Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Seluruh tim kami menunggu di perpustakaan. - Our whole team is waiting in the library.

seluruh = the whole / the entire
- Tends to treat something as one whole unit.
- Often used with a singular noun:
  - seluruh tim kami = our whole team (as one unit)
  - seluruh dunia = the whole world
semua = all (of the individual members)
- Tends to highlight individual items or people.
- Often used with plural / countable things:
  - semua anggota tim kami = all the members of our team
  - semua buku = all the books

In this sentence:

Seluruh tim kami menunggu di perpustakaan = Our whole team is waiting in the library. (viewing the team as a single group)

You can say:

Semua anggota tim kami menunggu di perpustakaan. = All the members of our team are waiting in the library.

Semua tim kami is understandable but less natural here, because tim is a collective noun used as a single unit. Seluruh tim kami is the most idiomatic choice.

Why is it seluruh tim kami and not kami seluruh tim? How does the word order work?

Indonesian noun phrases have a fairly fixed order:

Quantifier / determiner (like seluruh, beberapa, banyak)
Head noun (like tim, buku, rumah)
Possessive pronoun (like saya, kamu, kami, mereka)

So the normal pattern is:

seluruh (all / the whole)
tim (team)
kami (our)

→ seluruh tim kami = our whole team

Putting kami in front, like kami seluruh tim, breaks that pattern and sounds wrong or very strange in standard Indonesian.

Compare:

buku saya = my book (not saya buku)
rumah mereka = their house (not mereka rumah)
seluruh keluarga saya = my whole family

So seluruh tim kami is the correct and natural word order.

Why is kami used instead of kita? What’s the difference?

Indonesian has two words for we / us:

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

In this sentence:

Seluruh tim kami menunggu di perpustakaan.

Using kami implies that the listener is not part of the team.
So the speaker is talking about “our team” but your (the listener’s) group is not included.

If the listener were part of the team, you would say:

Seluruh tim kita menunggu di perpustakaan.
→ Our whole team (including you) is waiting in the library.

So the choice between kami and kita depends on whether the person you’re talking to is included in the group or not.

Is tim here grammatically singular or plural? There is no plural ending like in English.

Grammatically, tim is just a noun with no explicit singular or plural marking. Indonesian usually does not change the noun form for plural:

tim can mean team or teams depending on context.
buku can mean book or books.
orang can mean person or people.

In this sentence:

seluruh tim kami clearly refers to one team as a whole, so it’s understood as singular collective: our whole team.

Indonesian does not change the verb for singular vs. plural either:

Tim kami menunggu.
Para siswa menunggu.

The verb menunggu stays the same.

If you really need to highlight plurality, Indonesian can use:

para with people: para siswa = the students
reduplication: buku-buku = books

But with tim, it is normal to keep it as just tim and let context make the meaning clear.

Should it be sedang menunggu to mean “are waiting”? Isn’t menunggu by itself more like “wait / to wait” in general?

Indonesian verbs don’t normally change form for tense or aspect (past, present, -ing, etc.). menunggu by itself is flexible and can mean:

wait / is waiting / was waiting / will wait / will be waiting, depending on context.

sedang is an aspect marker that emphasizes an action is in progress right now, similar to English -ing:

sedang menunggu ≈ is/are currently waiting / in the middle of waiting

So:

Seluruh tim kami menunggu di perpustakaan.
- Normally understood as Our whole team is waiting in the library (present) or was waiting or will be waiting, depending on the situation you’re describing.
Seluruh tim kami sedang menunggu di perpustakaan.
- Puts extra emphasis on the action being in progress now.

Both are grammatically correct. sedang is optional; context usually makes the time and aspect clear without it.

What is the root of menunggu? Can I just use tunggu instead?

The root (base form) of menunggu is tunggu.

tunggu = base verb, also commonly used as a command:
- Tunggu! = Wait!
menunggu = meN- + tunggu, making a standard active verb form:
- Saya menunggu dia. = I am waiting for him/her.

In a normal sentence with a subject, you should use menunggu, not bare tunggu:

✔ Seluruh tim kami menunggu di perpustakaan.
✖ Seluruh tim kami tunggu di perpustakaan. (unnatural / incorrect in standard Indonesian)

Bare tunggu is fine mainly in:

Imperatives: Tunggu sebentar. = Wait a moment.
Certain fixed expressions or very informal speech, but not in this standard sentence pattern.

Why is the preposition di used before perpustakaan? Could I use ke or pada instead?

di, ke, and dari are the basic place-related prepositions in Indonesian:

di = at / in / on → location (where)
ke = to / toward → direction (to where)
dari = from → origin (from where)

In this sentence:

di perpustakaan = in/at the library (location)
The sentence answers “Where is our whole team waiting?” → di perpustakaan.

So you must use di, not ke:

✖ menunggu ke perpustakaan (wrong: “waiting to the library”)

pada is more abstract and formal, often used with time or indirect objects, not with physical location like this. You would not say:

✖ menunggu pada perpustakaan (incorrect)

So di perpustakaan is the natural and correct choice here.

Indonesian doesn’t have the or a. How do I know if perpustakaan means “a library” or “the library”?

Indonesian has no articles like a/an or the. The bare noun perpustakaan can mean:

a library
the library

The exact meaning comes from context.

For example:

If both speaker and listener know which library they’re talking about (e.g., the school library), perpustakaan will be understood as “the library”.
If it’s any library in general, it can be understood as “a library”.

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

perpustakaan itu = that library / the library (mentioned before)
perpustakaan ini = this library

But in ordinary conversation, perpustakaan by itself is usually enough, and English speakers will translate it as “the library” when the context is clearly specific.

Can I omit kami and just say Seluruh tim menunggu di perpustakaan?

Yes, you can say:

Seluruh tim menunggu di perpustakaan.

This is grammatically correct and natural. The difference is:

Seluruh tim kami menunggu di perpustakaan.
- Explicitly says “our whole team”.
Seluruh tim menunggu di perpustakaan.
- Just says “the whole team”.
- Whose team it is must be inferred from context.

You would omit kami if:

The ownership of the team is already clear from context, or
You want to be less specific about whose team it is.

Including kami makes it explicit and personal: it is our team.

Can I move di perpustakaan to the front, like Di perpustakaan, seluruh tim kami menunggu?

Yes. Indonesian word order is relatively flexible with adverbial phrases (like time and place).

These are all acceptable:

Seluruh tim kami menunggu di perpustakaan.
- Neutral, most common: Subject–Verb–Place.
Di perpustakaan, seluruh tim kami menunggu.
- Puts a bit more emphasis on the location (“As for the library, our whole team is waiting there.”)
Seluruh tim kami di perpustakaan menunggu.
- Possible, but less common; can sound a bit heavier or poetic.

For everyday speech and writing, Seluruh tim kami menunggu di perpustakaan is the most natural and straightforward order.

Does perpustakaan always refer to a separate library building, or can it also mean a library room inside a school or house?

Perpustakaan can refer to both:

A library building:
- Saya pergi ke perpustakaan kota. = I’m going to the city library.
A library room or library space inside another building:
- Perpustakaan sekolah kami ada di lantai dua. = Our school library is on the second floor.
- Dia sedang belajar di perpustakaan rumahnya. = He/She is studying in the library room in his/her house.

So in Seluruh tim kami menunggu di perpustakaan, whether it is a separate building or a room inside a building depends on the context. The word itself just means “library (place where books are kept and can be read/borrowed)”.