Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Saksi laki-laki dan saksi perempuan menandatangani dokumen pernikahan dengan tenang. - The male witness and the female witness sign the marriage documents calmly.

Saksi laki-laki dan saksi perempuan menandatangani dokumen pernikahan dengan tenang.

The male witness and the female witness sign the marriage documents calmly.

Breakdown of Saksi laki-laki dan saksi perempuan menandatangani dokumen pernikahan dengan tenang.

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Questions & Answers about Saksi laki-laki dan saksi perempuan menandatangani dokumen pernikahan dengan tenang.

In this sentence, is saksi singular or plural? How would I say witness vs witnesses in Indonesian?

Saksi itself does not show singular or plural; it can mean witness or witnesses depending on context.

In the sentence:

Saksi laki-laki dan saksi perempuan...

we clearly know there are two witnesses (one male, one female), even though saksi stays the same.

To be explicit about number, Indonesian often adds other words:

seorang saksi – one witness (person)
dua orang saksi – two witnesses
para saksi – the witnesses (a group, usually 3+; slightly formal)
saksi-saksi – witnesses (plural shown by reduplication; can sound a bit more literary or emphatic)

Why is saksi repeated: saksi laki-laki dan saksi perempuan? Can I just say saksi laki-laki dan perempuan?

You can shorten it, but the nuance changes slightly.

Current version (fully repeated)
> saksi laki-laki dan saksi perempuan
This is very clear:
- first person: male witness
- second person: female witness
Shortened version
> saksi laki-laki dan perempuan
Grammatically this is understandable and people will get what you mean, but it sounds a bit less neat and can be a tiny bit ambiguous on first hearing (it could sound like “a male witness and a female [person, not specified as a witness]”).

More natural short versions would be:

saksi laki-laki dan perempuan itu – those male and female witnesses
dua saksi, laki-laki dan perempuan – two witnesses, a man and a woman
saksi pria dan wanita – the male and female witnesses

Repeating saksi keeps the structure symmetrical and very clear, which is common in formal or written language.

What does laki-laki literally mean, and why is it written with a hyphen and repeated?

Laki-laki is the everyday word for male/man.

The base word laki is rarely used alone in modern standard Indonesian.
Reduplication (repeating the word) with a hyphen, laki-laki, is the normal, fixed form meaning man / male.

This pattern is common in Indonesian:

lelaki – another word for “man” (similar to laki-laki)
orang-orang – people (plural of orang = person)
sayur-mayur – various vegetables

With laki-laki, the reduplicated form is just the standard dictionary form; it doesn’t feel like “plural” here, it’s just the regular word for “male/man”.

What is the difference between laki-laki vs pria, and perempuan vs wanita?

All of these refer to gender, but they differ slightly in tone and usage:

laki-laki – male, man
- Neutral, very common in everyday speech.
- Slightly informal compared to pria in official contexts.
pria – man, male
- More formal or “official-sounding”.
- Very common on forms, signs, announcements: pria / wanita for “male/female”.
perempuan – woman, female
- Neutral and widely used in spoken and written Indonesian.
- Considered slightly more “natural” or people-centered than wanita by some speakers.
wanita – woman, female
- Often seen as more formal or bureaucratic.
- Very common in organization names, government language, forms.

In your sentence, you could also say:

saksi pria dan saksi wanita menandatangani...

That would sound a bit more formal/official than laki-laki / perempuan, but still very natural.

Why is it dokumen pernikahan (noun + noun) and not something like pernikahan dokumen, like in English marriage document?

In Indonesian, the head noun comes first, and the modifier (another noun, an adjective, etc.) comes after it.

So:

dokumen pernikahan
= document of marriage
= marriage document

Pattern:

dokumen perusahaan – company document
surat lamaran – application letter
baju kerja – work clothes

Putting pernikahan first (pernikahan dokumen) is ungrammatical. The general rule is:

[main noun] + [modifier]

So you say dokumen pernikahan, not pernikahan dokumen.

What is the difference between nikah and pernikahan?

Both come from the same root nikah, but they’re different word forms:

nikah
- As a verb: to marry (often in religious or informal contexts).
  - Mereka nikah tahun lalu. – They got married last year.
- As a noun: marriage (but a bit more colloquial / religious register).
pernikahan
- A noun meaning marriage or wedding (as an event / institution).
- Formed with peN- ... -an around nikah:
  - peN- + nikah + -an → pernikahan

In your phrase dokumen pernikahan:

pernikahan = marriage (as an event / legal state)
So dokumen pernikahan = document related to the marriage.

