Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Ibu menyerahkan kunci rumah kepada tetangga kami. - Mother hands over the house key to our neighbor.

Family term
- Ibu = mother.
- Often, people will say Ibu instead of ibu saya (my mother), especially in informal speech within the family.
- So Ibu menyerahkan... is understood as My/Our mother handed over...
Polite title for an adult woman
- Like Ma’am, Madam, Mrs.
- Used before a name: Ibu Sari, Ibu Guru (female teacher), etc.
- As a title, it is capitalized when written: Ibu Ani, Ibu Direktur.
General respectful address
- To an older woman you don’t know well, you can call her Bu (short for Ibu).

So: here it’s most likely “mother”, but it could also mean Mrs./Ma’am if the wider context shows we are talking about some woman respectfully, not necessarily your own mother. Context decides.

Why use menyerahkan instead of the simpler memberikan? Is there a difference?

Both menyerahkan and memberikan can be translated as to give, but there is a nuance:

memberikan
- basic meaning: to give
- neutral, everyday verb
- Can be used for almost any kind of giving
menyerahkan
- more like to hand over, to hand in, to submit, sometimes to entrust
- often suggests:
  - giving something officially or formally
  - transferring responsibility or control
- common in contexts like:
  - menyerahkan tugas = hand in an assignment
  - menyerahkan laporan = submit a report
  - menyerahkan diri kepada polisi = surrender to the police

In Ibu menyerahkan kunci rumah kepada tetangga kami, menyerahkan suggests that she is formally/seriously handing over responsibility for the house keys, not just casually giving them for a second.

You could say:

Ibu memberikan kunci rumah kepada tetangga kami.

This is correct and more neutral; menyerahkan just adds a stronger sense of handing over/entrusting.

How does kunci rumah work grammatically? Why no word like of or yang?

kunci rumah is a noun–noun phrase. Indonesian often forms phrases by simply putting two nouns together:

kunci = key
rumah = house

So kunci rumah literally = key house, but it means the house key / the key to the house.

This structure is very common:

pintu rumah = house door / the door of the house
nomor telepon = phone number
guru matematika = math teacher

You don’t need yang or of here. yang would be for a relative clause, like:

kunci yang ada di rumah = the key that is at home

In your sentence, kunci rumah is understood as the key belonging/related to the house.

How do I know if kunci rumah means the house key or the house’s keys (plural)?

Indonesian does not mark plural with -s like English. kunci rumah can mean:

the house key (one key)
the house keys (more than one)

The number is understood from context, or explicitly marked if needed:

satu kunci rumah = one house key
dua kunci rumah = two house keys
beberapa kunci rumah = several house keys

Without an explicit number, assume singular in English translation unless the context clearly indicates plural.

Why use kepada and not ke or untuk before tetangga kami?

kepada, ke, and untuk all relate to the idea of to/for, but they’re used differently:

ke
- basic meaning: to (a place or direction)
- e.g. pergi ke rumah, berjalan ke sekolah
kepada
- used with people or recipients (indirect object)
- like to (someone) in English
- often after verbs like: memberikan, mengirim, menyerahkan, mengucapkan
- menyerahkan kunci rumah kepada tetangga kami = hand over the house key to our neighbor
untuk
- more like for, showing purpose or intended beneficiary
- kue ini untuk tetangga kami = this cake is for our neighbor

In your sentence, tetangga kami is the recipient of the keys, so kepada is the natural choice.

What exactly does tetangga kami mean, and why doesn’t it say kami punya tetangga?

tetangga kami is a noun + possessive pronoun structure:

tetangga = neighbor
kami = we/us (exclusive: not including the listener)

So tetangga kami literally = our neighbor (or our neighbors, depending on context).

Indonesian usually shows possession this way:

buku saya = my book
rumah mereka = their house
teman kamu = your friend
tetangga kami = our neighbor

You don’t normally say kami punya tetangga to mean our neighbor inside this kind of sentence. punya is more like to have:

Kami punya tetangga. = We have a neighbor.

