Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Sapi di kandang belakang rumah kakek jinak dan suka mendekati cucu-cucunya. - The cows in the pen behind Grandfather’s house are tame and like to come close to the grandchildren.

If the speaker needs to be specific:
- sapi betina = female cow
- sapi jantan = bull
In normal conversation, sapi can be understood as “cow(s)” or “cattle” depending on context. Indonesian doesn’t force you to mark gender unless it’s important.

Why is there no plural marking on sapi? How do I know if it means “the cow” or “the cows”?

Indonesian usually does not mark plural with every noun. Context tells you whether it’s singular or plural.

sapi can mean a cow, the cow, cows, the cows.
If you want to emphasize plural, you can say:
- sapi-sapi = cows (explicitly plural)
- para sapi is not natural; para is usually for people.

In Sapi di kandang belakang rumah kakek jinak…, it can be:

The cow in the pen behind Grandpa’s house is tame…
or
The cows in the pen behind Grandpa’s house are tame…

Both are grammatically possible; the exact meaning depends on the broader context.

What does di mean in di kandang belakang rumah kakek? Is this the same di as the passive prefix?

Indonesian has two different di:

Preposition di = in, at, on (shows location)
- di kandang = in the pen
- di rumah = at home
Prefix di- (attached to verbs) = passive voice marker
- makan (to eat) → dimakan (to be eaten)
- baca (to read) → dibaca (to be read)

In di kandang belakang rumah kakek, di is a preposition, because:

It stands before a noun (kandang).
It is written separately (two words: di kandang).

If it were the passive prefix, it would be attached to a verb, like dibaca, dimakan, etc.

How is the phrase di kandang belakang rumah kakek structured? What is the order of information here?

The phrase is layered from smaller location to larger reference point:

di kandang = in the pen
belakang rumah kakek = behind Grandpa’s house

Put together:

di kandang belakang rumah kakek
= in the pen behind Grandpa’s house

The structure is roughly:

di (in/at) + kandang (pen) + belakang (behind) + rumah (house) + kakek (grandfather)

So you can think:

kandang (yang) belakang rumah kakek = the pen that is behind Grandpa’s house
sapi di kandang itu = the cow(s) in that pen

Why isn’t it di belakang kandang rumah kakek instead? What is the difference between belakang rumah kakek and di belakang rumah kakek?

Both patterns are possible, but they mean slightly different things.

belakang rumah kakek (no di) acts like a noun phrase:
the back (area) of Grandpa’s house / the area behind Grandpa’s house
- kandang belakang rumah kakek = the pen (located in) the back area of Grandpa’s house.
di belakang rumah kakek includes di, so it’s a full prepositional phrase:
behind Grandpa’s house.

In the sentence:

di kandang belakang rumah kakek emphasizes the pen that is in the back area behind the house.
If you said:
Sapi di kandang di belakang rumah kakek…
you would be saying The cows in the pen behind Grandpa’s house… in a slightly more explicit, segmented way. Both are grammatical; the original is just more compact.

How do we know that rumah kakek means “Grandpa’s house”? There is no word like ’s or of.

Indonesian often shows possession simply by putting two nouns next to each other:

rumah kakek = grandfather’s house
rumah saya = my house
buku adik = younger sibling’s book

The pattern is:

[thing] [owner]

So rumah kakek is literally house grandpa, which naturally means Grandpa’s house.

Why is there no adalah or ialah before jinak? Can adjectives like jinak just follow the noun directly?

Yes. In Indonesian, adjectives usually come after the noun and do not need a linking verb like is/are.

sapi jinak = a tame cow
anjing besar = a big dog
rumah baru = a new house

In a full sentence, when the subject is a noun and the predicate is just an adjective, you can simply put them together:

Sapi itu jinak. = That cow is tame.
Adik saya pintar. = My younger sibling is smart.

So in the sentence:

Sapi di kandang belakang rumah kakek jinak…
we can understand jinak as the predicate:
The cow(s) … (are) tame…
The verb is/are is just understood; it isn’t written.

What exactly does jinak mean? Is it only for animals?

jinak means tame or domesticated (the opposite of wild or aggressive).

Commonly used for animals:
- anjing ini jinak = this dog is tame
- burungnya sangat jinak = the bird is very tame

It can also be used metaphorically for people (e.g., obedient, not rebellious), but the most straightforward meaning is for animals that are not wild or dangerous. In your sentence, jinak clearly describes the cow(s) as tame and friendly.

