Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Saya menempel gambar kecil di papan pengumuman. - I stick a small picture on the notice board.

menempel can be:
- intransitive: to be stuck, to stick
  - Kertas itu menempel di dinding. – The paper is stuck on the wall.
- or transitive with a direct object (as in your sentence):
  - Saya menempel gambar kecil di papan pengumuman. – I stick a small picture on the notice board.
menempelkan is more clearly causative and more explicitly transitive: to cause something to stick (to something).
- Saya menempelkan gambar kecil di / ke papan pengumuman.

In everyday speech, menempel with an object (like in your sentence) is very common and sounds natural.
menempelkan just makes the “causing to stick” feeling a bit clearer, but both are acceptable here.

Could this sentence also use menempelkan without changing the meaning?

Yes. You can say:

Saya menempel gambar kecil di papan pengumuman.
Saya menempelkan gambar kecil di papan pengumuman.

Both are understood as the same action: I stick a small picture on the notice board.

Nuance:

menempel: sounds a bit simpler and more colloquial; commonly used.
menempelkan: a bit more explicit and “complete” as a transitive verb, slightly more formal or careful, but still very normal in speech.

In many day‑to‑day contexts, Indonesians don’t worry about the difference and use them interchangeably here.

Why is it gambar kecil and not kecil gambar?

In Indonesian, adjectives usually come after the noun:

gambar kecil – small picture
buku besar – big book
rumah baru – new house

Putting the adjective before the noun (kecil gambar) is ungrammatical in standard Indonesian.
So you must say gambar kecil, never kecil gambar.

How would I say small pictures (plural) instead of a small picture?

Indonesian doesn’t mark plural the same way English does. You have several options:

gambar kecil
- Can mean a small picture or small pictures, depending on context.
gambar-gambar kecil
- Reduplication (gambar-gambar) clearly marks plural: small pictures.
beberapa gambar kecil
- several small pictures.
- beberapa = several / some.
banyak gambar kecil
- many small pictures.

So for your sentence:

Saya menempel gambar-gambar kecil di papan pengumuman. – I stick small pictures on the notice board.
Saya menempel beberapa gambar kecil di papan pengumuman. – I stick several small pictures on the notice board.

Can I drop Saya and just say Menempel gambar kecil di papan pengumuman?

Normally, no. In this exact form it sounds incomplete/odd.

In Indonesian you can often drop the subject when it’s obvious from context, but you then usually change the form a bit:

Saya menempel gambar kecil di papan pengumuman.
– Full, natural sentence.
In an instruction or note (imperative), you would say:
- Tempel gambar kecil di papan pengumuman. – (You) stick a small picture on the notice board.

Just saying Menempel gambar kecil di papan pengumuman feels like a fragment (like “Sticking a small picture on the noticeboard” without a subject). It might appear in lists, captions, or notes, but not as a normal complete spoken sentence.

What is the difference between Saya and Aku here?

Both mean I, but they differ in formality and relationship:

Saya
- Polite, neutral, safe in almost any situation.
- Used with strangers, in formal settings, with older people, in writing, etc.
Aku
- More informal, intimate, or casual.
- Used with friends, close family, or in songs and poetry.

Your sentence with Aku:

Aku menempel gambar kecil di papan pengumuman.

Grammatically it’s fine. It just sounds more casual and depends on who you’re talking to.

How do I say on the notice board instead of just on a notice board?

Indonesian doesn’t have articles (a, the), so papan pengumuman can mean either a notice board or the notice board, depending on context.

To make “the” feeling clearer, you can add demonstratives:

papan pengumuman itu – that notice board / the notice board (already known to both speakers).
papan pengumuman ini – this notice board.

So:

Saya menempel gambar kecil di papan pengumuman itu.
– I stick a small picture on the notice board (that one we both know about).

Without ini/itu, listeners use context to decide whether you mean a or the.

Why is it di papan pengumuman and not ke papan pengumuman?

di marks location: at / in / on.
ke marks movement toward a place: to.

In your sentence, the focus is on the final location of the picture (where it ends up stuck), so di is correct:

Saya menempel gambar kecil di papan pengumuman.
– I stick a small picture on the notice board.

If you use ke, it sounds like movement towards the board, and you’d normally pair it with a different verb, for example:

Saya berjalan ke papan pengumuman. – I walk to the notice board.

With menempel/menempelkan, you might also hear ke in some varieties (menempelkan gambar ke papan pengumuman), but di papan pengumuman is the safest and most standard for saying “on the notice board”.

Is papan pengumuman one word or two? What does each part mean?

It’s written as two words: papan pengumuman.

papan – board, plank, panel.
pengumuman – announcement(s), notice(s).
- from umum (public) → mengumumkan (to announce) → pengumuman (announcement).

Together, papan pengumuman literally means “board of announcements”, and it corresponds to notice board / bulletin board in English.

It works as a compound noun, but each word still keeps its meaning.

Can I use foto instead of gambar here?

Yes, if you specifically mean a photograph.

gambar – picture / drawing / image (more general).
foto – photograph.

So:

Saya menempel foto kecil di papan pengumuman.
– I stick a small photo on the notice board.

Use gambar if it might be a drawing, cartoon, printed picture, icon, etc.
Use foto if it’s clearly a photo taken with a camera or phone.

How would I say I am sticking a small picture on the notice board right now?

Indonesian often uses sedang to show an action in progress, similar to the English -ing form:

Saya sedang menempel gambar kecil di papan pengumuman.

This clearly means I am (in the middle of) sticking a small picture on the notice board (now).

In casual speech, people often drop sedang if the context already shows that it’s happening now:

Saya menempel gambar kecil di papan pengumuman sekarang.
– Can also be understood as I’m sticking a small picture on the notice board now, especially if said while you’re doing it.

How would I make this sentence passive, like “A small picture is stuck on the notice board by me”?

There are a couple of common passive patterns.

di- passive (very common, especially in writing):
- Gambar kecil ditempel di papan pengumuman oleh saya.
  – A small picture is stuck on the notice board by me.
The oleh saya (by me) part is optional and often omitted:
- Gambar kecil ditempel di papan pengumuman.
  – A small picture is (being) stuck on the notice board.
object‑fronting with an active verb (very common in speech):
- Gambar kecil saya tempel di papan pengumuman.
  – Literally: A small picture I stick on the notice board.
  Functionally, this often works like a passive in English emphasis (focus on gambar kecil).

Both are grammatical; the first looks more like a clear passive; the second is very natural in everyday Indonesian.

How do you pronounce menempel and papan pengumuman?

Pronunciation guide (roughly):

menempel → meh-NEHM-pel
- me as in met (short e)
- stress usually on the second syllable: me‑nem‑pel
papan pengumuman → PAH-pahn puh-ngu-MU-mahn
- papan: pa (as in spa), pan (like pun but with a short a)
- pengumuman:
  - pe: like peh
  - ng: as in sing (never as in finger)
  - mu: moo
  - man: like mahn (short a)
- stress tends to fall on mu: pengu‑MU‑man

Indonesian vowels are generally short and pure (no diphthongs like English day or go).

Is Saya menempel gambar kecil di papan pengumuman formal or casual?

It’s neutral and safe in almost any context.

Saya is polite/neutral.
The verb and vocabulary are standard.

You can use this sentence:

in conversation with strangers, colleagues, teachers
in written Indonesian (emails, short reports, messages)
in narration (telling a story)

To make it more clearly informal, you could switch to Aku with friends:

Aku menempel gambar kecil di papan pengumuman.

To make it more explicitly formal, context and other surrounding sentences matter more than this one line. The sentence itself already works fine in formal settings.