Anak-anak melihat bendera di depan sekolah.

The children see the flag in front of the school.

Breakdown of Anak-anak melihat bendera di depan sekolah.

• sekolah: the school
• di depan: in front of
• anak: the child
• melihat: to see
• bendera: the flag

Questions & Answers about Anak-anak melihat bendera di depan sekolah.

Why is anak repeated as anak-anak? Does this just mean “children”?

In Indonesian, repeating a noun (reduplication) is a common way to mark the plural.

• anak = child (but can also mean “children” from context)
• anak-anak = clearly plural: children / kids

So anak-anak here is used to make it explicit that we are talking about more than one child.

Do I always have to say anak-anak to mean “children”? Can anak by itself also mean “children”?

You do not always have to use anak-anak.

• anak can mean “a child”, “the child”, or “children”, depending on context.
• anak-anak makes it unambiguously plural.

If the context already makes the plural clear, many speakers will just say anak. In textbooks and beginner materials, you’ll often see anak-anak to make the plural obvious.

How would I say “the children” or “those children”? There’s no word like “the” here.

Indonesian normally does not use articles like “a” or “the”.

To make “the / those children” explicit, you can add itu (“that/those”):

• anak-anak itu = those children / the children
• bendera itu = that flag / the flag

Without itu, anak-anak and bendera can be “the children / a flag / the flag / flags” depending on context.

How do we know if melihat means “see”, “are seeing”, or “saw”? There is no tense marker.

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense. melihat is neutral for time.

The time is understood from context or from time words:

• Kemarin anak-anak melihat bendera… = Yesterday the children saw the flag…
• Sekarang anak-anak sedang melihat bendera… = Now the children are looking at the flag…
• Besok anak-anak akan melihat bendera… = Tomorrow the children will see the flag…

So the single form melihat can cover see / are seeing / saw / will see, depending on context.

Why is it melihat and not just lihat? What does the me- prefix do?

lihat is the root verb “see / look”.

The prefix me- (plus an assimilated consonant) turns it into a standard active verb:

• lihat = see (used in commands, titles, some fixed expressions)
• melihat = to see / to look at (used as the normal active verb in sentences)

So in a regular sentence like this, melihat is the natural form: Anak-anak melihat bendera…

Does melihat change if the subject is singular or plural? Would it be different for anak vs anak-anak?

No. Indonesian verbs do not change for number or person.

• Saya melihat bendera. = I see a flag.
• Dia melihat bendera. = He/She sees a flag.
• Anak-anak melihat bendera. = The children see a flag.

In all cases, the verb form stays melihat. There is no equivalent to English see / sees.

What exactly does di mean here? Is it “in”, “at”, or “on”?

di is a general preposition for location and can correspond to “in / at / on” in English, depending on the noun:

• di rumah = at home
• di meja = on the table
• di sekolah = at school

Here, di depan sekolah means “in front of the school”, with di marking location.

What does di depan mean exactly? Is it “before the school” or “in front of the school”?

di depan means “in front of” in the spatial sense (position).

• di depan sekolah = in front of the school (physically, in space)

For “before school” in a time sense, Indonesian would usually use sebelum sekolah (“before school starts / before going to school”), not di depan sekolah.

Can I say sekolah depan instead of di depan sekolah?

No, sekolah depan by itself is not the same.

• di depan sekolah = in front of the school (a place relative to the school)
• sekolah depan would be understood, if at all, as something like “the front school / the school in front”, which is not the normal way to say this.

To express location “in front of X”, you really need the pattern di depan + noun.

There is no word for “a” in bendera. How do we say “a flag” vs “the flag” vs just “flag(s)”?

Indonesian usually doesn’t mark a / the directly.

• bendera can mean a flag, the flag, or flags from context.
• If you want to stress one flag, you can say satu bendera or sebuah bendera.

In this sentence, bendera could naturally be understood as “a flag” or “the flag”, depending on the story/context.

Can I move di depan sekolah to the front of the sentence?

Yes. Indonesian word order is flexible for information structure and emphasis. You can say:

• Anak-anak melihat bendera di depan sekolah. (neutral)
• Di depan sekolah, anak-anak melihat bendera. (slight emphasis on the place)

Both are grammatical and mean the same thing. The second one sounds a bit more formal or narrative.

Is the hyphen in anak-anak necessary? Could I write anakanak or just repeat it without a hyphen?

Standard written Indonesian uses a hyphen for reduplication:

• Correct: anak-anak, buku-buku, rumah-rumah
• Non‑standard / informal: anakanak, anak anak

In texting or very informal writing people may drop the hyphen, but for correct Indonesian—especially as a learner—you should always write anak-anak with a hyphen.