Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Di rumah kami, adat sederhana adalah menyapa semua orang yang masuk dengan senyum. - In our house, a simple custom is to greet everyone who enters with a smile.

di is the normal preposition for physical locations: di rumah, di sekolah, di kantor.
pada is used more in:
- formal written language (pada upacara itu, pada hari Senin)
- non-physical objects (pada kesempatan ini, pada soal ini)

So here you should keep “di rumah kami”, not “pada rumah kami.”

Why is it “rumah kami” and not “rumah kita”? What’s the difference between kami and kita?

Both kami and kita mean “we / us”, but:

kami = we (excluding the listener)
kita = we (including the listener)

So:

rumah kami = our house, but not yours (the listener doesn’t live there)
rumah kita = our house, including you (the listener is part of the group that owns/lives in the house)

In the sentence “Di rumah kami, …”, the speaker is talking about their household’s custom, assuming the listener is not part of that household. If the speaker and the listener share the same house, they would more naturally say:

Di rumah kita, adat sederhana adalah …
“In our house (yours and mine), the simple custom is …”

What does “adat” mean here, and how is it different from “kebiasaan” or “tradisi”?

In this sentence, adat is closest to “custom / practice / way we do things.”

Nuances:

adat
- often means custom in a cultural or community sense
- can feel a bit more formal or “traditional”
- e.g. adat istiadat = customs and traditions; adat Jawa = Javanese customs
kebiasaan
- more like habit / routine / usual way
- works well for personal or household habits
- Kebiasaan di rumah kami adalah menyapa semua orang… would be very natural and slightly more neutral/colloquial.
tradisi
- directly from “tradition”
- often for more formal or long-established cultural traditions
- tradisi Lebaran, tradisi keluarga

So “adat sederhana” here means “a simple custom,” and could be rephrased with “kebiasaan sederhana” with only a slight nuance difference (more “habit” than “cultural custom”).

Why is the adjective “sederhana” placed after “adat” and not before it?

In Indonesian, the normal word order is:

noun + adjective

So:

adat sederhana = simple custom
(literally “custom simple”)
rumah besar = big house
orang baik = good person

Putting the adjective before the noun (like “sederhana adat”) is incorrect in standard Indonesian.

So “adat sederhana” follows this usual pattern: noun (adat) + adjective (sederhana).

Is “adalah” necessary here? Can I say “Di rumah kami, adat sederhana menyapa semua orang …”?

In this sentence, “adalah” functions like the verb “is/are” linking the subject and its description:

adat sederhana = the subject (simple custom)
menyapa semua orang yang masuk dengan senyum = the explanation of what that custom is

So:

Adat sederhana adalah menyapa …
“The simple custom is greeting …”

You cannot just drop “adalah” and say:

✗ Adat sederhana menyapa semua orang…

This would sound like “The simple custom greets everyone…”, which is ungrammatical or very odd.

However, there are two natural options:

Keep “adalah” (clear and neutral, slightly formal):
- Di rumah kami, adat sederhana adalah menyapa semua orang yang masuk dengan senyum.
Rephrase without “adalah,” but change the structure:
- Di rumah kami, adat sederhananya adalah menyapa semua orang…
- Di rumah kami, adat sederhananya: menyapa semua orang… (more like a written note/list)

So in the original structure, “adalah” is needed.

What exactly does “menyapa” mean, and how is it different from just “sapa”?

sapa is the root verb = “to greet / to say hello to”
menyapa is the active form (me- prefix) = “to greet (someone)”

In sentences, you almost always use the me- form for an active action:

Saya menyapa tetangga. = I greet my neighbor.
Dia menyapa saya duluan. = He/She greeted me first.

Using the bare root sapa by itself is usually:

as a dictionary form / citation: kata “sapa”
in certain fixed expressions or very informal speech (e.g. in some dialects or poetic lines)

So in standard Indonesian, “menyapa semua orang yang masuk” = “to greet everyone who comes in.”

