Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Di daerah kami, keluarga saling membantu.

di – in / at / on (a general preposition for location)
daerah – area / region / district / neighbourhood (quite broad)
kami – we / us / our (excluding the person you’re speaking to)
keluarga – family (can mean a family or families, depending on context)
saling – mutually / each other / one another
membantu – to help (root bantu = help; prefix meN- makes it a verb)

So a very literal gloss would be:

Di daerah kami – In our area,
keluarga – family / families
saling membantu – mutually help (each other).

Why is kami used instead of kita in di daerah kami?

Indonesian distinguishes two ways of saying we / our:

kami – we / our excluding the listener
kita – we / our including the listener

Di daerah kami implies “in our area (but not including you / where you live)”.

If you are talking to someone who lives in a different area, kami is natural.
If you are talking to someone who lives in the same area, you could say:
- Di daerah kita, keluarga saling membantu.
  = In our area (yours and mine), families help each other.

So kami vs kita tells the listener whether they are considered part of that “we” or not.

Does daerah mean “neighbourhood”, “area”, or something bigger like “region”?

Daerah is a fairly general word for a geographical area and its exact size depends on context. It can mean:

a local area / neighbourhood:
- di daerah sini – in this area / around here
a part of a city:
- daerah selatan kota – the southern part of the city
a region or district (even at administrative level):
- daerah Jawa Tengah – the Central Java region

In di daerah kami, it most naturally feels like:

in our area / in our neighbourhood / where we live,

without being very precise about the size. If you specifically mean a close-knit residential environment, people also often say lingkungan or kampung:

Di lingkungan kami, keluarga saling membantu. – more like in our (immediate) community
Di kampung kami, keluarga saling membantu. – in our village / hometown, families help each other

Is keluarga singular or plural here? How do you say “family” vs “families”?

Indonesian usually doesn’t mark plural with an -s like English. Instead, context shows whether something is singular or plural.

keluarga can mean:
- a family / the family
- families (in general)

In Di daerah kami, keluarga saling membantu, the use of saling (mutually / each other) suggests that we’re talking about many families in that area, so we naturally translate it as:

In our area, *families help each other.*

If you want to be very explicit:

keluarga-keluarga – families (reduplication marks plural)
- Di daerah kami, keluarga-keluarga saling membantu.

But in everyday speech, people often just say keluarga and let context show that it’s plural.

What exactly does saling mean, and how is it used?

Saling expresses reciprocal action: A does something to B, and B does something to A (or more people mutually do it to one another).

It is similar to “each other / one another” in English, but placed before the verb:

saling membantu – help each other
saling mencintai – love each other
saling menghormati – respect each other
saling mengenal – know each other

Grammar-wise:

Pattern: saling + [meN- verb]
It’s not used with every verb, only where a mutual relationship makes sense.

In the sentence, keluarga saling membantu literally:
families mutually-help → families help each other.

Could I say keluarga kami saling membantu instead of Di daerah kami, keluarga saling membantu?

Yes, but it changes the meaning.

Di daerah kami, keluarga saling membantu.
= In our area, families help each other.
→ Talking about all families in that area in general.
Keluarga kami saling membantu.
= Our family helps each other.
→ Talking about your own single family, not the whole community.

If you want both ideas, you can combine them:

Di daerah kami, keluarga-keluarga saling membantu, dan keluarga kami juga saling membantu.
In our area, families help each other, and our family also helps each other.

What’s the difference between membantu and menolong? Could I say keluarga saling menolong?

You can say keluarga saling menolong; it’s correct and natural. The nuance is subtle:

membantu – to help, to assist
- Very common, neutral, can be used in almost any context: practical help, work, school, etc.
menolong – to help, to rescue
- Often feels a bit more like helping someone in difficulty or coming to someone’s aid, though it’s also used in everyday “help” situations.

In this sentence:

keluarga saling membantu – families assist each other / support each other
keluarga saling menolong – families come to each other’s aid / help each other (slightly more emotional or “in trouble” feel)

Both are acceptable; membantu is a very safe default.

Why do Indonesians say saling membantu instead of using a phrase that literally means “each other”, like English?

Indonesian actually has a phrase very close to “each other”:

satu sama lain – literally one to/with another

So you can say:

membantu satu sama lain – help each other

However, saling + verb is shorter and extremely common:

saling membantu = membantu satu sama lain

Nuance and usage:

saling + verb is the standard, natural way for reciprocal actions.
[verb] satu sama lain is also correct and often slightly more emphatic or explicit.

For this sentence, both are possible:

Di daerah kami, keluarga saling membantu.
Di daerah kami, keluarga membantu satu sama lain.

They mean the same thing; the first is just more concise.

How do we know the tense? Could this also mean “families helped each other” or “will help each other”?

Indonesian verbs usually don’t change form for tense. Membantu can mean:

help / are helping / helped / will help,
depending on context or on additional time words.

For example:

Kemarin, keluarga saling membantu.
Yesterday, families helped each other. (past)
Sekarang, keluarga saling membantu.
Now, families are helping each other. (present, ongoing)
Besok, keluarga akan saling membantu.
Tomorrow, families will help each other. (future)

With no time word given, Di daerah kami, keluarga saling membantu is usually understood as:

a general, timeless fact → In our area, families help each other (as a habit / usual practice).

So the “tense” is interpreted from context, not from the verb form.

Is the comma after kami necessary, and is the word order fixed?

About the comma:

Di daerah kami, keluarga saling membantu.
The comma is optional but common:
- It separates the fronted location phrase di daerah kami from the main clause keluarga saling membantu.
- Many writers include it; some might omit it:
  Di daerah kami keluarga saling membantu.

About word order:

The basic structure is:
[location] + [comma] + [subject] + [predicate]
- Di daerah kami, keluarga (subject) saling membantu (predicate).

You can also put the subject first:

Keluarga saling membantu di daerah kami.
= Families help each other in our area.

Both are grammatical. The original version puts extra emphasis on “in our area” as the topic.