ree buh-SEE.