Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Kami menginap di wisma kecil itu untuk retret keluarga. - We stay overnight at that small guest house for a family retreat.

In Kami menginap di wisma kecil itu…, the speaker is talking about their group only, excluding the listener. If the retreat included the listener, you would say:

Kita menginap di wisma kecil itu untuk retret keluarga.
→ We (you and I / you all and I) are staying at that small guesthouse for a family retreat.

What exactly does menginap mean, and how is it different from tinggal?

Both can translate as to stay, but they’re used differently:

menginap
- to stay overnight, usually short-term (hotel, guesthouse, etc.)
- implies being a guest somewhere
- e.g. Kami menginap di hotel itu. – We stayed at that hotel.
tinggal
- to live, reside, or stay longer-term (home, city, etc.)
- e.g. Kami tinggal di Jakarta. – We live in Jakarta.

In the sentence, menginap is correct because a retreat is a short stay as guests.

How do we know this is past tense (“stayed”) when Indonesian verbs don’t change form?

Indonesian verbs don’t change for tense, so menginap itself is time-neutral. The tense comes from:

context (earlier sentences, time expressions like kemarin = yesterday)
optional particles/adverbs like sudah (already), akan (will)

So:

Kami menginap di wisma kecil itu…
can mean:
- We stayed… (past)
- We are staying… (present)
- We will stay… (future), if you add something like besok (tomorrow).

If you clearly want past, you can say:

Kami sudah menginap di wisma kecil itu untuk retret keluarga.
→ We have already stayed at that small guesthouse for a family retreat.

Why is the preposition di used, not ke?

In Indonesian:

di = at / in / on (location, where something/someone is)
ke = to / toward (movement, where someone is going)

Because menginap describes being/staying at a place (not the movement to it), you use di:

Kami menginap di wisma kecil itu – We stayed at that small guesthouse.
If you talk about going there, you’d use ke:
Kami pergi ke wisma kecil itu. – We went to that small guesthouse.

What does wisma mean, and how is it different from hotel?

wisma is a type of accommodation. Roughly:

wisma
- guesthouse, lodge, sometimes dorm-style
- often simpler/cheaper than a hotel
- sometimes used for government-owned or organization-owned lodging
hotel
- standard hotel, usually more commercial/formal

Other related words:

penginapan – lodging/accommodation (general term)
losmen – simple inn/cheap guesthouse (more old-fashioned or regional)

So wisma kecil itu is best thought of as that small guesthouse.

Why is the order wisma kecil itu and not itu wisma kecil?

The usual order in Indonesian is:

[noun] + [adjectives] + [determiner like ini/itu]

So:

wisma = guesthouse (noun)
kecil = small (adjective)
itu = that (determiner)

→ wisma kecil itu = that small guesthouse

You can say itu wisma kecil, but:

itu wisma kecil tends to sound more like you’re pointing something out (“that is a small guesthouse”) or putting strong emphasis on itu (“that one, the small guesthouse”).
wisma kecil itu is the neutral, typical way to say that small guesthouse as a noun phrase.

Why does kecil come after wisma? In English we say “small guesthouse,” not “guesthouse small.”

Indonesian adjective order is generally:

noun + adjective

Examples:

rumah besar – big house
mobil baru – new car
wisma kecil – small guesthouse

If you put kecil wisma, it’s not correct in standard Indonesian. So:

wisma kecil itu = that small guesthouse
literally: guesthouse small that

What is the function of itu here?

itu usually means that and acts as a demonstrative determiner, similar to that/the in English depending on context.

In wisma kecil itu, it:

makes the noun definite – a specific guesthouse
can correspond to English that or the:
- that small guesthouse (if you’re contrasting/pointing)
- the small guesthouse (if it’s already known in context)

Without itu, wisma kecil would just mean a small guesthouse (non-specific).

Could we say sebuah wisma kecil instead of wisma kecil itu? What’s the difference?

Yes, but the meaning changes from definite to indefinite:

wisma kecil itu
- that / the small guesthouse (specific, known, or visible)
sebuah wisma kecil
- a small guesthouse (any one, not previously specified)
- sebuah works like a/an for countable objects

So:

Kami menginap di wisma kecil itu…
→ We stayed at that small guesthouse (you and I know which one).
Kami menginap di sebuah wisma kecil…
→ We stayed at a small guesthouse (doesn’t matter which one, or not yet introduced).

What does untuk mean here, and could we use buat instead?

untuk most commonly means for or in order to.

In this sentence:

untuk retret keluarga = for a family retreat / for the family retreat
It expresses purpose: for the purpose of a family retreat.

You can use buat in informal speech:

Kami menginap di wisma kecil itu buat retret keluarga.

Differences:

untuk – more standard/formal or neutral
buat – casual/colloquial

Both are widely understood.

What does retret mean, and how is it used?

retret is a loanword from English “retreat”, and it has a similar meaning:

a planned time away for reflection, rest, team-building, or religious activities
common in religious, corporate, or family contexts:

Examples:

retret rohani – spiritual retreat
retret kantor – office/corporate retreat
retret keluarga – family retreat

Pronunciation is roughly reh-tret, with both t pronounced.

How does retret keluarga work grammatically? Is keluarga possessive here?

In retret keluarga:

retret = retreat (head noun)
keluarga = family (modifier)

This is a noun + noun compound, where the second noun describes the type of retreat:

retret keluarga = family retreat (a retreat for/with family)

If you want to say our family retreat, you add a pronoun:

retret keluarga kami – our family retreat
retret keluarga besar – extended family retreat (here besar is “large”)

Is this sentence formal, neutral, or informal? Are there more casual alternatives?

Kami menginap di wisma kecil itu untuk retret keluarga. is neutral, slightly leaning formal because of wisma and menginap.

A more casual version you might hear in speech:

Kita nginep di wisma kecil itu buat retret keluarga.
- kita instead of kami if including the listener
- nginep = colloquial form of menginap
- buat instead of untuk

You can adjust depending on who you’re talking to and the context.