Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Nenek mengajari saya menjahit kancing yang lepas di baju. - Grandmother teaches me to sew on a button that has come off my shirt.

Nenek mengajari saya menjahit kancing yang lepas di baju.

Grandmother teaches me to sew on a button that has come off my shirt.

Breakdown of Nenek mengajari saya menjahit kancing yang lepas di baju.

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Questions & Answers about Nenek mengajari saya menjahit kancing yang lepas di baju.

Why is it Nenek and not nenek saya? Does Nenek here mean “my grandmother” or “grandmothers in general”?

In this sentence, Nenek is being used like a name or title and means “Grandma / my grandmother”.

In Indonesian, kinship terms (like Nenek, Ibu, Ayah, Kakak, etc.) are often used:

Without a possessive word (saya, aku, dia)
And still understood as “my …”, “your …”, etc. depending on context.

So:

Nenek mengajari saya… ≈ “My grandma taught me…”
Ibu marah sama saya. ≈ “My mom is mad at me.”

If you say nenek saya, it’s also correct and explicit:

Nenek saya mengajari saya menjahit… = “My grandmother taught me to sew…”

Using just Nenek feels:

More intimate / conversational, as if you’re talking about your grandma to someone who already knows who you mean.

What is the difference between mengajar, mengajari, and mengajarkan, and why is mengajari used here?

All three are related to ajar (“to teach”), but they focus on different things.

mengajar
- Basic verb: “to teach”
- Often used when the object is a subject / field of study.
- Examples:
  - Dia mengajar matematika. = He/She teaches math.
  - Dia mengajar di sekolah. = He/She teaches at a school.
mengajari (with suffix -i)
- Pattern: meng- + ajar + -i
- Focuses on the person being taught.
- The typical structure is:
  [Teacher] mengajari [person] [skill/thing]
- Example:
  - Nenek mengajari saya menjahit.
    Grandma taught me to sew.
In your sentence:
- Nenek = teacher
- saya = person being taught
- menjahit kancing yang lepas di baju = what is taught
That’s why mengajari is natural here.
mengajarkan (with suffix -kan)
- Pattern: meng- + ajar + -kan
- Focuses more on the thing being taught.
- Often structured as:
  [Teacher] mengajarkan [subject/skill] (kepada [person])
- Example:
  - Nenek mengajarkan menjahit kepada saya.
    Grandma teaches sewing to me.

In conversation:

mengajari saya menjahit and mengajarkan menjahit kepada saya both sound correct; mengajari is just a bit more everyday and direct here.

Could we use mengajar alone and say Nenek mengajar saya menjahit…?

You can hear sentences like mengajar saya, but in standard, careful usage:

mengajar is more natural when the object is a subject:
- Dia mengajar fisika.
With two objects (a person + something taught), Indonesians strongly prefer:
- mengajari [person] [thing], or
- mengajarkan [thing] kepada [person]

So these are more natural:

Nenek mengajari saya menjahit kancing… ✅
Nenek mengajarkan menjahit kepada saya. ✅

Nenek mengajar saya menjahit… would be understood, but it sounds a bit less neat/standard than mengajari or mengajarkan.

What exactly does menjahit kancing mean? Is it specifically “to sew on a button”?

Yes.

menjahit = to sew
kancing = button (on clothes)

So menjahit kancing naturally means “to sew on a button” (i.e., attach it by sewing).

Other related phrases:

memasang kancing = to attach / put on a button (not necessarily emphasizing sewing)
mengancingkan baju = to button up a shirt

In this sentence:

menjahit kancing yang lepas di baju = to sew back on the button that came off the shirt.

Why is it kancing yang lepas and not kancing lepas? What does yang do here?

yang introduces a relative clause (like “that / which / who” in English).

kancing = button
lepas = loose / came off
kancing yang lepas = “the button that came off” / “the loose button”

Without yang, you can say kancing lepas, but it feels more like a loose descriptive phrase (“loose button”), and is less clear as a full “button that has come off” in this context.

So:

kancing yang lepas
- Clear relative clause: “the button that came off”
kancing lepas
- Colloquial/shortened, okay in speech, but less explicit.

In teaching-type examples or textbooks, kancing yang lepas is the more standard and precise form.

What is the nuance of lepas here? Could we also say terlepas?

