Lulusan yang saya wawancarai kemarin berasal dari jurusan ekonomi.

The graduate whom I interviewed yesterday comes from the economics major.

Breakdown of Lulusan yang saya wawancarai kemarin berasal dari jurusan ekonomi.

• saya: I
• kemarin: yesterday
• lulusan: the graduate
• yang: whom
• wawancarai: to interview
• berasal dari: to come from
• jurusan ekonomi: the economics major

Questions & Answers about Lulusan yang saya wawancarai kemarin berasal dari jurusan ekonomi.

What does lulusan mean here, and is it singular or plural?

Lulusan literally means “graduate / someone who has graduated” or “alumnus/alumna”.

Indonesian does not mark singular vs. plural on the noun itself, so:

• lulusan can mean “a graduate” (singular)
• or “(the) graduates” (plural), depending on context.

In this sentence, both are possible in English:

• “The graduate that I interviewed yesterday …”
• “The graduates that I interviewed yesterday …”

If you really want to make it clearly plural in Indonesian, you might say:

• para lulusan = (the) graduates (a polite/formal collective plural).

What is the function of yang in this sentence?

Yang introduces a relative clause, similar to “who / that / whom” in English.

Structure:

• Lulusan = the noun being described (head noun)
• yang saya wawancarai kemarin = the relative clause, adding information about lulusan

So:

• Lulusan yang saya wawancarai kemarin
  ≈ “The graduate(s) whom I interviewed yesterday”

In general:

• yang + clause = “who/that/which + clause,” describing the noun before yang.

Why is it saya wawancarai and not saya mewawancarai?

Both are grammatically possible but used in different structures:

1. Saya mewawancarai lulusan itu kemarin.

   • Verb: mewawancarai (active + object)
   • Word order: Subject–Verb–Object (SVO)
   • “I interviewed that graduate yesterday.”

2. Lulusan yang saya wawancarai kemarin …

   • Here, lulusan is moved to the front and then described by a relative clause.
   • When the object (lulusan) is “pulled out” and modified by yang, the verb inside the relative clause becomes wawancarai (no me-), and saya becomes the subject of that verb.

Pattern:

• Full sentence: Saya mewawancarai lulusan itu kemarin.
• Relative clause: Lulusan yang saya wawancarai kemarin …

So this is a common pattern: when you make a relative clause where the head noun is the object, the verb inside often appears without the me- prefix, and the subject (here saya) comes before the verb.

What is the difference between wawancara and wawancarai?

• wawancara (noun)
  = an interview
  Example: Saya punya wawancara kerja besok.
  “I have a job interview tomorrow.”

• mewawancarai / wawancarai (verb)
  = to interview (someone)
  The base is wawancara, and -i makes it a transitive verb: “to interview (someone).”
  Example:

  • Saya mewawancarai dia. = I interview(ed) him/her.
  • In relative clauses: yang saya wawancarai = whom I interviewed.

In informal speech, some people also use wawancara as a verb (“Saya wawancara dia”), but wawancarai / mewawancarai is the standard/clear transitive form.

Where does kemarin fit in the sentence, and what exactly does it modify?

Kemarin means “yesterday” and is an adverb of time.

In Lulusan yang saya wawancarai kemarin …, it is most naturally understood as modifying wawancarai:

• “The graduate(s) that I interviewed yesterday …”

So it tells you when the interviewing happened, not when the graduate graduated.

Adverbs of time like kemarin, tadi, besok, etc. are fairly flexible in position, but here it’s placed right after the verb phrase saya wawancarai, which is very natural.

What does berasal dari mean, and how is it different from just dari or datang dari?

Berasal dari means roughly “to come from / to originate from (as one’s origin/background)”.

In this sentence:

• berasal dari jurusan ekonomi
  ≈ “(he/she/they) come(s) from the economics department/major.”
  It refers to the person’s academic background.

