Kami membayar asuransi setiap bulan.

We pay insurance every month.

Breakdown of Kami membayar asuransi setiap bulan.

• setiap: every
• kami: we
• membayar: to pay
• bulan: the month
• asuransi: the insurance

Questions & Answers about Kami membayar asuransi setiap bulan.

What’s the difference between kami and kita, and why is kami used here?

Indonesian has two kinds of “we”:

• kami = we (not including you) → exclusive
• kita = we (including you) → inclusive

Kami membayar asuransi setiap bulan means:

• “We pay insurance every month” and the listener is not part of that “we” (e.g. a company talking to a customer, parents talking to their child about what they pay, etc.).

If you wanted to include the listener in the group that pays, you’d say:

• Kita membayar asuransi setiap bulan.
  “We (you and I, all of us) pay insurance every month.”

Can the subject kami be left out? When is that natural?

Yes, Indonesian often drops subject pronouns when the subject is clear from context.

• Membayar asuransi setiap bulan.
  Literally: “(We) pay insurance every month.”

This is natural if:

• the subject was mentioned already in the previous sentence, or
• the context makes it obvious who “we” is (e.g. in a paragraph about “our company”).

In a single isolated sentence (like in a textbook example), keeping kami is more natural and clearer:

• Kami membayar asuransi setiap bulan. ✅
• Membayar asuransi setiap bulan. (Natural only in context, not as a standalone sentence.)

What’s the difference between membayar and bayar?

Both come from the root bayar (“to pay”), but:

• membayar

  • has the meN- prefix
  • sounds more formal / neutral
  • common in writing, official speech, and neutral conversation

• bayar

  • is the bare root
  • sounds more casual / colloquial
  • very common in everyday spoken Indonesian

So:

• Kami membayar asuransi setiap bulan.
  Neutral, suitable for speech and writing.

• Kami bayar asuransi tiap bulan.
  More casual, typical in conversation.

Both are grammatically correct; the choice is about formality and style, not meaning.

Why don’t we say “pay for insurance” in Indonesian? Why is it just membayar asuransi?

In English, the verb pay usually takes a preposition for before the thing you’re paying for.
In Indonesian, bayar / membayar takes its object directly, with no preposition:

• membayar asuransi = “to pay (for) insurance”
• membayar listrik = “to pay (for) electricity”
• membayar sewa rumah = “to pay (the) rent”

If you said membayar untuk asuransi, it would sound unnatural in this context.
So membayar asuransi already means “pay for insurance.”

Does membayar mean present tense (“pay”) here? How do we know it’s not past or future?

Indonesian verbs don’t change form for tense (past, present, future).
Membayar by itself is tenseless; the time is shown by:

• time expressions: setiap bulan (“every month”), kemarin (“yesterday”), besok (“tomorrow”)
• context

In Kami membayar asuransi setiap bulan, the phrase setiap bulan tells us it’s a habitual action. In English we translate it as:

• “We pay insurance every month.”
• (or: “We are paying insurance every month” in a more continuous sense)

For other tenses you’d add time words:

• Kemarin kami membayar asuransi.
  Yesterday we paid the insurance.

• Besok kami akan membayar asuransi.
  Tomorrow we will pay the insurance.

Is asuransi countable? Do I need words like “a/the/our” in Indonesian?

Indonesian does not use articles like “a/an/the”.

Asuransi is a mass noun / generic noun here.
Kami membayar asuransi setiap bulan can correspond to:

• “We pay insurance every month.”
• “We pay our insurance every month.”
• “We pay the insurance every month.”

If you want to be specific, you add modifiers:

• Kami membayar asuransi kami setiap bulan.
  We pay our insurance every month.

• Kami membayar asuransi kesehatan setiap bulan.
  We pay health insurance every month.

• Kami membayar premi asuransi setiap bulan.
  We pay the insurance premium every month.

Can I say “membayar premi asuransi” instead of “membayar asuransi”? What’s the nuance?

Yes, you can, and it’s often more precise.

• membayar asuransi
  General: “pay insurance” (understood as paying the cost of having insurance).

• membayar premi asuransi
  More specific: “pay the insurance premium” (the scheduled payment).

Examples:

• Kami membayar asuransi setiap bulan.
  We pay insurance every month. (General statement.)

• Kami membayar premi asuransi setiap bulan.
  We pay our insurance premium every month. (Focus on the recurring fee.)

What’s the difference between setiap bulan, tiap bulan, and per bulan?

All relate to “every month / monthly”, but with slightly different feels.

1. setiap bulan

   • very common, neutral
   • “every month”
   • used in both spoken and written Indonesian
   • Kami membayar asuransi setiap bulan. ✅

2. tiap bulan

   • shorter, a bit more casual
   • almost the same meaning as setiap bulan
   • very common in speech
   • Kami bayar asuransi tiap bulan. (sounds casual/natural)

3. per bulan

   • often used with amounts / rates
   • means “per month”
   • Biaya asuransi kami Rp500.000 per bulan.
     Our insurance costs Rp500,000 per month.

In your sentence, setiap bulan is the standard, neutral choice.

Can setiap bulan go at the beginning or middle of the sentence? Is the word order fixed?

The word order is flexible. Common options:

1. Kami membayar asuransi setiap bulan.
   Neutral, very common.

2. Setiap bulan kami membayar asuransi.
   Emphasizes “every month” a little more (“Every month, we pay insurance”).

3. Kami setiap bulan membayar asuransi.
   Grammatically possible, but less common; sounds slightly more formal or written.

All three can be understood. For simple, natural speech, (1) and (2) are the best choices, with (1) being the most textbook-neutral.

Can I say “asuransi bulanan” instead of “asuransi setiap bulan”?

You’d normally use bulanan (monthly) to modify payments / fees / premiums, not so much the word asuransi itself.

More natural patterns:

• Kami membayar premi asuransi bulanan.
  We pay a monthly insurance premium.

• Biaya asuransi kami bulanan.
  Our insurance cost is monthly.

Kami membayar asuransi setiap bulan is the straightforward way to say “We pay insurance every month.”
Saying asuransi bulanan is possible in some contexts, but less common than describing the payment as monthly.

Is Kami membayar asuransi setiap bulan formal, informal, or neutral?

It’s neutral:

• Kami → neutral pronoun (can be used in both formal and informal settings)
• membayar → slightly more formal/neutral than bayar, but still very common in normal speech
• setiap bulan → neutral

For casual conversation, people might say:

• Kita bayar asuransi tiap bulan.
  (inclusive “we”, casual verb and time phrase)

For something very formal or written, your original sentence is already appropriate.

How would I say “I pay insurance every month” instead of “We pay…”?

Just change the subject pronoun:

• Saya membayar asuransi setiap bulan.
  I pay insurance every month.

Or more casual:

• Aku bayar asuransi tiap bulan.

Notes:

• saya → polite/neutral “I” (safe in almost all situations)
• aku → more intimate/casual, with friends, family, or informal contexts
• Again, membayar (neutral) vs bayar (casual).

What does the me- prefix in membayar actually do?

Membayar = meN- + bayar.

The meN- prefix:

• turns a root into an active verb (similar to “to pay” in English)
• is common with transitive verbs that take a direct object

Root: bayar
Active verb: membayar → “to pay (something)”

Other examples:

• beli → membeli (to buy)
• tulis → menulis (to write)
• baca → membaca (to read)

In everyday spoken Indonesian the prefix is often dropped: beli, tulis, baca, bayar, but in writing and neutral style, meN- forms like membayar are very common.