Polisi menolong anak kecil di jalan berbahaya.

The police help the small child on the dangerous road.

Breakdown of Polisi menolong anak kecil di jalan berbahaya.

• kecil: small
• di: on
• anak: the child
• jalan: the road
• polisi: the police
• berbahaya: dangerous
• menolong: to help

Questions & Answers about Polisi menolong anak kecil di jalan berbahaya.

Does polisi mean the police officer (singular) or the police (plural) here?

Polisi can be either singular or plural; Indonesian doesn’t mark this in the word itself.

• It can mean:
  • a police officer / the police officer
  • the police (as an institution or group)

In this sentence, Polisi menolong anak kecil di jalan berbahaya, the most natural mental picture is “a police officer helped a small child on a dangerous road,” but context would decide. Without extra words like seorang polisi (a police officer) or para polisi (the police officers / several police), the sentence is intentionally vague about number and definiteness.

Where is the tense? How do we know if this is helped, is helping, or will help?

Indonesian verbs usually do not change form for tense. Menolong just means to help / helping in general.

Polisi menolong anak kecil di jalan berbahaya can mean:

• “The police helped a small child on a dangerous road.”
• “The police are helping a small child on a dangerous road.”
• “The police will help a small child on a dangerous road.” (less common without a time word)

Tense is normally shown by:

• time expressions: tadi, kemarin, besok, sekarang, etc.
• aspect markers: sudah (already), sedang (in the middle of), akan (will), etc.

For example:

• Polisi sedang menolong anak kecil di jalan berbahaya.
  “The police are helping a small child on a dangerous road.”
• Polisi sudah menolong anak kecil di jalan berbahaya.
  “The police have already helped a small child on a dangerous road.”

What is the role of menolong here? Is it active or passive?

Menolong is an active transitive verb (it takes a direct object).

• Polisi = subject (doer)
• menolong = verb (to help)
• anak kecil = direct object (the one being helped)

So the structure is: Subject – Verb – Object – Place.

To make it passive (“The small child was helped by the police”), you would typically say:

• Anak kecil itu ditolong polisi di jalan berbahaya.
  Literally: “That small child was helped (by) the police on the dangerous road.”

What is the difference between menolong and membantu?

Both menolong and membantu can translate as to help. In many contexts they’re interchangeable, but there’s a slight nuance:

• Menolong often feels a bit more like helping someone in trouble / rescuing, with a hint of “saving” or “coming to someone’s aid.”
• Membantu is more neutral: to assist, to help, in any situation.

In this sentence:

• Polisi menolong anak kecil di jalan berbahaya.
  Suggests helping a child who is in some kind of danger or risk.
• Polisi membantu anak kecil di jalan berbahaya.
  Still fine, but menolong fits especially well with berbahaya (dangerous).

What does anak kecil literally mean, and is it just “small child” or does it have another feel?

Literally:

• anak = child
• kecil = small

So anak kecil literally is small child. But in everyday Indonesian, anak kecil is also a very common way to say little kid or young child in general, not always focusing on physical size.

Examples:

• Jangan bicara seperti itu di depan anak kecil.
  “Don’t talk like that in front of little kids.”
• Dia masih anak kecil.
  “He/She is still just a kid.”

So in your sentence, it’s very natural and idiomatic.

Is kecil an adjective, and is it normal that it comes after anak?

Yes, kecil is an adjective meaning small / little.

In Indonesian, adjectives usually come after the noun:

• anak kecil = small child
• mobil baru = new car
• rumah besar = big house

So anak kecil (not kecil anak) is the normal, correct order.

Does di jalan berbahaya describe the verb (where the helping happened) or the child (the child who is on the dangerous road)?

Grammatically, di jalan berbahaya is a prepositional phrase of place and most naturally attaches to the verb phrase:

• “The police helped a small child on a dangerous road.”

That is, it tells us where the helping took place.

Could it describe the child? Contextually, yes; in meaning, we also imagine the child is on that dangerous road. But structurally, Indonesian readers will usually interpret it as “the helping happened at that place” rather than “the small child who is (in general) on dangerous roads.” To strongly attach it to the noun anak kecil, you could say:

• Polisi menolong anak kecil yang berada di jalan berbahaya.
  “The police helped the small child who was on the dangerous road.”

What exactly does di mean in di jalan berbahaya?

Di is a preposition of location, usually translated as in / at / on, depending on context.

• di jalan = on the road / in the street
• di rumah = at home / in the house
• di sekolah = at school

In di jalan berbahaya, di marks the location: “on/in a dangerous road.” English chooses on because of how English talks about roads; Indonesian just uses di for the general idea of location.

Why is it jalan berbahaya and not jalan bahaya? What does berbahaya mean?

Base words:

• bahaya = danger (a noun)
• berbahaya = dangerous (an adjective), formed with the prefix ber-

You can’t normally say jalan bahaya for “dangerous road.” You need the adjective form:

• jalan berbahaya = dangerous road
• situasi berbahaya = dangerous situation
• binatang berbahaya = dangerous animal

So berbahaya literally means “to have danger / to be dangerous.” The ber- prefix is one way Indonesian makes adjectives and intransitive verbs related to having/being something.

Do we need yang in jalan berbahaya? What’s the difference between jalan berbahaya and jalan yang berbahaya?

Both are correct, but there’s a nuance:

• jalan berbahaya
  = “dangerous road” (simple noun + adjective phrase). Feels like a basic description.
• jalan yang berbahaya
  = “the road that is dangerous” / “the one which is dangerous.”
  Adding yang can:
  • Emphasize or specify
  • Make it sound slightly more formal or relative-clause-like.

In your sentence, di jalan berbahaya is completely natural and normal. di jalan yang berbahaya would sound a bit more explicit or emphasized but not necessary.

Why is there no word for a or the before anak kecil or jalan berbahaya?

Indonesian generally does not use articles like a / an / the.

• anak kecil can be:
  • a small child
  • the small child
• jalan berbahaya can be:
  • a dangerous road
  • the dangerous road

Definiteness is shown by context or by extra words:

• anak kecil itu = that small child / the small child
• jalan berbahaya itu = that dangerous road / the dangerous road
• seorang anak kecil = one small child / a small child (emphasizing one person)

How would I say “The small child was helped by the police on the dangerous road” in Indonesian?

You can make it passive:

• Anak kecil itu ditolong polisi di jalan berbahaya itu.

Breakdown:

• Anak kecil itu = the small child (that small child)
• ditolong = was helped (passive form of menolong)
• polisi = by the police (the agent in a passive sentence)
• di jalan berbahaya itu = on that dangerous road

You could also slightly shorten it if context is clear:

• Anak kecil itu ditolong polisi di jalan berbahaya.
  “The small child was helped by the police on the dangerous road.”