Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Malamnya, saya membayangkan andai saya bisa melihat galaksi asli, bukan hanya langit buatan di planetarium. - At night, I imagine if only I could see a real galaxy, not just an artificial sky in the planetarium.

Here -nya works as a definite marker, pointing to a specific time that is already known from context, so Malamnya is best translated as “That night,” / “That evening,”.

Common uses of -nya (beyond possession) include:

Making something definite/specific:
- paginya = the next morning / that morning
- besoknya = the next day
Referring back to something mentioned earlier in the story or situation.

So Malamnya here is like saying “That night, …” in a narrative.

Could I just say Malam itu instead of Malamnya? What’s the difference?

You can say Malam itu, and it would still mean “that night”. The difference is subtle in nuance:

Malam itu
- Literally “that night”.
- Slightly more explicit and neutral.
- Very common in written and spoken Indonesian.
Malamnya
- More story-like / narrative in feel.
- Often used in storytelling to continue a sequence of events (like “That night…” following “Earlier that day…”).
- Sounds a bit smoother and more natural in narratives.

In many contexts they are interchangeable, but Malamnya often feels more fluid in a narrative paragraph.

Why is there a comma after Malamnya? Is this just style, or is it required?

The comma is there because Malamnya is a time expression placed at the beginning of the sentence.

Indonesian often puts time or place at the front:

Malamnya, saya membayangkan… = That night, I imagined…
Di rumah, saya belajar. = At home, I study.

A comma is recommended after such fronted adverbials, especially in writing, to mark a pause and improve clarity. In casual writing or texting, people sometimes omit it, but in standard written Indonesian, the comma is correct and natural.

What exactly does membayangkan mean here, and how is it different from the root bayang?

The root bayang means “shadow” or “image”. From this we get:

bayangan = shadow / reflection / mental image
membayangkan = to imagine / to picture (something in your mind)

In this sentence, saya membayangkan… means “I imagined / I pictured (in my mind)…”.

Compare:

Saya membayangkan rumah ideal saya.
I imagine my ideal house.

Don’t confuse membayangkan with:

membayangi = to shadow / haunt / loom over (often metaphorical, e.g. masalah yang membayangi = “problems that loom over”).

Here, membayangkan clearly means “to imagine”.

How is andai used here? Is it the same as kalau or jika?

Andai introduces a hypothetical / unreal wish. It’s similar to English “if only” or “I wish”.

In the sentence:

andai saya bisa melihat galaksi asli…
≈ if only I could see a real galaxy… (but I can’t, in reality)

Comparison:

kalau / jika = “if” (neutral, can be real or unreal depending on context)
- Kalau saya bisa, saya akan pergi. = If I can, I will go. (could really happen)
andai / seandainya = “if only / if (but actually not)” (stronger sense of unreal wish)
- Seandainya saya kaya. = If only I were rich. (I’m not)

So andai here makes the sentence sound wishful and unreal, not just a simple conditional.

Can I replace andai with seandainya or kalau saja in this sentence?

Yes, but the nuance changes slightly:

Andai saya bisa melihat galaksi asli…
Seandainya saya bisa melihat galaksi asli…
Kalau saja saya bisa melihat galaksi asli…

All three basically mean “If only I could see a real galaxy…” with a wishful tone.

Nuances (small and often overlapping):

andai – short, a bit literary or poetic, common in writing and reflective speech.
seandainya – slightly more formal/complete; very common in both speech and writing.
kalau saja – more conversational; kalau is everyday “if”, and saja adds the “if only / if just” feeling.

Grammatically, you can substitute them here without making the sentence wrong.

What’s the difference between bisa in saya bisa melihat and dapat or boleh?

In this context:

bisa = can / be able to (ability or possibility)
- andai saya bisa melihat… = if only I could see…

Comparisons:

dapat
- Often interchangeable with bisa, especially in writing.
- Slightly more formal:
  - Saya dapat melihat… (fine here too)
- In many modern contexts, bisa is more common in speech.
boleh
- Means may / be allowed to, about permission, not ability.
- Saya boleh melihat galaksi asli. = I am allowed to see a real galaxy. (permission, not capacity)

In this sentence, bisa (or dapat) works because it’s about the ability / possibility, not permission.

Why is it galaksi asli and not asli galaksi? How does adjective order work in Indonesian?

In Indonesian, the adjective usually comes after the noun.

Structure:

noun + adjective

So:

galaksi asli = real / genuine galaxy
langit buatan = artificial sky
rumah besar = big house
buku baru = new book

Putting the adjective before the noun (asli galaksi) is wrong in standard Indonesian and sounds very unnatural. So galaksi asli is the correct order.

In bukan hanya langit buatan di planetarium, do we not need tetapi juga (like bukan hanya… tetapi juga…)?

The full, explicit pattern is:

bukan hanya A, tetapi juga B = not only A, but also B

Here, however, the sentence is:

andai saya bisa melihat galaksi asli, bukan hanya langit buatan di planetarium.

The comparison is implicit:

Desired: galaksi asli
Current reality: hanya langit buatan di planetarium

So the structure is more like:

(I wish I could see) a real galaxy, not just the artificial sky…

Bukan hanya here functions like “not just / not only” modifying what the person currently sees. The “but also” part is basically the wish to see galaksi asli, which is already in the previous part of the sentence, so tetapi juga is not repeated.

If you made it very explicit, you could say:

…andai saya bisa melihat galaksi asli, bukan hanya langit buatan di planetarium yang saya lihat sekarang.
But the original is more natural and not incomplete.

What exactly does buatan in langit buatan mean? Is it an adjective?

Yes, buatan functions like an adjective here, meaning “artificial / man-made / manufactured”.

Morphology:

Root: buat = to make
buatan = something made / manufactured, or artificial, depending on the context

Examples:

gula buatan = artificial sugar
danau buatan = man-made lake
bunga buatan = artificial flower

So langit buatan is best translated as “artificial sky” (e.g., the projected sky in a planetarium).

Why is it di planetarium and not something like pada planetarium or ke planetarium?

In Indonesian:

di = in / at / on (location)
ke = to (movement toward)
pada = at / to / on, but more formal/abstract, often used with people, time, or more abstract objects.

Here, di planetarium states the location of the artificial sky:

langit buatan di planetarium = the artificial sky in the planetarium

If you said:

ke planetarium – that would mean “to the planetarium” (movement), which is not the meaning here.
pada planetarium – would sound too formal or odd, because pada is less natural for concrete physical location in everyday language.

So di planetarium is the normal, natural choice.

How do we know this is talking about the past? There’s no past tense like in English.

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense (past, present, future). Tense is understood from context and time expressions.

In this sentence:

Malamnya = That night
This signals a specific time in the past within a narrative.

So the whole sentence is understood as:

“That night, I imagined if only I could see a real galaxy, not just the artificial sky in the planetarium.”

If the context were clearly present or future, the same verb forms could describe present or future events. The verbs themselves (membayangkan, bisa, melihat) are tense-neutral.