You could sometimes also hear:

dokumen nikah (less formal)
More specific official terms: akta nikah, surat nikah (marriage certificate).

How is menandatangani formed, and what is the base word?

The base expression is tanda tangan, which means signature (literally “sign of the hand”).

To make the verb to sign (something), Indonesian adds the prefix meN- and the suffix -i:

Base: tanda tangan – signature
Add meN- (verb-forming prefix) and -i (often meaning “to put X on/into something”):
meN- + tanda tangan + -i → menandatangani

Spelling and sound changes:

meN- becomes men- before a root starting with t.
The initial t of tanda disappears after men-, giving menanda... (spelled menanda..., no t after the prefix).
Then we add tangan and -i.

Meaning:

menandatangani dokumen = to sign a document
Literally: “to put a signature on a document”

Why is it menandatangani dokumen, without di or pada? In English we say “sign on the document”.

In Indonesian, menandatangani is already a transitive verb that directly takes an object.

menandatangani dokumen
= to sign the document

You do not need a preposition like di or pada here. Using them would sound unnatural:

✗ menandatangani di dokumen – sounds wrong in this meaning
✔ menandatangani dokumen – correct and natural

General pattern: many Indonesian verbs with meN- ... -i take a direct object:

mengisi formulir – fill in a form
mengirimkan surat – send a letter
membersihkan kamar – clean the room

What does dengan tenang literally mean, and can I just say tenang instead?

Literally:

dengan = with
tenang = calm

So dengan tenang literally looks like with calm, but in Indonesian this construction is a very common way to say “calmly”.

You have two common options:

dengan + adjective
- dengan tenang – calmly
- dengan cepat – quickly
- dengan hati-hati – carefully
This feels a bit more careful or formal, and works very well in written text.
just the adjective after the verb
- menandatangani dokumen pernikahan tenang – also understandable as “sign the marriage document calmly”, but this is less standard for this particular adjective; it might sound a bit clipped.

In practice, dengan tenang is the most natural, neutral-sounding way to express calmly in your sentence.

How do we know this means “signed” (past) and not “will sign” or “is signing”? Where is the tense in menandatangani?

Indonesian verbs, including menandatangani, do not mark tense (past, present, future) by changing form. Menandatangani by itself just means to sign / signing in a general sense.

The actual time is understood from:

context, or
extra words like:
- sudah – already (past)
- tadi – earlier
- nanti – later
- akan – will

For example:

Saksi... menandatangani dokumen pernikahan dengan tenang.
→ could be past, present, or future; we infer from story context.
Saksi... sudah menandatangani dokumen pernikahan.
→ clearly past: have already signed.
Saksi... akan menandatangani dokumen pernikahan.
→ clearly future: will sign.

In your exercise, English uses signed, but Indonesian doesn’t change menandatangani for tense.

Does dokumen pernikahan mean a specific official certificate, like a “marriage certificate”, or just any document related to a marriage?

Dokumen pernikahan is a broad phrase: it means document(s) related to a marriage. It does not specify exactly which kind of document.

Depending on context, it might refer to:

the marriage certificate,
forms used in the wedding process,
legal records related to the marriage, etc.

More specific terms:

akta nikah / akta perkawinan – marriage certificate (civil registry)
surat nikah – marriage certificate (more general / religious context)

So dokumen pernikahan = marriage document(s) in a general sense, not a precise legal term by itself.

How do I say “the marriage document” vs “a marriage document” in Indonesian, since there is no the / a?

Indonesian has no direct equivalents of a/an and the. The basic phrase dokumen pernikahan can mean either, depending on context.

To make it more explicit:

a marriage document (one, non-specific)
- sebuah dokumen pernikahan
  (sebuah is a classifier often used with inanimate objects)
the marriage document (specific, known)
- dokumen pernikahan itu – that/that particular marriage document
- dokumen pernikahan tersebut – that said / the aforementioned marriage document (formal)

But in many natural sentences, Indonesians simply say dokumen pernikahan and let context show whether it means “a” or “the”.