Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Sungai di belakang rumah kami dangkal, kedalamannya hanya sampai lutut. - The river behind our house is shallow, its depth only reaches our knees.

Sungai di belakang rumah kami dangkal, kedalamannya hanya sampai lutut.

The river behind our house is shallow, its depth only reaches our knees.

Breakdown of Sungai di belakang rumah kami dangkal, kedalamannya hanya sampai lutut.

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Questions & Answers about Sungai di belakang rumah kami dangkal, kedalamannya hanya sampai lutut.

Why is there no word for “is” in “Sungai di belakang rumah kami dangkal”?

Indonesian usually does not use a separate verb like “is/are” (a copula) before adjectives.

Sungai di belakang rumah kami dangkal.
Literally: River behind house our shallow.
Natural English: The river behind our house is shallow.

The adjective dangkal itself functions as the predicate.
You only use adalah (a kind of “to be”) mainly:

before nouns:
Dia adalah dokter. = “He/She is a doctor.”
sometimes in more formal style before noun phrases or longer descriptions.

With simple adjectives like dangkal, besar, kecil, mahal, you normally don’t use adalah.

What does “di belakang rumah kami” literally mean, and how is it structured?

Breakdown:

di = at / in / on (location preposition)
belakang = back / behind
rumah = house
kami = we/our (excluding the person spoken to)

So di belakang rumah kami = “behind our house”.

Structure-wise:

di + [location noun] = at/in/on …
di belakang = at the back / behind
Then you add what it’s behind: rumah kami = our house.

The whole phrase “Sungai di belakang rumah kami” is “the river (that is) behind our house.” There’s no explicit “that is”; Indonesian often just puts the noun and its description next to each other.

Why is it “rumah kami” and not “rumah kita” or “rumahku”?

All three are possible, but they mean slightly different things:

rumah kami = our house (the speaker’s group, excluding the listener)
rumah kita = our house (the speaker’s group, including the listener)
rumahku = my house

So:

If the listener does not live there, rumah kami is natural.
If the listener also lives there, rumah kita fits better.
If you want to say it’s only your own house, use rumahku.

In many textbooks, kami = “we (not you)” and kita = “we (including you).” This distinction carries over to the possessive meaning too.

What does “dangkal” mean exactly, and how is it used?

dangkal is an adjective meaning “shallow” (the opposite of dalam = deep).

Usage is straightforward:

Sungai ini dangkal. = This river is shallow.
Kolamnya dangkal. = The pool is shallow.
Air di sini dangkal sekali. = The water here is very shallow.

It can also be used metaphorically (like English “shallow” about people or ideas), but in this sentence it’s purely physical depth.

How is “kedalamannya” formed, and what does each part mean?

kedalamannya is built from several pieces:

dalam = deep
ke- … -an = a prefix/suffix pair that often turns adjectives into abstract nouns (like “-ness” in English)
-nya = “its / his / her / their” or sometimes just “the” / “that” / “it” for something already known

So:

dalam → kedalaman = depth
kedalaman + -nya → kedalamannya = its depth / the depth (of that thing)

In this sentence:

Kedalamannya hanya sampai lutut.
= Its depth only reaches (the) knees.
= It’s only knee-deep.

The -nya here refers back to the river.

Is “-nya” in “kedalamannya” necessary? What changes if I remove it?

Both are possible, but with different nuance:

kedalaman = depth (in general, or as a bare noun)
kedalamannya = its depth / the depth (of that specific thing you’re talking about)

In context:

Kedalamannya hanya sampai lutut.
“Its depth is only up to (the) knee(s).”
Kedalaman hanya sampai lutut.
Grammatically okay, but feels more like “Depth only up to knees.”
Less clearly tied to the river you just mentioned; a bit more “headline style”.

In natural speech, you almost always use kedalamannya here.

Why is there no word like “my/our” in “sampai lutut”, even though English says “knee-deep” (implying my or someone’s knees)?

Indonesian often omits possessive pronouns when the possessor is obvious or irrelevant.

sampai lutut literally = “up to knee(s)”
Natural English: “up to the knees” / “knee-deep.”

If you really want to specify:

sampai lutut saya = up to my knees
sampai lututnya = up to his/her knees

But most of the time, Indonesians don’t bother specifying whose knees—context is enough. English tends to add “my/your/the”, but Indonesian doesn’t need to.

What does “sampai” mean here, and is it the same as “hingga”?

In this context, sampai means “up to / until / as far as.”

kedalamannya hanya sampai lutut
= its depth only reaches up to the knees.

You can often replace sampai with hingga:

kedalamannya hanya hingga lutut
This is also correct; hingga sounds a bit more formal or poetic, but the meaning is the same.

Other examples:

Airnya sampai pinggang. = The water is up to (your) waist.
Dia bekerja sampai malam. = He/She works until night.

Why is there a comma before “kedalamannya” in the sentence?

The comma is dividing the sentence into two related clauses:

Sungai di belakang rumah kami dangkal,
= The river behind our house is shallow,
kedalamannya hanya sampai lutut.
= its depth only reaches the knees.

You can think of the second part as giving additional information about how shallow the river is. English would usually make this a second clause with “and” or “it’s”:

“The river behind our house is shallow, (and) it’s only knee-deep.”

In Indonesian, you can join related ideas with a comma, especially when the subject of the second clause (its depth) is very clearly connected to the first part.

Could this sentence be said in a simpler or more colloquial way?

Yes, there are several more casual or slightly different ways to say the same idea:

Sungai di belakang rumah kami dangkal, cuma sedalam lutut.
- cuma = only (informal)
- sedalam = “as deep as”
  Meaning: “The river behind our house is shallow, only knee-deep.”
Sungai di belakang rumah kami dangkal, airnya cuma sampai lutut.
- airnya = the water (of it)
  Meaning: “The river behind our house is shallow; the water only comes up to the knees.”
Sungai di belakang rumah kami cuma sampai lutut.
(More compressed, informal)
Meaning: “The river behind our house is only knee-deep.”

The original sentence is clear and neutral; these versions just show typical everyday variations.