Comparison:

• dari (from) alone can be physical or abstract:

  • Saya dari Jakarta. = I’m from Jakarta.
  • Dia lulus dari universitas itu. = He graduated from that university.

• datang dari = “to come (physically) from”:

  • Dia datang dari Surabaya. = He came from Surabaya (travelled from there).

• berasal dari often emphasises origin or background (place, family, department, etc.):

  • Saya berasal dari Bandung. = I’m originally from Bandung.
  • Dia berasal dari jurusan ekonomi. = His/her academic origin is the economics major.

Here, berasal dari jurusan ekonomi is a very natural way to talk about someone’s major/department as their academic origin.

What does jurusan ekonomi mean exactly? Is it like “economy department” or “economics major”?

Jurusan means “department / major / field of study” (in a school or university).

So:

• jurusan ekonomi ≈ “economics major / economics department”

Common translations:

• berasal dari jurusan ekonomi
  = “(they) are from the economics department”
  or “(they) majored in economics / their major was economics.”

Indonesian uses noun + noun without “of”:

• jurusan ekonomi
  literally “major economics” → “economics major.”

Why isn’t there a word like “who” or “whom” in the Indonesian sentence?

Indonesian uses yang as a general relative marker, and it doesn’t distinguish between who / that / which / whom the way English does.

In English:

• “the graduate whom I interviewed yesterday”

In Indonesian:

• lulusan yang saya wawancarai kemarin
  (literally: “graduate that I interviewed yesterday”)

Yang is not translated as “who” or “whom” directly; it’s just a marker that what follows is a describing clause for the noun before it. English needs to pick one of who/whom/that/which based on animacy and grammar, but Indonesian just uses yang for all of those situations.

Could the sentence be reordered to something like English word order, like “Saya mewawancarai lulusan dari jurusan ekonomi kemarin”? Would it mean the same thing?

Yes, you can say:

• Saya mewawancarai lulusan dari jurusan ekonomi kemarin.

This would mean:

• “I interviewed a graduate from the economics department yesterday.”

Differences:

1. Focus / emphasis

   • Original: Lulusan yang saya wawancarai kemarin berasal dari jurusan ekonomi.
     → Topic is the graduate(s), then you give info about them (their origin/major).
   • Reordered: Saya mewawancarai lulusan dari jurusan ekonomi kemarin.
     → Topic is I (saya) and the action of interviewing.

2. Structure

   • Original uses a relative clause (yang saya wawancarai kemarin) and a separate predicate berasal dari jurusan ekonomi.
   • Reordered sentence uses a simpler SVO structure with a prepositional phrase dari jurusan ekonomi directly after lulusan.

Meaning is close, but the original puts more emphasis on who the graduate is and what their background is, rather than on the act of interviewing.

How formal or informal is this sentence? Could I use it in everyday conversation?

The sentence:

• Lulusan yang saya wawancarai kemarin berasal dari jurusan ekonomi.

is neutral to slightly formal:

• Lulusan, wawancarai, berasal, jurusan are all standard, neutral words.
• It’s perfectly fine in spoken conversation, especially in a professional / academic context (e.g., talking about job candidates, thesis respondents, etc.).
• In more casual speech, people might simplify or shorten, e.g.:
  • Orang yang saya wawancara kemarin dari jurusan ekonomi.
    (more colloquial: wawancara used as a verb, orang instead of lulusan)

So you can safely use the original sentence in both writing and speech, particularly when you want to sound clear and slightly formal/professional.

Is kemarin always “yesterday,” or can it be used more loosely like “the other day”?

Literally, kemarin = “yesterday” (the day before today).

In casual speech, Indonesians sometimes use it a bit more loosely, similar to “the other day,” especially when the exact day is not important. But if you want to be precise:

• kemarin = yesterday
• kemarin lusa = the day before yesterday
• besok = tomorrow
• lusa = the day after tomorrow

In this sentence, kemarin is naturally read as “yesterday”, but context could allow a slightly looser “the other day” if you’re translating more freely into English.