Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Jam di dapur sudah menunjukkan pukul delapan. - The clock in the kitchen already shows eight o'clock.

jam
- Can mean “clock” (the physical object).
- Can also mean “o’clock / hour” in many time expressions.
- Example: Jam berapa sekarang? = What time is it now?
pukul
- In time expressions, it’s like “o’clock / at (a certain) time”.
- You’ll most often see it in a more formal or precise context, especially for schedules:
  - Rapat mulai pukul tiga. = The meeting starts at three o’clock.

In this sentence:

Jam = the clock (subject).
pukul delapan = eight o’clock (the time being shown).

Why do we say pukul delapan instead of just delapan?

Indonesian usually doesn’t say “It shows eight” alone; you specify that it’s a time:

pukul delapan = eight o’clock (time)
just delapan = the number eight (could be 8 items, 8 people, etc.)

So menunjukkan pukul delapan clearly means “shows 8 o’clock”, not “shows the number 8” in some other context.

In more casual speech, you might hear:

Jam di dapur sudah jam delapan.
Sudah jam delapan.

Here jam delapan plays the same role as pukul delapan, but is more everyday / informal.

What does sudah add to the meaning? Is it just past tense?

Sudah mainly means “already”, not a tense marker like English past tense.

In this sentence:

Jam di dapur menunjukkan pukul delapan.
= The clock in the kitchen shows eight o’clock. (neutral)
Jam di dapur sudah menunjukkan pukul delapan.
= The clock in the kitchen already shows eight o’clock.

Nuances of sudah here:

Emphasizes that the time has reached eight.
Often implies:
- it’s later than expected, or
- a change has occurred (before: not eight, now: already eight).

Indonesian doesn’t mark tense with verb endings. Time is usually shown by:

adverbs like sudah (already), belum (not yet), tadi (earlier), nanti (later), etc.
context.

Why use menunjukkan (“shows”) at all? Could I say the same thing more simply?

You don’t have to use menunjukkan; it just makes the sentence very explicit.

Jam di dapur sudah menunjukkan pukul delapan.
= The clock in the kitchen already shows eight o’clock. (explicit: the clock is indicating the time)

Common, simpler alternatives:

Jam di dapur sudah jam delapan.
Jam di dapur sudah pukul delapan.
Sudah jam delapan. (very common: It’s already eight o’clock.)
Sekarang jam delapan. = It’s eight o’clock now.

So menunjukkan is stylistic; it’s not required. It sounds a bit more descriptive or written, as if you really picture the clock’s hands showing the time.

Is jam here “clock” or “o’clock”? How do I know?

Context and position tell you:

In Jam di dapur sudah menunjukkan …, jam is at the start, before a prepositional phrase (di dapur), and followed by a verb.
→ That’s the typical subject position, so jam = “clock” (the object hanging in the kitchen).

If it were time:

Sekarang jam delapan. = It’s eight o’clock now. (jam = o’clock)
Sudah jam delapan. = It’s already eight. (jam = o’clock)

So:

Subject + location + verb → jam = “clock”
(Time adverb) + jam + number → jam = “o’clock”

Can I change the word order, like putting di dapur first?

Yes. Indonesian word order is quite flexible, as long as the structure stays clear. All of these are natural with slightly different emphasis:

Jam di dapur sudah menunjukkan pukul delapan.
- Neutral; focus on “the clock in the kitchen.”
Di dapur, jam sudah menunjukkan pukul delapan.
- Emphasizes the location first: “In the kitchen, the clock…”
Sudah pukul delapan, jam di dapur menunjukkan.
- Less common; sounds somewhat stylistic or literary.
Di dapur sudah pukul delapan.
- Sounds like: “In the kitchen it’s already eight o’clock” (context-dependent, a bit vague without “clock”).

The original is the clearest “plain” sentence in everyday usage.

How would I say “What time is the clock in the kitchen showing?” in Indonesian?

You can turn the time part (pukul delapan) into a question word (pukul berapa):

Jam di dapur menunjukkan pukul berapa?
= What time is the clock in the kitchen showing?

Other natural variations:

Jam di dapur sekarang menunjukkan pukul berapa?
More casual: Jam di dapur sekarang jam berapa?

How would I just say “It’s already eight o’clock” without mentioning the kitchen or a clock?

Most natural options:

Sudah jam delapan.
Sekarang sudah jam delapan.
Sudah pukul delapan. (a bit more formal / neutral than jam delapan)

All of these work like English “It’s already eight o’clock,” with no explicit subject “it.” Indonesian doesn’t need a dummy subject like English it for time expressions.

How do Indonesians express “was showing eight o’clock” vs “is showing eight o’clock”? There’s no tense in menunjukkan, right?

Correct: menunjukkan itself has no tense. The difference comes from time words and context.

Jam di dapur sudah menunjukkan pukul delapan.
Usually understood as now (present), unless context says otherwise.

To make it clearly past:

Tadi jam di dapur sudah menunjukkan pukul delapan.
= Earlier, the clock in the kitchen was already showing eight o’clock.
Waktu saya masuk, jam di dapur sudah menunjukkan pukul delapan.
= When I came in, the kitchen clock was already showing eight o’clock.

So: add tadi, waktu…, kemarin, etc. to mark past time.

Why is it di dapur and not pada dapur? And how is that different from saying “at eight o’clock”?

For location (place):

di = in / at / on (most common place preposition)
- di dapur = in the kitchen
- di sekolah = at school
pada is generally not used for physical locations like “in the kitchen” in everyday speech.

For time:

You don’t say di pukul delapan. Instead, you typically use pukul or jam without any preposition:
- pukul delapan = at eight o’clock
- jam delapan = at eight o’clock (more casual / general)

So:

di dapur = in the kitchen (place)
pukul delapan / jam delapan = at eight o’clock (time)
You wouldn’t say pada dapur or di pukul delapan in this context.