Anak-anak menari bersama di ruang tamu saat musik pop kesukaan mereka diputar.

The children dance together in the living room when their favorite pop music is played.

Breakdown of Anak-anak menari bersama di ruang tamu saat musik pop kesukaan mereka diputar.

• di: in
• bersama: together
• musik: the music
• ruang tamu: the living room
• anak: the child
• saat: when
• pop: pop
• mereka: their
• menari: to dance
• kesukaan: favorite
• diputar: to be played

Questions & Answers about Anak-anak menari bersama di ruang tamu saat musik pop kesukaan mereka diputar.

Why is anak repeated as anak-anak? Does that always mean plural?

In Indonesian, repeating a noun (reduplication) is one common way to show plurality.

• anak = child
• anak-anak = children

So anak-anak clearly indicates more than one child.

However, Indonesian doesn’t require a visible plural form every time. Plural can also be understood from:

• context: Banyak anak bermain di luar. = Many children are playing outside.
• numbers: Tiga anak bermain. = Three children are playing.

So:

• Anak-anak menari. = Children are dancing. (plural shown by reduplication)
• Banyak anak menari. = Many children are dancing. (plural shown by banyak)
• Anak menari. could mean a child is dancing or children are dancing, depending on context.

Using anak-anak here makes it very clear that it’s a group of children.

Could we write anak anak without the hyphen, or is anak-anak required?

Standard Indonesian spelling uses a hyphen for reduplication:

• Correct: anak-anak, orang-orang, buku-buku
• Non‑standard / informal: anak anak, anak2

In:

• formal writing → you should write anak-anak
• casual texting / chats → people often write anak2, org2, etc.

So in a proper sentence like this one, anak-anak with a hyphen is the correct form.

Why do we use menari here and not something like berdansa or menarikan?

All three exist, but they’re used differently:

1. menari

   • Root: tari (dance)
   • Meaning: to dance (general)
   • Common and neutral: Anak-anak menari. = The children dance.

2. berdansa

   • Loan from dance (English)
   • Often used for social/partner dancing (ballroom, club, etc.), but also fairly general in casual speech.
   • Anak-anak berdansa is understandable, but menari sounds more natural for kids happily dancing around to music.

3. menarikan

   • Transitive: to perform a specific dance/song
   • Often used with a specific object:
     
     • Dia menarikan tarian tradisional. = He/She performs a traditional dance.
   • You wouldn’t normally say Anak-anak menarikan without mentioning what dance they’re performing.

So menari is the simplest and most natural choice here.

What is the function of bersama in this sentence? How is it different from bersama-sama or bersama dengan?

bersama means together / with (someone).

• Anak-anak menari bersama = The children dance together.

Related forms:

1. bersama

   • Already means “together”.
   • Can be followed by an object:
     
     • Saya makan bersama teman-teman. = I eat together with my friends.

2. bersama-sama

   • Adds emphasis; “together” in a stronger sense (all of us, as a group).
   • Mereka bekerja bersama-sama. = They really work all together.

3. bersama dengan

   • More explicit, a bit more formal:
   • Saya tinggal bersama dengan orang tua. = I live together with my parents.
   • Often shortened to just bersama in everyday speech.

In the sentence, menari bersama is perfectly natural; menari bersama-sama is also correct but a bit more emphatic.

Why is di used in di ruang tamu? How is di different from pada?

di and pada are both prepositions, but they’re used differently:

• di is mostly for locations/places:

  • di rumah = at home
  • di kantor = at the office
  • di ruang tamu = in the living room

• pada is more often used for:

  • time: pada hari Senin = on Monday
  • abstract things: pada kesempatan ini = on this occasion
  • sometimes for people in formal language: berbicara pada guru = speak to the teacher

So di ruang tamu is the natural choice for “in the living room.”
Pada ruang tamu would sound wrong in everyday Indonesian.

Why is it ruang tamu and not ruangan tamu? What exactly does ruang tamu mean?

ruang tamu literally means “guest room”, but in everyday usage it corresponds to “living room” in a typical house.

• ruang = room/space (often as part of a compound)
• tamu = guest

ruangan is a derivative noun meaning “room (as a physical enclosed space)”, and it’s often used more generally:

• ruangan kelas = classroom
• ruangan rapat = meeting room

For the specific part of the house where you receive guests, the fixed expression is ruang tamu, not ruangan tamu.
People will understand ruangan tamu, but it sounds non-standard/odd; ruang tamu is the normal collocation.

In saat musik pop kesukaan mereka diputar, what does saat mean, and how is it different from ketika or waktu?

Here, saat means “when” / “at the time (that)”.

• saat musik pop kesukaan mereka diputar
  = when their favorite pop music is played.

Comparison:

• saat

  • neutral, common in both spoken and written language.
  • Often used for “at the moment when …”

• ketika

  • also means “when (something happens)”
  • often slightly more formal or narrative, but also common in speech.
  • You can freely replace saat here:
    
    • ketika musik pop kesukaan mereka diputar

• waktu

  • As a noun: waktu = time.
  • Colloquially used like “when”:
    
    • Waktu musik pop kesukaan mereka diputar, anak-anak menari.
  • Feels a bit more informal here.

