Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Saya mengikuti kelas malam bahasa Indonesia di perpustakaan. - I attend an Indonesian evening class at the library.

saya – neutral / polite, used in most formal and semi‑formal situations (with strangers, in class, in writing, at work).
aku – more informal and intimate (with close friends, family, people your age or younger, in songs).

In this sentence, saya makes it sound neutral and appropriate for a classroom or textbook context.

If you were talking casually to a friend, you might say:

Aku ikut kelas malam bahasa Indonesia di perpustakaan.

What does mengikuti literally mean, and why is it used for “attend a class”?

The basic idea of mengikuti is “to follow” or “to go along with”, but in Indonesian it also very commonly means:

to attend / take (a course, class, program, event)

So:

Saya mengikuti kelas malam…
= I attend / take a night class…

Literally you could think of it as “I follow the night class…”, but in natural English we say “attend” or “take” a class.

Other common uses of mengikuti:

mengikuti lomba – to participate in / enter a competition
mengikuti perkembangan berita – to follow the news developments
mengikuti kursus – to attend a course

What is the base word of mengikuti, and what do its parts mean?

The base word is ikut.

ikut = to join, take part, go along, follow

mengikuti is built from ikut plus affixes:

meN- (here: meng-) + ikut
- -i → mengikuti

You don’t need to master all the morphology right away, but in simple terms:

ikut – to join, follow (often intransitive: Saya ikut. = I join / I’m in.)
mengikuti (something) – to follow / attend / take (transitive: needs an object)

In this sentence, the object is kelas malam bahasa Indonesia:

Saya mengikuti (apa?) – kelas malam bahasa Indonesia
“I attend (what?) – the Indonesian night class.”

Why is it kelas malam, not malam kelas like in English “night class”?

In Indonesian, describing words usually come after the noun, not before it as in English.

English: night class (adjective + noun)
Indonesian: kelas malam (noun + descriptor “malam”)

So:

kelas malam – night class / evening class
kereta malam – night train
pasar malam – night market

Putting malam first (malam kelas) would be wrong; it sounds like “night of class” or just ungrammatical.

What exactly does kelas malam bahasa Indonesia mean as a whole?

kelas malam bahasa Indonesia is one long noun phrase. A natural English equivalent would be:

an Indonesian night class
a night class in Indonesian

The structure is:

kelas – class (head noun)
malam – night/evening (what kind of class? a night class)
bahasa Indonesia – Indonesian language (what subject? Indonesian)

So you can think of it as:

kelas (malam) (bahasa Indonesia)
class (night) (Indonesian language)

All three words belong together as one unit: a night class whose subject is the Indonesian language.

Why do we need the word bahasa before Indonesia here?

bahasa means language.

bahasa Indonesia = the Indonesian language
orang Indonesia = Indonesian person / people
Indonesia (by itself) = the country

If you said kelas malam Indonesia, it would be unclear or odd – it sounds like a night class that is “Indonesian” in some vague way, not clearly “Indonesian language class”.

Using bahasa makes it explicit that you’re talking about the language:

kelas malam bahasa Indonesia – night class in the Indonesian language

How does di work in di perpustakaan, and how is it different from ke and pada?

di is a very common preposition meaning “at / in / on” (location, not movement).

di perpustakaan – at the library / in the library

Compare:

ke – to / towards (movement to a place)
- Saya pergi ke perpustakaan. – I go to the library.
di – at / in (location, where something happens)
- Saya belajar di perpustakaan. – I study at the library.

pada is more formal and is used with time expressions or abstract things:

pada malam hari – at night
pada kesempatan ini – on this occasion

So di perpustakaan is correct here because it marks the place where the class is held, not movement toward it.

Why is there no word for “a” or “the” before kelas or perpustakaan?

Indonesian has no articles like English a / an / the. Nouns appear “bare”:

kelas – class / a class / the class
perpustakaan – library / a library / the library

Which one is meant is understood from context, not from a special word.

If you really need to emphasise “one single class” or “one library”, you can use classifiers like:

sebuah kelas – one class (more like “a certain class”)
sebuah perpustakaan – a / one library

But in most everyday sentences, Indonesian simply omits any equivalent of “a/the”.

How do we show past or future tense in this sentence?