What does “yang” do in “semua orang yang masuk”? Is it like “who” in English?

Yes. In “semua orang yang masuk”, the word “yang” works like a relative pronoun:

semua orang = all people / everyone
yang = who / that / which (introduces a clause describing the noun)
masuk = enter / come in

So:

semua orang yang masuk = “everyone who comes in / everyone who enters.”

This structure is extremely common:

orang yang datang = the person who came
buku yang saya baca = the book that I read
rumah yang besar = the house that is big

You cannot omit “yang” here.
✗ semua orang masuk would mean “all the people enter”, not “everyone who enters.”

Why is it “dengan senyum” and not “dengan tersenyum” or “dengan senyuman”? What are the differences?

All of these are possible, but with slightly different nuance:

dengan senyum
- literally: “with (a) smile”
- the most neutral and common in this kind of sentence
- focuses on the smile as a manner:
  menyapa … dengan senyum = greet … with a smile
dengan senyuman
- senyuman is a noun form derived from senyum
- feels slightly more formal or poetic, but still normal
- menyapa … dengan senyuman = greet … with a smile (same meaning, a touch more “flowery”)
dengan tersenyum
- tersenyum = “to smile” (intransitive verb)
- literally: “by smiling” / “while smiling”
- menyapa … dengan tersenyum is grammatical, but stylistically a bit awkward; Indonesians more naturally say:
  - menyapa … sambil tersenyum = greet … while smiling

So the most natural in this sentence are:

dengan senyum (very natural, simple)
dengan senyuman (slightly more elaborate)
or rephrased: sambil tersenyum (changing the structure).

Is the word order “Di rumah kami, adat sederhana adalah …” the only correct one, or can I put “di rumah kami” at the end?

You can change the word order a bit, and it will still be correct, but the emphasis shifts.

Original:

Di rumah kami, adat sederhana adalah menyapa semua orang yang masuk dengan senyum.
Emphasis first on “in our house” (this is specifically our household’s custom).

Other natural orders:

Adat sederhana di rumah kami adalah menyapa semua orang yang masuk dengan senyum.
- Slightly more formal/written feel.
- Emphasis more on “adat sederhana di rumah kami” as a unit.
Adat sederhana adalah menyapa semua orang yang masuk dengan senyum di rumah kami.
- Grammatically possible but slightly awkward, because “di rumah kami” seems to modify “senyum” or the action at the end.
- Usually not the preferred style.

The original word order is smooth and natural in both spoken and written Indonesian.

Why isn’t there any word for “usually” or a tense marker? How do we know this is a general habit/custom?

Indonesian often doesn’t use tense markers the way English does. Habitual or general truths are usually clear from context and from words like adat / kebiasaan / biasanya.

Here:

adat sederhana already implies “a (regular) custom / usual practice”
So the whole sentence naturally reads as a general rule, not a one-time event.

If you wanted to make the habitual aspect even clearer, you could add “biasanya”:

Di rumah kami, adat sederhananya adalah biasanya menyapa semua orang… (a bit clunky)
Better: Di rumah kami, kami biasanya menyapa semua orang yang masuk dengan senyum.
(“In our house, we usually greet everyone who comes in with a smile.”)

But with “adat”, the idea of a customary / usual action is already built in, so no extra word is required.

Could I replace “semua orang” with “setiap orang”? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can, and both are natural:

semua orang yang masuk = all people who come in / everyone who enters
setiap orang yang masuk = each person who comes in / every person who enters

Nuance:

semua orang looks at the group as a whole (everyone).
setiap orang emphasizes each individual person.

In practice, in this sentence, the difference is small. Both sound good:

Di rumah kami, adat sederhana adalah menyapa semua orang yang masuk dengan senyum.
Di rumah kami, adat sederhana adalah menyapa setiap orang yang masuk dengan senyum.

The second one just feels a tiny bit more “individual-focused,” but both are correct and natural.