Ibu memindahkan kursi di ruang tamu ke halaman belakang.

Mother moves the chair in the living room to the backyard.

Breakdown of Ibu memindahkan kursi di ruang tamu ke halaman belakang.

• sebuah: a
• di: in
• ke: to
• ibu: the mother
• ruang tamu: the living room
• halaman belakang: the backyard
• kursi: the chair
• memindahkan: to move

Questions & Answers about Ibu memindahkan kursi di ruang tamu ke halaman belakang.

Why is Ibu capitalized here, and what exactly does it mean? Is it “mother,” “my mother,” or something like “Mrs.”?

In this sentence, Ibu is capitalized because it’s being used as a form of address or title, similar to “Mom” in English.

• When written with a capital I, Ibu often means:

  • Mom/Mother (talking about your own mother)
  • or a polite title for an adult woman, similar to Ma’am or Mrs.

• When written with a lowercase ibu, it is more like the general word “a mother”.

In many everyday contexts, Ibu (capitalized) can be understood as “Mom” or “my mom”, especially if the speaker is talking about their own mother and the context is family-related. Indonesian often leaves out my/your/etc. if it’s clear from the situation.

What is the difference between pindah and memindahkan? Why do we use memindahkan here?

• pindah = “to move” (intransitive: something/someone moves by itself or changes place)

  • Example: Saya pindah ke Jakarta. = “I moved to Jakarta.”

• memindahkan comes from pindah

  • me-…-kan, which usually makes the verb transitive: “to move something” (cause something else to change place).
  • So memindahkan = “to move (something).”

In Ibu memindahkan kursi…, there is a clear object (kursi, “the chair”), so we need the transitive form:

• Ibu memindahkan kursi… = “Mother moved the chair…”
  Using just pindah here (Ibu pindah kursi…) would sound incorrect or at least very unnatural.

How does the word order work in “memindahkan kursi di ruang tamu ke halaman belakang”? What is modifying what?

The structure is:

• memindahkan = moved (verb)
• kursi = the chair (object)
• di ruang tamu = in the living room (describes where the chair currently is)
• ke halaman belakang = to the backyard (destination)

So we can group it like this:

Ibu memindahkan [kursi di ruang tamu] [ke halaman belakang].
Mother moved [the chair that is in the living room] [to the backyard].

• di ruang tamu most naturally attaches to kursi (which chair? the one in the living room).
• ke halaman belakang tells us where the chair is moved to.

Indonesian often puts place phrases after the object like this:
Subject + Verb + Object + Place/Direction.

What’s the difference between di and ke in this sentence? They both relate to location, right?

Yes, both are about location, but they have different roles:

• di = in/at/on (static location, no movement)

  • di ruang tamu = in the living room (where something is/was)

• ke = to (direction or destination, with movement)

  • ke halaman belakang = to the backyard (where it is going)

So in the sentence:

• di ruang tamu describes the starting place or current location of the chair.
• ke halaman belakang describes the destination of the movement.

There are no words like “a” or “the” in kursi di ruang tamu. How do I know if it means “a chair,” “the chair,” or “chairs”?

Indonesian usually doesn’t use articles like a/an/the. The word kursi by itself can mean:

• a chair
• the chair
• chairs (in general)

Which one it means depends on context, not on the form of the word.

If you want to be more specific, you can add words:

• sebuah kursi = a chair (one chair; fairly neutral/classifier-like)
• kursi itu = that/the chair (previously known/specific)
• beberapa kursi = several chairs
• kursi-kursi = chairs (plural, often sounds like “a number of chairs”)

In the original sentence, kursi is most naturally understood as “the chair” or “a chair” in context.

If I want to say “moved the chairs,” do I just change kursi to kursi-kursi?

You have a few options:

1. Ibu memindahkan kursi-kursi di ruang tamu ke halaman belakang.

   • Repeating the noun (kursi-kursi) is a common way to mark plural in Indonesian.
   • Roughly: “Mother moved the chairs in the living room to the backyard.”

2. Ibu memindahkan beberapa kursi di ruang tamu ke halaman belakang.

   • beberapa = several/some.
   • This emphasizes “some chairs,” not necessarily all of them.

3. Ibu memindahkan semua kursi di ruang tamu ke halaman belakang.

   • semua = all.
   • “Mother moved all (of the) chairs in the living room to the backyard.”

