Kami pergi ke perpustakaan setelah makan siang.

a

Breakdown of Kami pergi ke perpustakaan setelah makan siang.

• kami: we
• pergi: to go
• makan siang: the lunch

Questions & Answers about Kami pergi ke perpustakaan setelah makan siang.

What is the difference between kami and kita, and can I use kita instead of kami here?

Both mean we, but:

• kami = we (not including the person you’re talking to) → exclusive
• kita = we (including the person you’re talking to) → inclusive

In the sentence Kami pergi ke perpustakaan setelah makan siang, the speaker is saying “we” without including the listener.

If the listener also went to the library, you would normally say:

• Kita pergi ke perpustakaan setelah makan siang.
  We (you and I / all of us including you) went to the library after lunch.

So yes, you can use kita here, but only if the listener is part of that “we.”

There’s no past tense marking on pergi. How do Indonesians know it means “went” and not “go” or “will go”?

Indonesian verbs don’t change form for tense. Pergi can mean go / went / will go, depending on context.

Speakers use time words or situation context to show tense, for example:

• tadi = earlier
• kemarin = yesterday
• nanti = later
• akan = will
• sudah = already

You could make the sentence more explicitly past or future like this:

• Tadi kami pergi ke perpustakaan setelah makan siang.
  Earlier we went to the library after lunch.