Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Ayah membuka gordennya lebar-lebar, lalu kami menggulung tikar agar kamar terlihat lebih luas. - Father opens the curtain wide, then we roll up the mat so the room looks bigger.

In everyday Indonesian, family terms like Ayah (dad), Ibu (mom), Kakak (older sibling), etc. can already imply my when used as the subject, especially in a family context.

So:

Ayah membuka gordennya.
→ Normally understood as My dad opened the curtain.

You can say Ayah saya or Ayahku for my dad, but it often sounds more formal (Ayah saya) or more emotional/intimate (Ayahku). In a normal narrative about your own family, just Ayah is very natural and already feels like my dad to Indonesian ears.

What exactly does gordennya mean? Is it his curtain, her curtain, or the curtain?

Gordennya = gorden (curtain) + -nya.

The suffix -nya is very flexible. It can mean:

His / her / its curtain
- Ayah membuka gordennya.
  → Dad opened his curtain. (very common reading here)
The curtain (definite thing already known in context)
- Often -nya works like a definite article (the):
  - Tolong buka gordennya.
    → Please open the curtain. (the one we both know about)
Sometimes their curtain or our curtain, depending on context.

-nya does not show gender (Indonesian has no grammatical gender), so it can be his or her depending on the situation.

In this sentence, the most natural reading is:

gordennya = the curtain(s) in that room, belonging to the family / the dad.

Why is it lebar-lebar and not just lebar? What does the repetition do?

Lebar = wide.
Lebar-lebar is the reduplicated form and here it works like an adverb meaning very wide / as wide as possible / wide open.

Reduplication in Indonesian often:

Intensifies an adjective:
- pelan = slow → pelan-pelan = very slowly / gently
- cepat = fast → cepat-cepat = as fast as possible
Or gives a sense of thoroughly / fully.

So:

Ayah membuka gordennya lebar-lebar
≈ Dad opened the curtains very wide / wide open.

Just lebar after a verb is possible, but sounds less natural here. Lebar-lebar clearly tells you how he opened them.

What’s the difference between membuka and buka? Why is it Ayah membuka gordennya instead of Ayah buka gordennya?

Both are related to open, but they differ in formality and grammar:

Membuka
- Verb with the prefix meN-
  - buka
- More complete / standard form
- Common in written language and neutral/formal speech
- Ayah membuka gordennya. = Dad opens/opened the curtain.
Buka (bare root)
- Used as the base form in dictionaries.
- Very common in casual spoken Indonesian as a finite verb:
  - Ayah buka gordennya. (informal speech, still correct)
- Also used in imperatives:
  - Buka pintunya! = Open the door!

In a written narrative sentence like this one, membuka is slightly more standard/neutral, which is why it appears here.

What does lalu mean here, and how is it different from dan or kemudian?

In this sentence, lalu is a conjunction meaning then / after that, connecting two actions in sequence.

Ayah membuka gordennya lebar-lebar, lalu kami menggulung tikar...
→ Dad opened the curtains wide, then we rolled up the mat...

Comparison:

lalu
- Very common, neutral.
- Focuses on sequence: this happened, then that.
kemudian
- Also then / afterwards, often a bit more formal or written.
- Could replace lalu here with almost no change in meaning.
dan
- Means and, just links two things without emphasizing time order.
- Ayah membuka gordennya lebar-lebar, dan kami menggulung tikar...
  → Grammatically OK, but it doesn’t highlight first this, then that as strongly as lalu does.

So lalu is a natural choice to show a clear order of actions.

What does menggulung tikar mean here? I’ve heard it can also be an idiom.

Literally:

menggulung = to roll up (meN- + gulung)
tikar = mat (often a woven floor mat)

So in this sentence:

kami menggulung tikar
→ we rolled up the mat.

However, menggulung tikar can be an idiom in other contexts, meaning to go bankrupt / to shut down a business (like closing up shop and rolling up the mat).

Context decides:

Here, because you literally have a room and you want it to look more spacious, the meaning is clearly physical: rolling up the actual mat on the floor, not the idiom about bankruptcy.