Plain kursi without any marker could still be understood as plural if the context suggests it, but if you want to make it clearly plural, kursi-kursi, beberapa kursi, or semua kursi are better.

Is ruang tamu one word or two words? And what’s the difference between ruang tamu and ruangan tamu?

• ruang tamu is written as two separate words and means “living room”.

  • ruang = room/space
  • tamu = guest
  • Literally “guest room,” but in modern usage it corresponds to “living room” or “sitting room.”

• ruangan is a noun formed from ruang; it can emphasize the physical room-space.

  • ruangan tamu can also mean a room used for guests, but ruang tamu is the very standard phrase for “living room.”

In everyday Indonesian, you will almost always see ruang tamu for “living room.”

How would I say this sentence in the passive voice, like “The chair in the living room was moved to the backyard by Mom”?

A natural passive version is:

• Kursi di ruang tamu dipindahkan Ibu ke halaman belakang.
  
  • Kursi di ruang tamu = The chair in the living room (now the subject)
  • dipindahkan = was moved (passive form of memindahkan)
  • Ibu = by Mother (the doer)
  • ke halaman belakang = to the backyard

You can also add oleh (by), though in many cases it’s optional:

• Kursi di ruang tamu dipindahkan oleh Ibu ke halaman belakang.

Both are understandable; the version without “oleh” is very common in spoken Indonesian.

Does this sentence definitely mean it already happened (past), or could it also mean she is moving the chair now?

Indonesian verbs usually don’t mark tense (past/present/future) by changing form. The sentence

• Ibu memindahkan kursi di ruang tamu ke halaman belakang.

could be:

• “Mother moved the chair…” (past)
• “Mother is moving the chair…” (present, in a narrative)
• Even “Mother will move the chair…” (future), if the context makes that clear.

To make the time clearer, Indonesians often add time words:

• Past: Tadi Ibu memindahkan kursi… (Earlier, Mom moved the chair.)
• Present progressive: Sekarang Ibu sedang memindahkan kursi… (Now Mom is moving the chair.)
• Future: Nanti Ibu akan memindahkan kursi… (Later Mom will move the chair.)

Could Ibu here also mean something like “Ma’am” or “Mrs.” instead of “my mother”?

Yes, Ibu is also a polite title for adult women, similar to Ma’am, Mrs., or Madam.

• In a family context, it’s very likely to mean “Mom/Mother.”
• In a formal or public context (e.g., at the office, in a shop, at school), Ibu is used to politely address or refer to a woman:
  • Ibu guru = female teacher (literally “Mother teacher,” but means “Ma’am/Teacher”)
  • Ibu Sari = Mrs. Sari / Ms. Sari

So the exact English translation (Mom vs Ma’am vs Mrs.) depends entirely on the context that isn’t shown in the sentence alone.

Can I drop Ibu and just say “Memindahkan kursi di ruang tamu ke halaman belakang”?

Not in a normal full sentence. Indonesian does allow subject dropping when it’s very clear from context, but just writing:

• Memindahkan kursi di ruang tamu ke halaman belakang.

feels incomplete as a statement; it’s like saying “Moved the chair in the living room to the backyard” with no subject.

However, similar forms are fine in certain cases:

• As an instruction/command (imperative), you would switch to the base verb:

  • Pindahkan kursi di ruang tamu ke halaman belakang!
    = “Move the chair in the living room to the backyard!”

• In bullet points / notes, people might omit the subject if it’s understood, e.g.:

  • Memindahkan kursi di ruang tamu ke halaman belakang (as an item in a task list)

But for a normal declarative sentence, Ibu (or another subject) should be present.

Does di ruang tamu describe the chair only (its original location), or the action of moving (where she’s doing the moving)?

In this sentence, di ruang tamu is most naturally understood as describing the chair’s original location, i.e.:

• the chair that is (was) in the living room is moved to the backyard.

So conceptually:

Mother moved the chair (which was) in the living room to the backyard.

If you wanted to clearly emphasize that the action took place in the living room, you’d normally phrase it differently or add clarification, for example:

• Di ruang tamu, Ibu memindahkan kursi ke halaman belakang.
  = In the living room, Mother moved the chair to the backyard.

But as given, Ibu memindahkan kursi di ruang tamu ke halaman belakang is read as:
“She moved the chair that is in the living room (to the backyard).”