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Pelayan di restoran kecil itu membantu kami memilih makanan.

Pelayan di restoran kecil itu membantu kami memilih makanan.
The waiter/waitress at that small restaurant helps us choose food.
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Questions & Answers about Pelayan di restoran kecil itu membantu kami memilih makanan.

What does pelayan mean exactly? Is it specifically “waiter” or more general like “server”?

Pelayan literally means attendant / server / helper, someone who serves others.

In this sentence, because it’s in a restaurant context, pelayan is best translated as “waiter / waitress / server”.

A few points:

  • It is not gender‑specific. Pelayan can refer to a man or a woman.
  • In other contexts it can mean servant or attendant, depending on the situation.
  • In casual speech, people often call restaurant staff with terms like mas (for a young man) or mbak (for a young woman), but pelayan is the neutral dictionary word for “waiter/server.”
What does di mean in di restoran kecil itu?

Di is a preposition that means “in / at / on” depending on the context.

  • di restoran kecil itu = “at that small restaurant” or “in that small restaurant”
  • It marks a location, similar to English “at” or “in”.

So the subject of the sentence is Pelayan di restoran kecil itu = “The waiter at that small restaurant”.

Why is the word order restoran kecil itu and not something like “kecil restoran itu”?

In Indonesian, the usual order is:

Noun + Adjective + Demonstrative

So:

  • restoran = restaurant (noun)
  • kecil = small (adjective)
  • itu = that (demonstrative)

Put together:

  • restoran kecil itu = “that small restaurant”

Compare:

  • buku baru itu = that new book
  • mobil merah itu = that red car

Adjectives normally come after the noun, not before it like in English.

What does itu mean here, and why is it at the end of restoran kecil itu?

Itu basically means “that”.

In restoran kecil itu:

  • restoran = restaurant
  • kecil = small
  • itu = that

So the whole phrase means “that small restaurant”.

In Indonesian, itu (that) and ini (this) usually come after the noun phrase:

  • restoran itu = that restaurant
  • restoran kecil itu = that small restaurant
  • buku ini = this book
  • buku tebal ini = this thick book
What’s the difference between restoran kecil itu and restoran itu kecil?

They look similar but mean different things.

  1. restoran kecil itu

    • This is a noun phrase.
    • It means “that small restaurant” (used as a subject or object).
    • Example: Pelayan di restoran kecil itu ramah.
      → The waiter at that small restaurant is friendly.

  2. restoran itu kecil

    • This is a full sentence / clause.
    • It means “that restaurant is small”.
    • Here, kecil is a predicate (like “is small”).

So:

  • restoran kecil itu: describing which restaurant (that small one).
  • restoran itu kecil: saying something about the restaurant (it is small).
How does membantu kami memilih makanan work grammatically? Why are there two verbs in a row?

The structure is:

  • membantu = to help
  • kami = us / we (exclusive)
  • memilih = to choose
  • makanan = food

So membantu kami memilih makanan literally is:

“helped us choose food” or “helped us to choose food”

In Indonesian, it’s normal to use the pattern: > [membantu] + [person] + [bare verb]

Examples:

  • Dia membantu saya memasak.
    He helped me cook.
  • Saya akan membantu kamu belajar.
    I will help you study.

No extra word like “to” is required between the verbs in Indonesian.

Could I say membantu kami untuk memilih makanan? Is untuk needed?

You can say membantu kami untuk memilih makanan, and it’s still correct, but:

  • In everyday Indonesian, untuk is often dropped in this structure.
  • membantu kami memilih makanan sounds more natural and fluent.

So:

  • membantu kami memilih makanan = very natural, common
  • membantu kami untuk memilih makanan = grammatically okay, slightly more formal or heavy in casual speech
Why is it kami and not kita? What’s the difference?

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

  • kami = we (not including the person spoken to) → exclusive “we”
  • kita = we (including the person spoken to) → inclusive “we”

In this sentence: > Pelayan di restoran kecil itu membantu kami memilih makanan.

kami implies:

  • The waiter helped “us”, but the listener is not part of that group.

If the speaker wanted to include the listener (for example, retelling something that happened to both of them), they would use kita:

  • Pelayan itu membantu kita memilih makanan.
    The waiter helped us (you and me) choose food.
What’s the difference between memilih and pilih?

Pilih is the root verb “choose / select”.
Memilih is the active transitive form with the prefix meN-.

Usage:

  • memilih

    • Used as the normal verb in sentences.
    • Example: Saya memilih makanan yang murah.
      I choose food that is cheap.

  • pilih

    • Root form, often seen in:
      • Commands: Pilih satu! (Choose one!)
      • Dictionaries and word lists
      • Some fixed expressions or when combined with prefixes/suffixes.

In your sentence, because it’s a normal active verb, memilih is the correct form.

Does makanan mean “food” in general, or a specific dish like “the food (on the menu)”?

Makanan literally means “food” (anything that is eaten).
It comes from the verb makan (to eat) + the noun-forming suffix -an.

In this sentence: > memilih makanan

It can mean:

  • “choose food” in general, or
  • “choose the food/dishes” (from the menu)

Indonesian does not have articles like “a” or “the”, so makanan can be:

  • food
  • the food
  • some food

The exact nuance comes from context, not from the word form itself.

How do I know if the sentence is in the past or present? There’s no past tense marker.

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense (no -ed, no -s, etc.).

Membantu by itself can mean:

  • helps (present)
  • helped (past)
  • will help (future)

The tense is understood from context or from time words:

  • kemarin = yesterday
  • tadi = earlier
  • sekarang = now
  • nanti = later

Examples:

  • Kemarin, pelayan ... membantu kami memilih makanan.
    Yesterday, the waiter helped us choose food.
  • Sekarang, pelayan ... membantu kami memilih makanan.
    Now, the waiter is helping us choose food.

In isolation, Pelayan di restoran kecil itu membantu kami memilih makanan. is most naturally understood as past in English, but grammatically it’s neutral.

Can I move di restoran kecil itu to the front of the sentence?

Yes, Indonesian word order is flexible for emphasis.

You can say:

  • Pelayan di restoran kecil itu membantu kami memilih makanan.
    → Neutral: “The waiter at that small restaurant helped us…”

or:

  • Di restoran kecil itu, pelayan membantu kami memilih makanan.
    → Emphasizes the location: “At that small restaurant, the waiter helped us…”

Both are grammatically correct. The difference is mainly in focus/emphasis, not in basic meaning.

Why isn’t there a yang before di restoran kecil itu, like Pelayan yang di restoran kecil itu?

Yang is used to introduce a relative clause or to highlight a description, often like “who/that/which” in English.

You would use yang when the phrase after it is more like a clause, for example:

  • Pelayan yang bekerja di restoran kecil itu ramah.
    The waiter who works at that small restaurant is friendly.

In your sentence:

  • di restoran kecil itu is just a simple prepositional phrase (“at that small restaurant”) directly describing pelayan.
  • There’s no verb inside that phrase (no “who works/lives/stands”), so yang is not needed.

So:

  • Pelayan di restoran kecil itu... = The waiter at that small restaurant...
  • Pelayan yang di restoran kecil itu... sounds incomplete/awkward, like “The waiter who is at that small restaurant…” but missing a continuation.