Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Mulainya musim hujan sering membuat ibu memindahkan tanaman hias ke dalam rumah. - The beginning of the rainy season often makes Mother move the decorative plants into the house.

mulai musim hujan = “(something) starts the rainy season” or “the rainy season starts”
mulainya musim hujan = “the beginning of the rainy season”

In this sentence, Mulainya musim hujan is functioning as the subject: “The beginning of the rainy season…”

Why is the word order Mulainya musim hujan and not Musim hujan mulai?

Both are possible, but they do slightly different things:

Musim hujan mulai = “The rainy season is starting.”
- Focus is on the rainy season as the thing that is starting.
- This is a normal verb sentence (subject + verb).
Mulainya musim hujan = “The beginning of the rainy season…”
- Mulainya acts like a noun (“the beginning”) and musim hujan explains beginning of what.
- The whole chunk is a noun phrase used as a subject: “The start of the rainy season often causes…”

This structure (mulainya + [event]) is very common for talking about the onset of something as a thing that has consequences.

What does musim hujan literally mean? Is it always “rainy season”?

Yes:

musim = season
hujan = rain

So musim hujan literally = “rain season”, i.e. rainy season.

You usually don’t say hujan mulai to mean “the rainy season starts”; that sounds more like “the rain starts (falling)” at a particular time. For the season, you normally say musim hujan.

What role does sering play in the sentence, and where can it appear?

Sering means often / frequently.

Position and function here:

It modifies the verb membuat: sering membuat = “often causes / often makes”.
So the idea is: “The beginning of the rainy season often makes Mom move the plants…”

Common positions:

Before a verb: sering hujan (it often rains), sering terlambat (often late).
Before a verb phrase: sering membuat ibu memindahkan…

You could also use seringkali (slightly more formal): seringkali membuat ibu…

What does membuat mean in this structure, and how does the pattern work?

Here membuat = to make / to cause (not “to make/create” in the physical sense).

The pattern is:

X membuat Y Z
- X = cause
- Y = person/thing affected
- Z = what Y does/feels/becomes

In this sentence:

X: Mulainya musim hujan (the start of the rainy season)
Y: ibu (mother)
Z: memindahkan tanaman hias ke dalam rumah (move ornamental plants into the house)

So: “The beginning of the rainy season often makes Mom move the ornamental plants into the house.”

Why is it just ibu and not ibuku or ibu saya if we mean “my mother”?

Indonesian often drops explicit possession when the context is clear.

ibu can mean:
- “my mother” (if we’re talking about my family)
- “a/the mother” in general
- “Ma / Mom” when addressing your own mother directly
- “Madam, Ma’am” when addressing a woman politely (often capitalized: Ibu)

If you want to make it explicitly “my mother”, you can say:

ibuku (my mom)
ibu saya (my mom – slightly more formal)

In everyday conversation about your own family, just ibu is very common and natural.

What is the difference between pindah and memindahkan?

pindah (base verb) = to move / to relocate (intransitive: the subject itself moves)
- Saya pindah ke Jakarta. = I move to Jakarta.
- Tanaman ini sudah pindah. = This plant has already been moved / relocated (focus on its new location, not who moved it).
memindahkan = to move something / to transfer something (transitive: someone causes something else to move)
- Ibu memindahkan tanaman hias. = Mom moves the ornamental plants.

Formally:

me- + pindah + -kan ⇒ memindahkan, which often has a causative / transitive meaning: “cause [something] to move”.

In this sentence, we need a verb that means “move (something)”, so memindahkan is correct; pindah alone would sound incomplete (“ibu pindah tanaman hias…” is ungrammatical in standard Indonesian).

What does tanaman hias mean, and how is it formed?

Breakdown:

tanam = to plant
tanaman = plant(s), crops, or things that are planted
hias = decorate / adorn
hiasan = decoration, ornament

So tanaman hias literally = “decorative plants”, i.e. ornamental plants / decorative houseplants.

This is a fixed collocation in Indonesian for plants grown mainly for aesthetic purposes, not for food or timber.

Why do we say ke dalam rumah instead of just ke rumah or di dalam rumah?

Each has a slightly different nuance:

ke rumah = to the house (destination; not focusing on “inside” vs “outside”)
- Saya pergi ke rumah. = I go home / to the house.
di dalam rumah = inside the house (location; no movement implied)
- Tanaman itu di dalam rumah. = The plant is inside the house.
ke dalam rumah = into the house / to the inside of the house
- Combines:
  - ke (to, towards) → direction
  - dalam (inside) → interior space

In this sentence, memindahkan … ke dalam rumah emphasizes movement from outside to the inside. That’s exactly what you want when talking about bringing plants indoors because of the rain.

Is there any tense marking in this sentence? How do we know it’s about a habitual action?

Indonesian does not mark tense (past/present/future) with verb changes like English does.

Instead, you rely on:

time expressions: kemarin (yesterday), besok (tomorrow), sudah (already), akan (will), etc.
context and adverbs of frequency.

Here, sering (“often”) tells us this is a habitual situation, something that happens repeatedly when the rainy season starts.

So the sentence can be translated as present simple in English (“often makes Mom move…”), but grammatically in Indonesian there is no tense marker; the meaning comes from sering and context.

Could we say Saat musim hujan mulai, ibu sering memindahkan tanaman hias ke dalam rumah instead? Is it the same?

Yes, that is also correct, with a slightly more explicit structure:

Saat musim hujan mulai = When the rainy season starts
ibu sering memindahkan… = Mom often moves…

Both sentences express a similar idea, but the structure is different:

Original:
- Mulainya musim hujan sering membuat ibu memindahkan…
- “The beginning of the rainy season often makes Mom move…”
Alternative:
- Saat musim hujan mulai, ibu sering memindahkan…
- “When the rainy season starts, Mom often moves…”

The original treats “the beginning of the rainy season” as a cause (subject + membuat), while the alternative uses a time clause (Saat… = when…).

Is the sentence formal, informal, or neutral? Would it sound natural in everyday speech?

The sentence is neutral and would sound natural in:

everyday conversation
storytelling
written Indonesian (e.g. essays, articles)

A very casual spoken version might shorten or tweak it a little, for example:

Kalau musim hujan mulai, Ibu sering mindahin tanaman hias ke dalam rumah.

Here we see:

Kalau instead of Mulainya musim hujan (using a “when/if” clause)
mindahin as a colloquial form of memindahkan

But the original sentence is perfectly natural, standard Indonesian.