Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Di dapur, kami memakai blender untuk membuat jus buah setiap pagi. - In the kitchen, we use a blender to make fruit juice every morning.

Preposition di (separate word)
- Always written separately from the noun.
- Example: di dapur (in the kitchen), di rumah (at home), di sekolah (at school).
Prefix di- (attached to verbs)
- Used to form passive verbs.
- Always written together with the verb.
- Example: dimakan (is/was eaten), dimasak (is/was cooked).

So:

di dapur = preposition + noun (place)
dimasak = passive verb (prefix + verb)

You must not write didapur in this sentence; that would be wrong.

Can I move di dapur to another position, like in English? Is the comma necessary?

Yes, the position is flexible.

All of these are grammatical and natural:

Di dapur, kami memakai blender untuk membuat jus buah setiap pagi.
Kami memakai blender di dapur untuk membuat jus buah setiap pagi.
Kami memakai blender untuk membuat jus buah di dapur setiap pagi. (less common, but still okay; slightly odd emphasis)

Notes:

Putting di dapur at the beginning (as in the original) is common when you want to set the location as background information.
The comma after Di dapur is:
- Often used in writing, especially when an adverbial phrase comes first.
- Not strictly required in informal writing.
- So “Di dapur kami memakai …” is also acceptable, though the comma is clear and standard.

What’s the difference between kami and kita, and why is kami used here?

Both mean “we / us”, but:

kami = we (NOT including the person you’re talking to) → exclusive “we”
kita = we (INCLUDING the person you’re talking to) → inclusive “we”

In this sentence:

kami memakai blender… implies:
- The speaker + someone else use the blender.
- The listener is not part of that group (for example, the speaker is talking about their own family’s routine to a friend).

If the speaker wanted to include the listener (e.g., talking to a housemate about a habit you both share), they would say:

Di dapur, kita memakai blender untuk membuat jus buah setiap pagi.

I learned pakai means “to wear/use”. What’s the difference between pakai, memakai, and menggunakan here?

All three can be used with blender and all mean roughly “use (a blender)”, but they differ in formality and style:

pakai
- Base verb.
- Very common in spoken, informal Indonesian.
- Example: Kami pakai blender untuk membuat jus buah.
memakai
- From meN- + pakai.
- Slightly more neutral/formal than plain pakai.
- Fine in conversation, writing, and this sentence.
- Example: Kami memakai blender…
menggunakan
- From meN- + guna (use).
- Sounds more formal / technical.
- Often used in instructions, manuals, or more formal writing.
- Example: Kami menggunakan blender untuk membuat jus buah.

In everyday speech:

Kami pakai blender… and Kami memakai blender… are both very natural.
Kami menggunakan blender… sounds more like written or formal style, but still correct.

Can memakai really be used for a blender? I thought it meant “to wear” clothes.

Yes, memakai can mean both “to wear” and “to use”:

To wear
- Dia memakai baju merah. = He/She is wearing a red shirt.
To use
- Kami memakai blender. = We use a blender.
- Saya tidak memakai gula. = I don’t use sugar.

So using memakai with blender is completely natural and correct.
In many contexts, memakai ≈ “to use”, especially with tools, methods, or materials.

What is the function of untuk in untuk membuat jus buah?

Untuk means “for / in order to / to (do something)” when followed by a verb.

In this sentence:

memakai blender untuk membuat jus buah
= “use a blender to make fruit juice”
(literally: use a blender for making fruit juice)

Structure:

untuk + verb → expresses purpose:
- Saya belajar bahasa Indonesia untuk bekerja di Jakarta.
  I’m learning Indonesian to work in Jakarta.
- Dia menabung untuk membeli rumah.
  He/She saves money to buy a house.

So untuk membuat jus buah answers the question “for what purpose?” / “to do what?”.

Why is it membuat and not just buat or bikin?

All three can appear in real Indonesian, but they differ in form and formality:

buat
- Base verb meaning “make”.
- Often used without the meN- prefix in casual speech, especially in some regions:
  - Kami buat jus buah setiap pagi. (very conversational)
- In more standard/neutral style, you use membuat.
membuat
- From meN- + buat → membuat.
- Standard, neutral form; suitable for writing, textbooks, and polite speech.
- That’s why it’s used in your example sentence.
bikin
- Informal synonym of buat = “make”.
- Very common in everyday conversation:
  - Kami bikin jus buah setiap pagi.