What does suka mean in suka mendekati cucu-cucunya? Is it the same as “love”?

suka literally means to like or to be fond of, but in this structure it often has the sense of tend to / often / like to (do something).

suka + verb = like to / usually / tend to [verb]
- Dia suka membaca. = He/She likes to read / often reads.
- Mereka suka terlambat. = They tend to be late.

In your sentence:

suka mendekati cucu-cucunya
= likes to approach / tends to go near his/her grandchildren.

If you want a stronger emotional “love” toward a thing or activity, Indonesians also use:

sangat suka = really like
cinta = love (more for people, places, or abstract things, not usually for “I love to do X”).

What is the difference between mendekati and mendekat? Why is it mendekati cucu-cucunya here?

Both come from the root dekat (near), but:

mendekat = to come closer (intransitive; no direct object)
- Sapi itu mendekat. = The cow comes closer.
mendekati = to approach / to go near [something] (transitive; takes a direct object)
- Sapi itu mendekati anak kecil. = The cow approaches the child.

In your sentence:

suka mendekati cucu-cucunya
cucu-cucunya is the object of the verb.
So the correct form is mendekati (approach [someone/something]), not just mendekat.

How does cucu-cucunya work? Why is cucu repeated, and what does -nya mean?

cucu-cucunya combines two things:

Reduplication for plural:
- cucu = grandchild
- cucu-cucu = grandchildren (explicitly plural)
Suffix -nya for his/her/their or to mark definiteness (“the”):
- -nya attached to a noun often means:
  - his/her/its/their (possessive)
  - or the (a specific, known item)

So:

cucu-cucunya can mean:
- his grandchildren
- her grandchildren
- their grandchildren
  depending on context. Here, it clearly refers back to kakek, so:
cucu-cucunya ≈ his (the grandfather’s) grandchildren.

Together:

mendekati cucu-cucunya = approach his grandchildren.

Why is the noun cucu made plural (cucu-cucu), but sapi is not written as sapi-sapi?

Indonesian plural marking is flexible and often optional.

cucu-cucunya is plural because:
- Family terms like cucu are very naturally plural in this context (grandpa usually has several grandchildren).
- Reduplication makes it explicit: cucu-cucu = grandchildren.
sapi is left in its base form, which can already mean cow or cows. There is no strict need to mark it as sapi-sapi unless you really want to emphasize the plurality.

So the sentence is balancing naturalness:

Marking plural where it feels especially natural (cucu-cucu),
Leaving it unmarked where context is enough (sapi).

What exactly does the -nya in cucu-cucunya refer to? Does it mean “his”, “her”, or “their”?

The suffix -nya is a third-person marker that can mean:

his
her
its
their
or the (when used as a definiteness marker).

Indonesian doesn’t mark gender (no he/she distinction), and number is often not specified either. So -nya is intentionally vague; you must use context.

In this sentence:

rumah kakek = Grandpa’s house
cucu-cucunya almost certainly refers back to kakek, so it means:
- his grandchildren (Grandpa’s grandchildren).

Could we add yang after sapi: Sapi yang di kandang belakang rumah kakek jinak…? What difference would that make?

Yes, you can say:

Sapi yang di kandang belakang rumah kakek jinak…

Adding yang makes di kandang belakang rumah kakek into a more explicit relative clause, like:

The cow(s) *that are in the pen behind Grandpa’s house are tame…*

Without yang, di kandang belakang rumah kakek still functions as a modifier, but the structure feels a bit more compact and colloquial. Both are acceptable; including yang can make the sentence slightly clearer, especially in formal writing:

Sapi yang di kandang belakang rumah kakek itu jinak dan suka mendekati cucu-cucunya.
= The cow(s) that are in the pen behind Grandpa’s house are tame and like to approach his grandchildren.

Could we add itu after sapi to mean “that cow” or “those cows”? For example, Sapi di kandang belakang rumah kakek itu jinak…?

Yes. Adding itu points to a specific, known referent:

Sapi di kandang belakang rumah kakek itu jinak…
- That cow in the pen behind Grandpa’s house is tame…
- or Those cows in the pen behind Grandpa’s house are tame… (context decides singular vs plural)

itu often works like “that/the one(s)” and makes the subject more definite. Without itu, the sentence is still fine; it just sounds a bit more general or descriptive rather than pointing to a specific, previously mentioned animal.