What is tikar exactly? Is it more like a carpet, rug, or mat?

Tikar is best translated as mat, usually:

Made from woven materials (bamboo, pandan leaves, plastic, etc.).
Spread on the floor for sitting, sleeping, eating, or praying.

It’s generally thinner and lighter than what English speakers call a carpet. So menggulung tikar here is literally rolling up a floor mat to clear space.

There is no special classifier needed; you just say satu tikar (one mat), dua tikar (two mats), etc.

What does agar mean, and how is it different from supaya or sehingga?

Agar introduces a purpose clause: so that / in order that.

...kami menggulung tikar agar kamar terlihat lebih luas.
→ ...we rolled up the mat so that the room would look more spacious.

Compare:

agar and supaya
- Very similar, often interchangeable.
- Both = so that / in order that.
- Agar is slightly more formal; supaya is more colloquial, but both are widely used.
- You could say:
  ...supaya kamar terlihat lebih luas. (also natural)
sehingga
- Means so that / as a result, but focuses on result, not purpose:
  - Kami menggulung tikar sehingga kamar terlihat lebih luas.
    → We rolled up the mat, so as a result the room looked more spacious.

In this sentence, agar highlights the intention: they rolled up the mat with the purpose of making the room look bigger.

How does kamar terlihat lebih luas work grammatically? Is terlihat like looks / seems?

Yes. The structure is:

kamar = the room (subject)
terlihat = is seen / looks / appears
lebih luas = more spacious / wider

So:

kamar terlihat lebih luas
≈ the room looks more spacious
(literally: the room is seen as more wide)

Terlihat is:

ter-
- lihat (to see)
Often translated as to be visible / to look / to appear.

It functions like an intransitive verb or linking verb here, similar to English look (adjective):

Dia terlihat lelah. = He/She looks tired.
Makanan itu terlihat enak. = The food looks delicious.

What is the function of the prefix ter- in terlihat? Is it a passive form?

Ter- is a very flexible prefix. In terlihat, it gives a stative meaning: to be seen / to appear / to look.

You can think of terlihat as:

Not a typical passive like dilihat (is seen by someone),
But more like a state: in the condition of being seen / visible.

Rough guide:

lihat = see (base)
melihat = to see (active)
dilihat = to be seen (passive, focus on the action)
terlihat = to be visible / to look (state or appearance)

So in kamar terlihat lebih luas, the room is in a state of appearing more spacious, not being actively seen by someone in a passive construction.

How does lebih luas express comparison? There’s no “than” word.

Lebih is the standard comparative marker for adjectives in Indonesian:

luas = wide / spacious
lebih luas = wider / more spacious

Indonesian often leaves the comparison target implicit if it’s clear from context. Here, it means:

kamar terlihat lebih luas
→ the room looks more spacious (than before / than when the curtain was closed and the mat was unrolled).

If you want to make the comparison explicit, you can add daripada (than):

kamar terlihat lebih luas daripada tadi
= the room looks more spacious than before.

Why is it kami and not kita for we? What’s the difference?

Indonesian distinguishes two types of we:

kami = we (not including you) → exclusive
kita = we (including you, the listener) → inclusive

In this sentence:

...lalu kami menggulung tikar...
means we in the story (the speaker and some others) did the action, not necessarily including the person being talked to.

Because it’s part of a narrative, kami is the natural choice: it refers to the group involved in the event, not automatically including the listener as part of that group.

Where does lebar-lebar go in the sentence? Could you say Ayah lebar-lebar membuka gordennya?

The normal, natural placement is:

Ayah membuka gordennya lebar-lebar.
→ Subject + verb + object + manner adverb.

In Indonesian, adverbs of manner (like pelan-pelan, cepat-cepat, lebar-lebar) most often go after the verb phrase or the object, not before the verb.

✅ Ayah membuka gordennya lebar-lebar. (natural)
❌ Ayah lebar-lebar membuka gordennya. (sounds odd and ungrammatical in standard Indonesian)

So keep lebar-lebar near the end of the clause, modifying how the opening is done.