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense. Mengikuti can mean:

I attend / am attending
I attended
I will attend

To show time, you add time words:

Past:
- Kemarin saya mengikuti kelas malam bahasa Indonesia di perpustakaan.
  Yesterday I attended…
Future:
- Nanti malam saya akan mengikuti kelas malam bahasa Indonesia di perpustakaan.
  Tonight I will attend…
Right now / in progress:
- Saya sedang mengikuti kelas malam bahasa Indonesia di perpustakaan.
  I am currently attending…

So the base sentence is tenseless; the context or extra time expressions tell you whether it’s past, present, or future.

Is kelas singular or plural here, and how would I say “night classes”?

By default, kelas can be singular or plural, depending on context:

Saya mengikuti kelas malam bahasa Indonesia…
Could be “I attend a night class…” or “I attend night classes…”, depending on what you mean.

To make it clearly plural, you can:

Repeat the noun (simple plural):
- Saya mengikuti kelas‑kelas malam bahasa Indonesia.
  I attend night classes in Indonesian.
Use a number or quantity word:
- Saya mengikuti beberapa kelas malam bahasa Indonesia.
  I attend several night classes in Indonesian.
- Saya mengikuti dua kelas malam bahasa Indonesia.
  I attend two Indonesian night classes.

Can I omit saya and just say Mengikuti kelas malam bahasa Indonesia di perpustakaan?

Indonesian can drop subject pronouns if the subject is obvious from context, especially in casual speech or writing.

However:

In careful, full sentences (like in textbooks, formal writing, or first introductions), you normally keep the subject:
- Saya mengikuti kelas malam…

If you say just:

Mengikuti kelas malam bahasa Indonesia di perpustakaan.

it sounds like:

a sentence fragment (like a note in a diary, or a bullet point: “Attending a night Indonesian class at the library”), or
part of a longer sentence (e.g. Dia sedang mengikuti kelas malam…)

So yes, it’s grammatically possible to drop saya in the right context, but the standalone full sentence is more natural with saya.

Can I move di perpustakaan to the start of the sentence, and does that change the meaning?

Yes, you can move it:

Saya mengikuti kelas malam bahasa Indonesia di perpustakaan.
Di perpustakaan, saya mengikuti kelas malam bahasa Indonesia.

The core meaning is the same: you attend that class at the library.

Differences:

The original order is more neutral and typical.
Starting with Di perpustakaan puts extra emphasis on the location (“At the library, I attend…”), maybe to contrast with classes held elsewhere.

Both are grammatically correct.

Is there a difference between mengikuti kelas and ikut kelas?

Both are correct, but there are nuance and register differences.

ikut kelas
- More casual / everyday.
- Very common in speech.
- Saya ikut kelas malam bahasa Indonesia di perpustakaan.
mengikuti kelas
- Sounds a bit more formal / official, often used in written language, announcements, reports, or formal speech.
- Saya mengikuti kelas malam bahasa Indonesia di perpustakaan.

The meaning in this context is the same: to attend / take a class.
In everyday conversation, you’ll often hear ikut kelas; in official documents, mengikuti kelas is very common.

Does this sentence sound formal, and how would a more casual version look?

The original:

Saya mengikuti kelas malam bahasa Indonesia di perpustakaan.

sounds neutral to slightly formal because of:

saya (polite / neutral “I”)
mengikuti (a bit more formal than plain ikut)

A more casual version could be:

Aku ikut kelas malam bahasa Indonesia di perpustakaan.
(Switches to aku and ikut.)

Even more colloquial (spoken):

Aku ikut les bahasa Indonesia malam‑malam di perpustakaan.
- les – informal word for private lessons / course
- malam‑malam – at night / in the evenings (colloquial emphasis)

What does perpustakaan literally come from, and how is it different from toko buku?

perpustakaan means library.

It’s derived from:

pustaka – writings, books (a bit old‑fashioned as a standalone word)
per‑ … ‑an – a common pair of affixes that can turn roots into nouns denoting places or things related to the root

So per‑pustaka‑an → perpustakaan = place of books/writings → library.

Compare with:

toko buku – bookstore / bookshop (toko = shop, buku = book)

So:

perpustakaan – where you borrow / read books
toko buku – where you buy books