Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Kami duduk di halaman sambil minum teh hangat. - We sit in the yard while drinking warm tea.

kami = we (not including the person you’re talking to)
- Example: Kami duduk di halaman = We are sitting in the yard (you are not part of this “we”).
kita = we (including the person you’re talking to)
- Example: Kita duduk di halaman = We are sitting in the yard (you and I together).

So in Kami duduk di halaman sambil minum teh hangat, the speaker is clearly excluding the listener from the group that’s sitting and drinking tea.

Does duduk mean “sit”, “sat”, or “are sitting”? Where is the tense?

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense. The verb duduk always has the base meaning “to sit / sitting”.

The tense (past, present, future) is understood from context or time words, for example:

Kemarin kami duduk di halaman.
Yesterday we sat in the yard.
Sekarang kami duduk di halaman.
Now we are sitting in the yard.
Nanti kami duduk di halaman.
Later we will sit in the yard.

Your sentence can be interpreted as:

We are sitting in the yard while drinking warm tea, or
We sat in the yard while drinking warm tea,

depending on the larger context.

What does di mean in di halaman, and how is it used?

di is a preposition meaning roughly “in / at / on” for locations.

di halaman = in the yard / in the courtyard
di rumah = at home
di meja = on the table

Use di when you are talking about a location where something is.

Compare:

Kami duduk di halaman.
We are sitting in the yard. (location)
Kami pergi ke halaman.
We went to the yard. (movement, uses ke “to”)

So in your sentence, di simply marks where you are sitting.

What does halaman mean here? I’ve seen it used for “page” as well.

Halaman has two common meanings:

Yard / courtyard / garden area around a building
- halaman rumah = the yard of a house
- This is the meaning in your sentence: di halaman = in the yard / courtyard.
Page (of a book, website, etc.)
- halaman 5 = page 5
- halaman depan koran = the front page of the newspaper

The meaning is determined by context and often by extra words:

halaman rumah, di halaman belakang → yard
halaman buku, halaman web → page

What does sambil mean exactly, and how is it different from sementara or ketika?

sambil means “while (doing something else at the same time)” and is used when one subject is doing two actions simultaneously.

In your sentence:

Kami duduk di halaman sambil minum teh hangat.
We sit in the yard while (we) drink warm tea.
→ Same subject (kami) doing two actions: duduk and minum.

Compare with:

sementara / ketika = “while / when” (more general time conjunctions)
- Ketika saya duduk di halaman, hujan mulai turun.
  When I was sitting in the yard, it started to rain. (two different subjects: saya vs hujan)
- Sementara saya belajar, adik saya bermain.
  While I studied, my younger sibling played.

So:

Use sambil when the same person is performing both actions at once.
Use sementara / ketika when linking two events, often with different subjects.

Why isn’t kami repeated after sambil? Could I say sambil kami minum teh hangat?

Indonesian often drops the subject in the second verb phrase when it’s the same subject as in the first clause. That’s why:

Kami duduk di halaman sambil minum teh hangat.
is the natural form.

You could say:

Kami duduk di halaman sambil kami minum teh hangat.

It’s not grammatically wrong, but it sounds unnecessarily repetitive and less natural in everyday speech. Native speakers strongly prefer:

…sambil minum teh hangat.

Why is it teh hangat and not hangat teh? How does the word order work?

In Indonesian, adjectives normally come after the noun they describe.

teh hangat = warm tea
baju merah = red shirt
rumah besar = big house
orang tua = old person / parent (literally: person old)

Putting the adjective before the noun, like hangat teh, is ungrammatical in standard Indonesian.

So the correct pattern is:

NOUN + ADJECTIVE
teh hangat, kue manis, mobil baru, etc.

What is the difference between teh hangat and teh panas?

Both describe tea that is not cold, but they differ in temperature nuance:

teh hangat
- literally “warm tea”
- implies pleasantly warm, not too hot to drink comfortably.
teh panas
- literally “hot tea”
- implies really hot, maybe freshly boiled.

In everyday use:

If you want tea that’s drinkable, you’ll often say teh hangat.
If you want very hot tea (or just to emphasize the heat), say teh panas.

There’s no word for “a” or “some” in minum teh hangat. Does it mean “drink the warm tea”, “a warm tea”, or “some warm tea”?

Indonesian does not have articles like “a / an / the”. So teh hangat is neutral:

minum teh hangat can mean:
- drink (some) warm tea
- drink the warm tea
- drink a warm tea

The exact English article depends on context, not on extra words in Indonesian.

If you really need to be specific, you might add other words:

minum segelas teh hangat = drink a glass of warm tea
minum teh hangat itu = drink that warm tea

How do I say “in the yard” versus “to the yard” in Indonesian?

Use different prepositions:

di halaman = in the yard / at the yard (location)
- Kami duduk di halaman.
  We are sitting in the yard.
ke halaman = to the yard (movement towards)
- Kami pergi ke halaman.
  We go to the yard.

So your sentence describes being located in the yard, not moving towards it.

Could the sentence also mean “We drink warm tea while sitting in the yard” (habitual), not just one specific time?

Yes. Because Indonesian verbs don’t mark tense or aspect, your sentence can describe:

A specific event:
Yesterday we sat in the yard while drinking warm tea.
A habit / routine:
We (usually) sit in the yard while drinking warm tea.

If you want to make the habitual meaning clearer, you can add adverbs like:

Setiap sore kami duduk di halaman sambil minum teh hangat.
Every afternoon we sit in the yard while drinking warm tea.

How would I say “We are sitting in the yard while drinking warm tea right now”? Is there a way to show “right now”?

You can add sedang or time expressions to show a current ongoing action:

Sekarang kami sedang duduk di halaman sambil minum teh hangat.
Right now we are sitting in the yard while drinking warm tea.

sedang emphasizes a progressive action (similar to “am/is/are -ing” in English), but it’s optional. Even without sedang, context words like sekarang (now) already make the time clear.