Both are possible, with a slight nuance difference:

lepas
- Can be an adjective or intransitive verb: “loose”, “off”, “to come off”.
- In kancing yang lepas, it feels like “a button that is off / has come off”.
terlepas
- Has the ter- prefix, often marking:
  - an unintentional result
  - a completed state
- kancing yang terlepas = “the button that has come off (accidentally / ended up off)”.

In everyday speech:

kancing yang lepas is very natural and common.
kancing yang terlepas is also correct and maybe a bit more formal or descriptive of the result.

Both work in this sentence.

Why is it di baju and not dari baju? What does di mean here?

di usually means “in / on / at (a place)”.
dari usually means “from”.

Here, di baju is describing location:

kancing yang lepas di baju
= “the button that came off on the shirt / of the shirt”

You could imagine it as: > the (once-attached) shirt button that has come off

If you say dari baju:

kancing yang lepas dari baju
= “the button that came off from the shirt”

This is also understandable, but:

di baju is more idiomatic for describing a part of the shirt (a button belonging to the shirt).
dari baju emphasizes more the movement away from the shirt, like “fell off from the shirt”.

In natural speech, di baju is very normal in this context.

Can I say Nenek mengajari saya untuk menjahit kancing…? What is the function of untuk here?

Yes, you can say:

Nenek mengajari saya untuk menjahit kancing yang lepas di baju.

Here, untuk works as “to / in order to”. But:

After mengajari, Indonesians often omit untuk when the next verb is what you’re being taught to do.
So both are grammatical:
- Nenek mengajari saya menjahit kancing… ✅ (more natural)
- Nenek mengajari saya untuk menjahit kancing… ✅ (a bit more formal/explicit)

In many everyday sentences, untuk after verbs like mengajari, menyuruh, meminta is optional and often dropped when the structure is clear.

How would this sentence look in the passive voice, and is that common?

A common passive version is:

Saya diajari (oleh) Nenek menjahit kancing yang lepas di baju.
= I was taught by Grandma to sew the button that came off the shirt.

Notes:

diajari = passive of mengajari.
oleh (“by”) is optional in everyday speech; diajari Nenek already shows who did the teaching.

You could also say:

Saya diajarkan (oleh) Nenek menjahit kancing yang lepas di baju.

Passive is very common in Indonesian and is often used when you want to highlight the receiver of the action (saya) instead of the doer (Nenek).

Is saya the only possible pronoun here? Could it be aku instead?

You can replace saya with aku, depending on formality and relationship:

Nenek mengajari saya menjahit kancing yang lepas di baju.
- saya = formal / neutral, polite, safe in almost all situations.
Nenek mengajari aku menjahit kancing yang lepas di baju.
- aku = informal/intimate; natural in family settings or with close people.

With Nenek (your grandma), in spoken language:

You might often use aku when actually talking to her or about her in a relaxed way.
In textbooks or neutral writing, saya is more typical.

Both are grammatically correct.

Is the word order mengajari saya menjahit kancing… fixed? Could we move saya or menjahit around?

The natural order is:

[Subject] [verb] [person taught] [what is taught]
Nenek mengajari saya menjahit kancing…

You cannot freely move these elements without sounding wrong or unnatural. For example:

✗ Nenek mengajari menjahit saya kancing… → ungrammatical.
✗ Nenek mengajari menjahit kancing saya… → now it sounds like “my button”, different meaning.

In Indonesian:

The person being taught normally comes immediately after mengajari.
The activity/skill (like menjahit kancing…) follows after that.

So this order is basically fixed for this pattern.

Does this sentence indicate past tense, present, or future? There is no tense marker like in English.

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense. Context tells you whether it’s past, present, or future.

Nenek mengajari saya menjahit kancing yang lepas di baju.
On its own, it is time-neutral; it can mean:
- “Grandma teaches me to sew the button…” (habitual / present)
- “Grandma taught me to sew the button…” (past)
- In some contexts, even “Grandma will teach me…” (future)

To make tense clear, you add time words:

Kemarin Nenek mengajari saya… = Yesterday Grandma taught me…
Sekarang Nenek mengajari saya… = Now Grandma is teaching me…
Besok Nenek akan mengajari saya… = Tomorrow Grandma will teach me…

So the base sentence is flexible; the time frame depends on context.