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Saya gemetar karena cuaca sangat dingin malam ini.

Saya gemetar karena cuaca sangat dingin malam ini.
I am shivering because the weather is very cold tonight.
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Questions & Answers about Saya gemetar karena cuaca sangat dingin malam ini.

What does gemetar literally mean, and is it a verb or an adjective here?

Gemetar literally means “to tremble / to shake / to shiver.”

Grammatically, Indonesian doesn’t separate verbs and adjectives as strictly as English, but in this sentence gemetar functions like a verb:

  • Saya gemetar ≈ “I am shivering / trembling.”

There is no extra “to be” verb (like am/is/are) before gemetar; Indonesian usually doesn’t need one.

What’s the difference between gemetar and menggigil? Can I say Saya menggigil instead?

Both are related to shivering:

  • Gemetar – to tremble/shake in general (from cold, fear, nervousness, etc.).
  • Menggigil – to shiver specifically (very commonly from cold or fever).

In this context (shivering because it’s cold), both are fine:

  • Saya gemetar karena cuaca sangat dingin malam ini.
  • Saya menggigil karena cuaca sangat dingin malam ini.

Menggigil sounds a bit more specifically like “shivering from cold/fever,” while gemetar is slightly more general.

Why is there no word for “am” in Saya gemetar? Shouldn’t it be something like Saya *adalah gemetar*?

Indonesian normally does not use a “to be” verb (am/is/are) before verbs or adjectives in simple present sentences.

  • Saya gemetar. = “I am shivering.”
  • Cuaca sangat dingin. = “The weather is very cold.”

The word adalah is used mainly:

  • For equating nouns:
    • Dia adalah guru. = “He/She is a teacher.”
  • For formal definitions or explanations.

You would not say Saya adalah gemetar; that’s ungrammatical.

Why do we say cuaca sangat dingin instead of just sangat dingin? Can I drop cuaca?

Cuaca sangat dingin = “the weather is very cold.”

You can drop cuaca if the context is clear. Native speakers might say:

  • Saya gemetar karena sangat dingin malam ini.
    (“I’m shivering because it’s very cold tonight.”)

This is natural if everyone already knows you’re talking about the weather.

Including cuaca makes the sentence more explicit and a bit more textbook-like. In conversation, people often just say:

  • Dingin sekali malam ini. (“It’s very cold tonight.”)
  • Malam ini dingin banget. (very casual, with slang banget = sangat).
In cuaca sangat dingin, is sangat dingin like “very cold”? What’s the difference between sangat dingin and dingin sekali?

Yes, sangat dingin = “very cold.”

Common ways to say “very cold”:

  • sangat dingin – neutral, a bit formal/standard.
  • dingin sekali – very common, also neutral.
  • dingin banget – casual / colloquial (spoken, informal).

All are correct. Example variations:

  • Cuaca sangat dingin malam ini.
  • Cuaca dingin sekali malam ini.
  • Cuaca malam ini dingin banget. (very informal)

Meaning is basically the same; the main difference is style and formality.

Could I say Saya kedinginan instead of Saya gemetar? What’s the difference?

Yes, but the nuance is different.

  • Saya gemetar. = “I am shivering.”
    Focus: the physical action of trembling.

  • Saya kedinginan. = “I am feeling (too) cold / I am freezing.”
    Focus: the state/feeling of being cold.

Kedinginan is formed with the ke- -an pattern and often means “to be affected by X / to be in a state of X”:

  • kedinginan – feeling cold
  • kepanasan – feeling hot / overheated

In your sentence, both work:

  • Saya gemetar karena cuaca sangat dingin malam ini. (describes visible shivering)
  • Saya kedinginan karena cuaca sangat dingin malam ini. (describes how cold you feel)

You can even combine them in speech if you want to emphasize it:

  • Saya kedinginan, sampai gemetar. = “I’m so cold that I’m shivering.”
Can I move malam ini to a different place, like Malam ini saya gemetar karena cuaca sangat dingin?

Yes. Word order is flexible, and all of these are grammatical, with small differences in emphasis:

  1. Saya gemetar karena cuaca sangat dingin malam ini.
    – Neutral; focus starts with me (I’m shivering).

  2. Malam ini saya gemetar karena cuaca sangat dingin.
    – Slightly emphasizes “tonight” (as opposed to other times).

  3. Saya gemetar malam ini karena cuaca sangat dingin.
    – Emphasizes that the shivering is happening tonight.

  4. Karena cuaca sangat dingin malam ini, saya gemetar.
    – Emphasizes the cause first (“Because the weather is very cold tonight…”).

All are natural; choice depends on what you want to highlight.

Is malam ini literally “this night”? How is it different from tadi malam and nanti malam?

Yes, malam ini literally means “this night”, used like “tonight”.

  • malam ini – tonight (the current night, or the night that is starting/coming very soon).
  • tadi malam – last night.
  • nanti malam – tonight, but with more of a “later tonight” feel.

Examples:

  • Saya gemetar karena cuaca sangat dingin malam ini.
    “I’m shivering because the weather is very cold tonight.”

  • Saya gemetar karena cuaca sangat dingin tadi malam.
    “I was shivering because the weather was very cold last night.”

  • Mungkin nanti malam cuaca akan sangat dingin.
    “Maybe tonight the weather will be very cold.” (talking about later today)

Is karena the only word for “because”? What about sebab?

Both karena and sebab mean “because” or “cause.”

  • In this sentence, you can say either:
    • Saya gemetar karena cuaca sangat dingin malam ini.
    • Saya gemetar sebab cuaca sangat dingin malam ini.

Differences:

  • karena – more common in everyday speech and writing.
  • sebab – also correct, sometimes slightly more formal or bookish as a conjunction, but very normal as a noun meaning “cause/reason”:
    • Apa sebabnya? = “What’s the cause / reason?”

Using karena here is the most natural, default choice.

In cuaca sangat dingin, where is the verb “is”? Is dingin an adjective or a verb?

Indonesian doesn’t need a “to be” verb between a noun and an adjective.

  • Cuaca sangat dingin.
    Literally: “Weather very cold.”

Here, dingin is an adjective (“cold”), but in Indonesian an adjective can directly act as the predicate, so it covers what English expresses with “to be + adjective.”

So:

  • Cuaca dingin. = “The weather is cold.”
  • Dia tinggi. = “He/She is tall.”
  • Rumah itu besar. = “That house is big.”
Can I use aku instead of saya in this sentence? Is there a difference?

Yes, both are first-person singular pronouns, but they differ in formality:

  • saya – neutral/polite; safe in almost all situations (formal or informal).
  • aku – more casual/intimate, used with friends, family, people of the same age, etc.

So you can say:

  • Saya gemetar karena cuaca sangat dingin malam ini. (neutral/polite)
  • Aku gemetar karena cuaca sangat dingin malam ini. (more casual/close)

The grammatical structure is the same; only the level of formality and relationship implied changes.

Do I need to add sedang to show that the action is happening now, like Saya sedang gemetar?

You don’t have to, but you can.

  • Saya gemetar. – can already mean “I am shivering (now)” from context.
  • Saya sedang gemetar. – emphasizes that the shivering is currently in progress.

In your full sentence:

  • Saya gemetar karena cuaca sangat dingin malam ini.
    – Very natural as-is.

You would usually add sedang only if you specifically want to highlight the ongoing nature of the action or contrast it with other times:

  • Saya biasanya tidak apa-apa, tapi sekarang saya sedang gemetar karena cuaca sangat dingin malam ini.
    “I’m usually fine, but right now I’m shivering because the weather is very cold tonight.”