So:

Textbook/neutral: membuat
Casual spoken: buat or bikin
All are understandable; choice depends mostly on formality and context.

How is jus buah structured? Why not buah jus?

In Indonesian, the main noun usually comes first, and the word(s) after it modify or specify it.

So:

jus buah
- jus = juice (main noun)
- buah = fruit (describing what kind of juice)
- Together: fruit juice.

You generally do not say buah jus to mean “fruit juice”; that sounds like “fruit of juice” and is not how Indonesians form this kind of phrase.

Other examples of this pattern:

kue cokelat = chocolate cake (literally “cake chocolate”)
teh manis = sweet tea (literally “tea sweet”)
susu cokelat = chocolate milk (literally “milk chocolate”)

So: [main noun] + [describer] → like “juice fruit” = fruit juice.

Can I just say jus instead of jus buah?

Yes, often you can.

jus alone already suggests “juice”, and in many everyday contexts that will be understood as fruit juice, especially if you’re talking about breakfast.

Differences in nuance:

jus buah
- Explicitly fruit juice (as opposed to vegetable juice, etc.).
- Slightly more specific/complete.
jus
- Just juice.
- Context decides the type:
  - jus jeruk = orange juice
  - jus apel = apple juice
  - jus wortel = carrot juice
  - jus buah = fruit juice in general

In your sentence, jus buah just makes it clear you’re talking about fruit juice in general.

What does setiap pagi mean exactly, and are there common alternatives?

Setiap pagi means “every morning”.

Common alternatives:

tiap pagi
- Means the same: “every morning”.
- Slightly more informal/shorter, very common in speech.
setiap hari pagi
- Literally “every day morning” – understandable but sounds a bit clumsy; people usually just say setiap pagi.
pagi-pagi or pagi-pagi sekali
- Means “early in the morning / very early in the morning”.
- Focuses more on early time, not on repetition every day.

So for “every morning” as a routine, setiap pagi or tiap pagi are the best choices.

Can setiap pagi go in other positions in the sentence?

Yes, it’s quite flexible. All of these are natural:

Di dapur, kami memakai blender untuk membuat jus buah setiap pagi.
Setiap pagi, di dapur kami memakai blender untuk membuat jus buah.
Kami memakai blender untuk membuat jus buah setiap pagi di dapur. (possible, but the end becomes a bit heavy)
Kami memakai blender setiap pagi untuk membuat jus buah di dapur.

The most natural/common patterns are:

Di dapur, kami … setiap pagi.
Kami … di dapur setiap pagi.
Setiap pagi, kami … di dapur.

Indonesian word order is quite flexible for time and place phrases; they just need to stay clearly attached to the right clause.

How is tense shown in kami memakai blender? Does it mean “we use” or “we are using” or “we used”?

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense.
Memakai stays the same for past, present, and future.

kami memakai blender can mean:

we use a blender (habit, present simple)
we are using a blender (right now, present continuous)
we used a blender (past)
we will use a blender (future, with the right context or time word)

The time expressions and context give the tense meaning:

setiap pagi → shows a habit, like English present simple:
- We use a blender every morning.

If you wanted to be clearer about time, you could add:

tadi pagi kami memakai blender = this morning we used a blender
besok pagi kami akan memakai blender = tomorrow morning we will use a blender

How do you pronounce memakai, membuat, and jus?

Approximate pronunciations (using English-like spelling):

memakai → mə-MA-kai
- me = “meh” or a reduced “mə”
- ma = “mah”
- kai = like English “kai” in “sky”
membuat → məm-BOO-at
- mem = “məm” (like “mum” but with e/ə)
- bu = “boo”
- at = “ut”/“at”, final t is often soft
jus → joos
- Pretty much like English “juice”, but written jus.

Stress is typically on the second syllable in memakai (me-MA-kai) and often on -buat in membuat, but Indonesian stress is generally not as strong or contrastive as in English.

Is blender just the English word “blender”? Is there another Indonesian word for it?

Yes, blender in Indonesian is a loanword from English “blender”, and it’s the standard, normal word people use.

Spelling: blender
Pronunciation: close to BLEN-der (short “e” like in “bed”).

There’s no commonly used “pure Indonesian” alternative in everyday speech.
So using blender in kami memakai blender is exactly what native speakers say.