In most everyday contexts, saat and ketika are interchangeable in sentences like this.

What does musik pop kesukaan mereka literally mean? How does kesukaan work?

Breakdown:

• musik = music
• pop = pop (genre)
• mereka = they / their
• suka = to like
• kesukaan = favorite (something that is liked)

kesukaan is formed from:

• suka (to like)
• prefix ke- and suffix -an → kesukaan (thing that someone likes / favorite)

So:

• musik pop kesukaan mereka
  = their favorite pop music
  (literally “pop music [of] their liking”).

You can think of the pattern as:

• X kesukaan Y = Y’s favorite X
  
  • makanan kesukaan saya = my favorite food
  • film kesukaan dia = his/her favorite film

Could we also say musik pop favorit mereka instead of musik pop kesukaan mereka? Is there any difference?

Yes, musik pop favorit mereka is also correct and natural.

• favorit is a loanword from English favorite.
• kesukaan is built from the native verb suka.

Nuance:

• favorit sounds a bit more modern/informal, but it’s very common.
• kesukaan sounds slightly more “Indonesian” or neutral.

Both are standard and you will hear both in everyday speech:

• Itu lagu favorit saya.
• Itu lagu kesukaan saya.

In this sentence, musik pop kesukaan mereka and musik pop favorit mereka are essentially equivalent.

Why is diputar used instead of memutar? What does diputar tell us about the grammar?

The root verb is putar = to turn / to play (music, video, etc.).

• memutar = to play / to spin something (active voice)

  • Mereka memutar musik pop. = They play pop music.

• diputar = is/are played (passive voice)

  • Musik pop diputar. = Pop music is played.

In musik pop kesukaan mereka diputar:

• musik pop kesukaan mereka is the subject (the thing being played).
• diputar is the passive verb, indicating something plays it, but we don’t say who.

So the structure is like:

• “the children dance together in the living room when their favorite pop music is being played.”

Indonesian often uses the passive di- form when:

• the doer doesn’t matter or is obvious from context, or
• you want to focus on the object (here: the music), not on the person who presses play.

If I wanted to mention who played the music, how could I change diputar?

You have two main options:

1. Keep the passive and add an agent:

   • Musik pop kesukaan mereka diputar oleh ayah mereka.
     = Their favorite pop music is played by their father.

2. Use the active form:

   • Mereka memutar musik pop kesukaan mereka.
     = They play their favorite pop music.

Then combine with the rest:

• Anak-anak menari bersama di ruang tamu saat musik pop kesukaan mereka diputar oleh ayah mereka.
• Anak-anak menari bersama di ruang tamu saat mereka memutar musik pop kesukaan mereka.

Both are grammatically correct; the choice is about which part you want to emphasize (the children vs. the music vs. the person playing it).

How do we know whether this sentence is in the past, present, or future? There’s no tense marking.

Indonesian verbs don’t change form for tense (no equivalent of dance / danced / will dance).

Anak-anak menari bersama di ruang tamu saat musik pop kesukaan mereka diputar.
by itself can mean:

• The children are dancing together … (present, with the right context)
• The children were dancing together … (past, in a story)
• The children will be dancing together … (future, with context)

To make tense clearer, speakers often add time words or aspect markers:

• sedang (in the middle of doing something, present/ongoing)

  • Anak-anak sedang menari bersama… = The children are dancing together…

• Past:

  • tadi = earlier, just now
  • kemarin = yesterday
  • tadi malam = last night
  • Tadi anak-anak menari bersama… = Earlier, the children were dancing…

• Future:

  • akan = will
  • nanti = later
  • besok = tomorrow
  • Nanti anak-anak akan menari bersama… = Later, the children will dance…

So tense is read from context or from extra words, not from verb changes.

Can we change the word order, for example put di ruang tamu earlier or move bersama?

Yes, Indonesian word order is fairly flexible, as long as the relationships stay clear.

Variations that are still natural:

• Anak-anak menari bersama di ruang tamu saat musik pop kesukaan mereka diputar.
• Anak-anak menari di ruang tamu bersama saat musik pop kesukaan mereka diputar. (less common, but understandable)
• Di ruang tamu, anak-anak menari bersama saat musik pop kesukaan mereka diputar. (fronting the location for emphasis)

What you generally don’t change:

• The tight unit musik pop kesukaan mereka should stay together.
• diputar should follow its subject musik pop kesukaan mereka in this passive structure.

So you can move some adverbial phrases around, but keep noun phrases and verb phrases internally ordered.

Is bersama required? What changes if we drop it?

Without bersama, the sentence becomes:

• Anak-anak menari di ruang tamu saat musik pop kesukaan mereka diputar.

This still means the children are dancing in the living room when their favorite pop music is played, but it no longer explicitly says “together”.

In many contexts, anak-anak menari already suggests a group dancing, but:

• menari bersama makes it explicit that it’s a shared activity, not each child dancing separately at different times or places.

So bersama adds clarity about them dancing with each other, not just individually.