Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Sup sayur hangat itu disajikan di ruang tamu saat rapat keluarga. - That warm vegetable soup is served in the living room during the family meeting.

Yes, sup is a borrowing from English soup (probably via Dutch soep). It generally means clear soup or broth-based soup, often with vegetables, meat, etc.

You might also see sop in Indonesian. In many contexts sup and sop overlap, but:

sup sounds slightly more standard/formal.
sop is very common in names of dishes, like sop buntut (oxtail soup).

In your sentence, sup is perfectly natural.

What’s the difference between sayur and sayuran? Could we also say sup sayuran?

Both are related to vegetables, but they differ slightly:

sayur
- can mean vegetable (as a food ingredient)
- can also mean a vegetable dish, especially in everyday speech
- in sup sayur, it means vegetable soup (soup whose main content is vegetables)
sayuran
- is more like vegetables (in general / as a category)
- used when talking about types of vegetables, or in markets, health talk, etc.

Both sup sayur and sup sayuran can be understood as vegetable soup.
Sup sayur sounds a bit more like “a soup that is a vegetable dish,” while sup sayuran can feel more like “a soup with various vegetables.” In practice, people will understand both.

Does hangat mean warm or hot? How is it different from panas?

hangat = warm, comfortably hot, mildly hot
- e.g. air hangat = warm water
- often positive or neutral
panas = hot
- air panas = hot water (too hot to touch/drink immediately)
- can also mean “spicy” in some contexts (food)

In your sentence, sup sayur hangat itu means that warm vegetable soup (pleasantly warm, ready to eat), not boiling hot.

What does itu do in this sentence? Is it always translated as that?

Itu is a demonstrative, and it can function as:

that (pointing to something not near you)
the (when the speaker and listener both already know which item is meant)
A kind of marker of definiteness or “you know, that one we’ve been talking about.”

In sup sayur hangat itu, itu most naturally conveys “that / the”:

that warm vegetable soup
the warm vegetable soup (that we all know about)

The choice between that and the in English depends on context, but in Indonesian both are covered by itu here.

Is sup sayur hangat itu the subject of the sentence or the object?

In this passive sentence:

Sup sayur hangat itu disajikan di ruang tamu saat rapat keluarga.

sup sayur hangat itu is the grammatical subject in Indonesian, just like that warm vegetable soup is the subject in English:

That warm vegetable soup was served in the living room during the family meeting.

Indonesian passive often puts what would be the object of an active sentence into the subject position:

Active: (Mereka) menyajikan sup sayur hangat itu…
→ They served that warm vegetable soup…
Passive: Sup sayur hangat itu disajikan…
→ That warm vegetable soup was served…

How is disajikan formed, and what does it literally mean?

Disajikan is a passive verb. Break it down:

saji = to serve (food/drink), to present (formally)
-kan = a suffix that often makes verbs transitive (“do X to something”)
di- = passive prefix

So:

menyajikan = to serve (something to someone) — active
disajikan = to be served — passive

In your sentence:

Sup sayur hangat itu disajikan…
= That warm vegetable soup was served…

Why is there no subject like they or someone before disajikan?

Indonesian often omits the agent (the doer) in passive sentences when:

the agent is unknown, unimportant, or obvious from context, or
the speaker wants to focus on the action or the thing affected.

Here, the focus is on the soup and the situation, not on who served it. So:

Sup sayur hangat itu disajikan…
= That warm vegetable soup was served…
(We don’t explicitly say who did it.)

If you really want to mention the agent, you could say:

Sup sayur hangat itu disajikan oleh Ibu.
= That warm vegetable soup was served by Mom.

Could I say this sentence in the active voice? How would it change the nuance?

Yes. The active voice would be:

Mereka menyajikan sup sayur hangat itu di ruang tamu saat rapat keluarga.
= They served that warm vegetable soup in the living room during the family meeting.

Difference in nuance:

Passive (disajikan): focuses on the soup and the event of it being served. The doer is not important.
Active (menyajikan): focuses more on who did the serving (mereka = they).

Both are grammatically correct; choice depends on what you want to emphasize.

What is the difference between di in disajikan and di in di ruang tamu?

They are two different things:

di- (no space) = passive prefix on verbs
- disajikan = di- + sajikan → “to be served”
di (with a space) = preposition meaning in / at / on
- di ruang tamu = in the living room

A good rule:

If di is attached directly to a verb with no space, it’s likely a passive prefix.
If di is followed by a noun with a space, it’s the preposition “in/at/on”.

What does ruang tamu literally mean, and is it the usual way to say living room?

Yes, ruang tamu is the standard way to say living room:

ruang = room, space
tamu = guest

So it literally means guest room (the room where guests are received), which corresponds to the English living room or sitting room.

You might also see:

ruangan tamu – with -an, but ruang tamu is more common for the name of the room itself.

What does saat mean in saat rapat keluarga? Can I use ketika or waktu instead?

saat here works as a time marker meaning when / during / at the time of.

saat rapat keluarga = during the family meeting / when the family meeting was happening

You can often replace it with:

ketika = when (more like a conjunction, often before a full clause)
waktu = when / the time when

In your exact phrase saat rapat keluarga, saat and waktu are quite similar:

saat rapat keluarga
waktu rapat keluarga

Both can mean during the family meeting.
Ketika is more natural before a clause:

Ketika kami rapat keluarga, sup sayur hangat itu disajikan di ruang tamu.
= When we had a family meeting, that warm vegetable soup was served in the living room.

Does rapat keluarga mean a formal meeting, or can it also be a casual family gathering?

rapat usually means meeting (often formal or semi-formal: office meetings, committee meetings, etc.).

rapat keluarga literally = family meeting.
It suggests that:

the family gathers with a specific purpose, e.g. to discuss something important, make decisions, etc.
it sounds more purposeful than just a casual hangout.

For a more casual gathering, people might say:

acara keluarga (family event)
berkumpul dengan keluarga (gather with family)

Is the placement of di ruang tamu saat rapat keluarga fixed, or can I move those phrases around?

You can move them, as Indonesian word order is flexible for time and place phrases. All of these are possible:

Sup sayur hangat itu disajikan di ruang tamu saat rapat keluarga.
Sup sayur hangat itu disajikan saat rapat keluarga di ruang tamu.
Saat rapat keluarga, sup sayur hangat itu disajikan di ruang tamu.
Di ruang tamu, sup sayur hangat itu disajikan saat rapat keluarga.

They all keep the same basic meaning.
Version 1 (your original) is very natural and neutral. Putting saat rapat keluarga or di ruang tamu at the beginning slightly emphasizes the time or place.

Why is there no word for the in front of rapat keluarga or ruang tamu?

Indonesian does not use articles like the or a/an. Definiteness is shown by:

context, or
demonstratives like ini (this) and itu (that/the).

So:

ruang tamu can mean a living room or the living room, depending on context.
rapat keluarga can mean a family meeting or the family meeting.

In this sentence, context suggests we’re talking about the family meeting and the living room that the speaker and listener know about, but Indonesian doesn’t need to mark that explicitly with an article.