Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Saya menginap di rumah nenek di desa kecil dekat sungai. - I stay overnight at my grandmother’s house in a small village near the river.

menginap = to stay overnight, to spend the night. It focuses on sleeping there, usually for a short visit.
- Saya menginap di rumah nenek. = I stayed overnight at Grandma’s house.
tinggal = to live/stay somewhere more generally, often long‑term or semi‑permanent.
- Saya tinggal di Jakarta. = I live in Jakarta.
- Saya tinggal di rumah nenek selama setahun. = I stayed/lived at Grandma’s house for a year.

In your sentence, it’s clearly a temporary overnight stay, so menginap is more accurate than tinggal.

Why is di repeated: di rumah nenek di desa kecil? Could we just say it once?

In Indonesian, it’s very natural (and common) to repeat di for each separate location phrase:

di rumah nenek = at Grandma’s house
di desa kecil = in a small village

Putting them together as di rumah nenek di desa kecil is like saying “at Grandma’s house, (which is) in a small village”.

Unlike English, you usually don’t “share” one di across multiple location phrases. You wouldn’t say:
✗ Saya menginap rumah nenek desa kecil… (incorrect)

So the repetition of di is normal and sounds natural.

Does rumah nenek mean “my grandmother’s house” or just “a grandmother’s house”? Where is “my”?

Literally, rumah nenek is “grandmother’s house” or “the grandma’s house” (no my is shown in the words).

Indonesian often omits possessive pronouns if context makes it obvious:

In a normal conversation about your family, rumah nenek will almost always be understood as “my grandmother’s house”.
If you want to be explicit, you can say:
- rumah nenek saya = my grandmother’s house
- rumah nenekku (less formal, with suffix -ku for my)

Without any context, rumah nenek can technically mean “a/that grandmother’s house”, but in everyday speech, people tend to interpret it as “my grandma’s house” when you’re talking about your own family.

Why is it desa kecil, not kecil desa? What is the rule for adjective word order?

In Indonesian, adjectives almost always come after the noun:

desa kecil = small village
rumah besar = big house
anak pintar = smart child

You do not say kecil desa for “small village”. That word order is wrong.

You can also use a relative clause with yang for emphasis or explanation:

desa yang kecil = the village that is small (more descriptive/contrastive)

But the basic rule: NOUN + ADJECTIVE (not adjective + noun).

Should it be dekat sungai or di dekat sungai or dekat dengan sungai? What’s the difference?

All three are possible, with small nuances:

dekat sungai – very common and conversational; dekat works like a preposition (“near the river”)
di dekat sungai – a bit more explicit/complete; literally “at near the river”
dekat dengan sungai – also correct; dengan works like “with” / “to”; slightly more formal or careful

In daily speech, dekat sungai or di dekat sungai are most natural. Your sentence:

di desa kecil dekat sungai is perfectly natural and fluent.

If you want to sound a bit more formal, you might say:

di desa kecil yang terletak di dekat sungai
(“in a small village that is located near the river”)

There is no word for “a” or “the” in di desa kecil dekat sungai. How do articles work in Indonesian?

Indonesian has no direct equivalents of English “a / an / the”. Nouns are usually bare:

desa kecil can mean “a small village” or “the small village”
sungai can mean “a river” or “the river”

Context tells you which English article to choose when translating.

If you specifically want to emphasize “a” (one, not specific), you can add a classifier like:

sebuah desa kecil = a small village (one village; buah is a general classifier)
seekor kucing = a cat (for animals)

But you don’t have to; desa kecil alone is completely normal.

Why is saya used here? Could I also say aku?

Both mean “I”, but they differ in formality and typical use:

saya – neutral/polite, used with strangers, in formal situations, in writing, and it’s the safest default.
aku – more intimate, used with friends, family, people your age or younger, songs, casual speech.

Your sentence with aku is also correct grammatically:

Aku menginap di rumah nenek di desa kecil dekat sungai.

Choose saya if you’re not sure about the relationship or want to sound polite.

Could we drop di and say Saya menginap rumah nenek?

No, that would be incorrect in standard Indonesian.

For locations, you normally need a preposition like:

di = at/in/on
ke = to
dari = from

So you say:

Saya menginap di rumah nenek. = I stayed (overnight) at Grandma’s house.

Leaving out di (menginap rumah nenek) sounds wrong to native speakers, except in some very informal dialects or regional speech, which learners should avoid copying.

Can the subject saya be dropped, like Menginap di rumah nenek…?

Yes, Indonesian often drops pronouns when the subject is clear from context, especially in informal speech or narration.

Menginap di rumah nenek di desa kecil dekat sungai.
could be understood as “(I/we/they) stayed at Grandma’s house in a small village near a river.”

However:

In learner Indonesian and in formal writing, it’s safer to keep the subject:
Saya menginap di rumah nenek…

So it’s possible to drop saya, but as a learner, you’ll be clearer and more natural if you keep it until you have a good feel for when omission sounds right.

What’s the difference between desa and kampung for “village”?

Both relate to the idea of a “village”, but with different flavors:

desa – more official/administrative; used in government terms, maps, formal writing.
- desa kecil = a small village (neutral/formal)
kampung – can mean “village, rural area, neighborhood”; more colloquial and can carry cultural or emotional nuance (hometown, one’s roots).
- kampung halaman = hometown
- kampung nelayan = fishing village

In your sentence, desa kecil sounds neutral and standard.
kampung kecil is possible, but would feel more colloquial and can suggest a modest, simple rural place.

How do we know this sentence is in the past (I stayed) if there is no past tense marker?

Indonesian verbs don’t change form for tense (no past/present/future conjugation). Menginap can mean:

I stay / am staying / stayed / will stay

Tense is understood from context, time expressions, or extra words:

Kemarin saya menginap di rumah nenek.
Yesterday I stayed at Grandma’s house.
Saya sudah menginap di rumah nenek.
I have already stayed at Grandma’s house.
Besok saya akan menginap di rumah nenek.
Tomorrow I will stay at Grandma’s house.

Your bare sentence Saya menginap di rumah nenek… is often translated as past (“I stayed”) in English, but grammatically in Indonesian it’s tense-neutral.

Is the order di rumah nenek di desa kecil dekat sungai fixed, or can I rearrange these location phrases?

The order in your sentence goes from more specific to less specific in a natural way:

di rumah nenek – most specific location (the house)
di desa kecil – the village containing that house
dekat sungai – broader area (near a river)

This mirrors English: “at Grandma’s house in a small village near a river.”

You technically can rearrange some parts, but many alternatives will sound odd or change the focus:

✗ Saya menginap di desa kecil dekat sungai di rumah nenek.
Sounds clumsy; we expect the house first, then where it is.

The safest, most natural order is exactly what you have:

Saya menginap di rumah nenek di desa kecil dekat sungai.