Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Rambut keritingnya sulit disisir, tapi dia sabar dan cukup memakai sedikit minyak rambut. - His/Her curly hair is hard to comb, but he/she is patient and just uses a little hair oil.

Depending on context, -nya can also just make something definite, like “the curly hair”, but here, with dia in the sentence, the natural reading is “his/her curly hair.”

Why is it rambut keritingnya and not keriting rambutnya? Where do adjectives go?

In Indonesian, adjectives almost always come after the noun they describe.

rambut keriting = curly hair
- rambut (hair) + keriting (curly)
keriting rambut is not the normal order and sounds wrong in standard Indonesian.

So:

rambut keritingnya = his/her curly hair
rambutnya keriting = his/her hair is curly (here rambutnya is the subject and keriting is the predicate adjective)

Both are grammatical, but:

rambut keritingnya → focuses on the thing (“his/her curly hair”)
rambutnya keriting → makes a statement about the hair (“his/her hair is curly”)

How should I understand sulit disisir? Why is it passive, and can I say sulit untuk disisir?

sulit disisir literally is:

sulit = difficult
disisir = to be combed (passive form of menyisir, “to comb”)

So sulit disisir means “difficult to comb” (difficult to be combed).

About the form:

Indonesian often uses adjective + passive verb to express “difficult/easy to do something”:
- sulit dimengerti = difficult to understand
- mudah dibaca = easy to read

You can say:

sulit untuk disisir – also correct, a bit more explicit, slightly more formal or careful.

sulit disisir is shorter and very natural in everyday Indonesian.

Why is there no word like “is” in Rambut keritingnya sulit disisir or dia sabar? Where is the verb “to be”?

Indonesian usually does not use a separate verb for “to be” when the predicate is:

an adjective (sulit, sabar, besar, cantik, etc.)
a verb or verb phrase (disisir, memakai sedikit minyak, etc.)

So:

Rambut keritingnya sulit disisir.
Literally: “His/her curly hair difficult (to be) combed.” → “His/her curly hair is hard to comb.”
Dia sabar.
Literally: “He/She patient.” → “He/She is patient.”

Words like adalah/ialah are mostly used when the predicate is a noun phrase, e.g.:

Dia adalah guru. = He/She is a teacher.

Here, sulit disisir and sabar don’t need adalah.

What exactly does cukup mean in cukup memakai sedikit minyak rambut? Is it “enough”, “quite”, or “just”?

cukup can mean:

enough/sufficient
quite/rather (as a degree adverb)
just/simply (in casual speech, similar to “just” in English)

In this sentence:

cukup memakai sedikit minyak rambut ≈ “(he/she) just uses a little hair oil”
or
“it is enough (for him/her) to use a little hair oil”

So cukup here expresses that only that action is sufficient; nothing more is needed.

Some patterns:

cukup + verb:
- cukup tidur = sleep enough / just sleep (and that’s enough)
- cukup memakai… = just use / it’s enough to use …
cukup + adjective:
- cukup besar = quite big
- cukup sabar = quite patient

Context decides whether the English translation feels more like “enough”, “quite”, or “just”.

Why is it cukup memakai sedikit minyak rambut, not memakai cukup sedikit minyak rambut?

In this sentence, cukup modifies the whole action of memakai sedikit minyak rambut, not the word sedikit itself.

cukup memakai sedikit minyak rambut
= “just (or: it’s enough to) use a little hair oil”

If you say:

memakai cukup sedikit minyak rambut

this sounds odd because:

cukup sedikit (“enough little”) is semantically strange: cukup normally goes with something positive in amount (cukup banyak, cukup besar), not with sedikit (“a little”).

To say “quite a little”, you’d usually avoid that structure and say something like:

memakai sangat sedikit minyak rambut = uses very little hair oil
memakai hanya sedikit minyak rambut = uses only a little hair oil

What is the difference between tapi and tetapi in tapi dia sabar? Are both correct?

Both tapi and tetapi mean “but”.

tetapi is more formal or standard.
tapi is informal/colloquial, very common in speech and casual writing.

So:

… sulit disisir, tetapi dia sabar … – perfectly fine in formal writing.
… sulit disisir, tapi dia sabar … – very natural in conversational Indonesian.

You can start a sentence with either tapi or tetapi, just like starting with “But” in English is common in informal style.

What’s the difference between memakai, pakai, and menggunakan? Why choose memakai here?

All three are related to “use” or “wear”, but with slightly different feels:

pakai
- Base verb, very common, especially in spoken Indonesian.
- Can mean “use” or “wear”.
- Example: Saya pakai baju merah. = I wear/am wearing a red shirt.
memakai
- The meN- form of pakai.
- Slightly more formal/neutral than bare pakai, common in writing.
- Example: Dia memakai kacamata. = He/She wears glasses.
menggunakan
- From guna (use, function).
- Often sounds more formal/technical than memakai.
- Example: Kami menggunakan software baru. = We use new software.

In cukup memakai sedikit minyak rambut:

memakai fits well because we’re talking about using a product on the body (hair), and it’s a neutral, natural choice in both spoken and written Indonesian.

Does minyak rambut literally mean “hair oil”? Why is the order minyak rambut and not rambut minyak?

Yes, minyak rambut means “hair oil”, i.e. oil used for hair.

In Indonesian noun compounds, the usual pattern is:

[main noun] + [specifier]

So:

minyak (oil) + rambut (hair)
→ minyak rambut = hair oil (oil for hair)

Other examples:

sikat gigi = toothbrush (brush for teeth)
kamar mandi = bathroom (room for bathing)

rambut minyak would sound more like “oily hair” (and even that is not the normal way to say it; you’d say rambut berminyak for “oily hair”).

How do I know if dia means “he” or “she” here?

You don’t know from the word dia alone.

dia is a gender-neutral third-person singular pronoun:
- can mean he, she, or even it (for animals, sometimes personified things) depending on context.

To know whether it’s “he” or “she”, you need:

context from previous sentences, or
an extra word like laki-laki (male), perempuan (female), a name, or a title.

For example:

Dia sabar. → He is patient / She is patient.
Perempuan itu sabar. Dia cukup memakai sedikit minyak rambut.
→ That woman is patient. She just uses a little hair oil.

Can I say Rambut keritingnya susah disisir instead of sulit disisir? What’s the difference between susah and sulit?

Yes, you can say:

Rambut keritingnya susah disisir.

Both susah and sulit mean “difficult/hard”, and in many cases they are interchangeable.

Nuances:

sulit
- Slightly more formal/neutral.
- Common in written language, news, essays, etc.
susah
- More colloquial and emotional; can also mean “troublesome” or “in a difficult situation”:
  - hidupnya susah = his/her life is difficult
  - susah tidur = have trouble sleeping

In everyday speech, susah disisir and sulit disisir would both be understood as “hard to comb”. The original sentence with sulit just feels a bit more neutral or standard.