But here you want the neighbor as an object (recipient), so tetangga kami is correct.

What’s the difference between kami and kita in tetangga kami? Could I say tetangga kita instead?

Both kami and kita mean we / us, but:

kami = we (excluding the listener)
kita = we (including the listener)

So:

tetangga kami = our neighbor, but the “our” does not include the person being spoken to.
tetangga kita = our neighbor, and the “our” does include the person being spoken to.

You can say tetangga kita if:

you and the listener share the same neighbor.

If you’re talking to someone who doesn’t live there (so it’s not their neighbor), tetangga kami is better.

Is the word order Ibu menyerahkan kunci rumah kepada tetangga kami fixed, or can I move parts of it around?

The neutral, most natural word order in Indonesian is:

Subject – Verb – Object – (Prepositional phrase)

Your sentence follows that pattern:

Ibu (subject)
menyerahkan (verb)
kunci rumah (object)
kepada tetangga kami (prepositional phrase / recipient)

Possible variations:

Keep this order:
- Ibu menyerahkan kunci rumah kepada tetangga kami. (most natural)
You can front some elements for emphasis, but it sounds more marked or literary:
- Kunci rumah diserahkan Ibu kepada tetangga kami. (passive; emphasizes the keys)
- Kepada tetangga kamilah Ibu menyerahkan kunci rumah. (quite emphatic/formal)

For everyday speech, Ibu menyerahkan kunci rumah kepada tetangga kami is the preferred order.

Indonesian usually doesn’t have the/a. How do we know if this means the house key or a house key, our neighbor or a neighbor of ours?

Indonesian has no articles (a/an/the), so you infer definiteness from context:

kunci rumah
- usually translated as the house key (because there is usually a specific key in mind)
- could be a house key if the context is non-specific
tetangga kami
- usually our neighbor (a specific neighbor), but in English you could also say one of our neighbors if that fits the context better.

If you need to show non-specific or specific meaning, you can add words:

seorang tetangga kami = one of our neighbors
kunci rumah itu = that / the house key (explicitly specific with itu)

But in simple narrative context, translating as the house key and our neighbor is natural.

How is tense expressed here? How do I know if this is past, present, or future?

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense. menyerahkan is the same in past, present, and future. The time is understood from context, or from time expressions such as:

tadi = earlier
kemarin = yesterday
besok = tomorrow
akan = will

So your sentence can be:

Past: (Tadi) Ibu menyerahkan kunci rumah kepada tetangga kami.
- Earlier, Mom handed the house key to our neighbor.
Present (unusual but possible context):
- Sekarang Ibu menyerahkan kunci rumah kepada tetangga kami.
- Now Mom is handing the house key to our neighbor.
Future:
- Besok Ibu akan menyerahkan kunci rumah kepada tetangga kami.
- Tomorrow Mom will hand the house key to our neighbor.

Without extra words, English usually chooses past by default from context.

Is menyerahkan active or passive? How would the passive form look?

In Ibu menyerahkan kunci rumah kepada tetangga kami, menyerahkan is an active verb:

Subject (doer): Ibu
Action: menyerahkan (hand over)
Object: kunci rumah

A common passive form uses di-:

Kunci rumah diserahkan (oleh) Ibu kepada tetangga kami.
- The house key was handed over (by Mom) to our neighbor.

You can omit oleh in many cases, especially in speech:

Kunci rumah diserahkan Ibu kepada tetangga kami.

Active vs passive in Indonesian often changes which part of the sentence is emphasized rather than tense.

Could I leave out rumah and just say kunci? Would that change the meaning?

Yes, you can say:

Ibu menyerahkan kunci kepada tetangga kami.

This is grammatically correct, but now kunci is just key/keys without specifying what kind of key. The meaning becomes less specific.

kunci rumah = specifically the house key(s)
kunci = key(s) in general (could be keys to anything)

In a context where it’s already clear that you’re talking about the house key, people often just say kunci in conversation and skip rumah.