Kelinci dan hamster adik saya memakai kalung kecil berwarna abu-abu.

My younger sibling's rabbit and hamster wear small gray necklaces.

Breakdown of Kelinci dan hamster adik saya memakai kalung kecil berwarna abu-abu.

• sebuah: a
• dan: and
• kecil: small
• adik: the younger sibling
• saya: my
• memakai: to wear
• berwarna: colored
• kelinci: the rabbit
• hamster: the hamster
• kalung: the necklace
• abu-abu: gray

Questions & Answers about Kelinci dan hamster adik saya memakai kalung kecil berwarna abu-abu.

In kelinci dan hamster adik saya, does adik saya belong to both the rabbit and the hamster, or just to the hamster?

By default, adik saya is understood to modify the whole phrase kelinci dan hamster, so the meaning is:

• “My younger sibling’s rabbit and (my younger sibling’s) hamster …”

If only the hamster belonged to your younger sibling, Indonesians would usually rephrase, for example:

• Kelinci saya dan hamster adik saya
  My rabbit and my younger sibling’s hamster

So in the original sentence, both animals are your younger sibling’s pets.

How do we know that adik saya goes with kelinci dan hamster, and not with kalung kecil (like “my younger sibling’s small collar”)?

Indonesian normally attaches possessors directly after the noun (or noun phrase) they describe.

Structure of your sentence:

• [Kelinci dan hamster adik saya] = subject noun phrase
• memakai = verb
• [kalung kecil berwarna abu-abu] = object noun phrase

If adik saya were meant to modify kalung kecil, it would appear right after kalung kecil, e.g.:

• Kelinci dan hamster itu memakai kalung kecil adik saya.
  The rabbit and hamster are wearing my younger sibling’s small collar.

Because adik saya appears right after kelinci dan hamster, it clearly belongs to that part, not to kalung kecil.

Why is there no word like “of” or “’s” for possession? How does adik saya mean “my younger sibling”?

Indonesian usually shows possession simply by putting the possessor after the thing possessed.

Patterns:

• adik saya = younger sibling + I → my younger sibling
• rumah saya = house + I → my house
• kelinci adik saya = rabbit + my younger sibling → my younger sibling’s rabbit

Alternatives:

• adikku, rumahku (using the suffix -ku for “my”)
• kelinci dan hamster milik adik saya
  (the rabbit and hamster belonging to my younger sibling)

No extra word like “of” is required; the order alone shows the relationship.

Why is it adik saya and not saya adik?

In a noun phrase showing possession:

• [NOUN] + [PRONOUN] → possessed thing + possessor
  
  • adik saya = my younger sibling
  • buku saya = my book
  • guru saya = my teacher

If you put saya first, like saya adik, it no longer looks like a noun phrase; it sounds like the start of a sentence:

• Saya adik kamu. = I am your younger sibling.

So:

• adik saya = my younger sibling (noun phrase)
• saya adik (by itself) is not a normal way to say “my younger sibling.”

What exactly does adik mean? Is it “younger brother” or “younger sister”?

Adik means younger sibling, without specifying gender. It only tells you:

• They are younger than the reference person.
• They are related like a sibling (or sometimes used more loosely for a younger person).

To be specific:

• adik laki-laki = younger brother
• adik perempuan = younger sister

In everyday speech, people often just say adik and context tells you whether it’s a brother or sister. So adik saya = my younger sibling (gender-neutral).

What is the difference between saya and aku here? Could we say adik aku instead?

Both mean “I / me / my”, but they differ in formality and tone:

• saya
  • More formal and neutral
  • Safe in almost any situation: with strangers, in writing, at work, etc.
• aku
  • More informal, intimate, or casual
  • Used with friends, family, in songs, etc.

In noun phrases:

• adik saya = my younger sibling (neutral/formal)
• adik aku = my younger sibling (casual/intimate)

Grammatically both are fine; the choice depends on how close and how formal you want to sound. In a textbook-style sentence, adik saya is more expected.

Why is memakai used instead of just pakai? What’s the difference?

• pakai is the base verb, meaning “to use / to wear”.
• memakai is the meN- (me-) form of pakai, also meaning “to use / to wear”.

Differences:

• memakai
  • Slightly more formal or neutral standard
  • Common in writing and careful speech
• pakai
  • More informal/colloquial
  • Very common in everyday conversation

In your sentence, both are acceptable:

• Kelinci dan hamster adik saya memakai kalung kecil … (neutral/formal)
• Kelinci dan hamster adik saya pakai kalung kecil … (more casual)

The meaning is the same: are wearing small collars.

Does kalung mean “necklace” or “collar”? Is kalung natural for pets?

Literal meaning:

• kalung = something worn around the neck, usually necklace for humans.

For animals:

• People commonly say kalung for a pet’s collar, especially if it looks like a ring around the neck (with a tag, bell, etc.).
  • kalung anjing = dog collar
  • kalung kucing = cat collar

More specific words:

• kerah = collar of a shirt/jacket
• tali leher = necktie (literally “neck rope”)

So in context, kalung for small pets like a rabbit and hamster is normal and will be understood as collars, not jewelry for a person.

Why is it kalung kecil, with the adjective after the noun? Can we say kecil kalung?

In Indonesian, the usual order is:

• NOUN + ADJECTIVE

Examples:

• kalung kecil = small necklace/collar
• rumah besar = big house
• mobil merah = red car

Putting the adjective before the noun, like kecil kalung, is not standard and sounds wrong (except in poetry or very marked, unusual styles).

So:

• kalung kecil = correct, natural
• kecil kalung = incorrect as a normal noun phrase

There are two animals but we don’t see any plural marking. How do we know if kelinci, hamster, and kalung are singular or plural?

Indonesian usually does not mark plural on the noun. Plural meaning comes from:

• Context
• Numbers or quantifiers
• Sometimes reduplication

In your sentence:

• kelinci dan hamster adik saya
  We know it’s two animals because there are two different nouns joined by dan.
• kalung kecil
  Each animal logically has one collar, so we understand two collars from context, even though kalung is not changed.

Ways to make plurality explicit if needed:

• dua kalung kecil berwarna abu-abu = two small gray collars
• kalung-kalung kecil berwarna abu-abu = small collars (plural, somewhat generic)

But in everyday Indonesian, if the number is obvious, singular/plural is usually not marked.

What does berwarna abu-abu mean exactly, and why use berwarna instead of just abu-abu?

• warna = color
• Prefix ber- often means “to have / to be in a state of”.
• berwarna X ≈ “to be X-colored / to have the color X”.

So:

• kalung kecil berwarna abu-abu
  = “small collars that are gray in color”

You could also say:

• kalung kecil abu-abu
  (informal, shorter, understood as “small gray collars”)
• kalung kecil yang berwarna abu-abu
  (more explicit/relative-clause style: “small collars that are gray in color”)

Using berwarna makes it clear you are talking about color. It’s very common in careful or descriptive language.

Why is abu-abu written with a hyphen and repeated? What’s the difference between abu and abu-abu?

• abu by itself means ash (like ashes from a fire).
• abu-abu is a reduplicated form that has become the standard word for the color gray.

In Indonesian, repeating a word (reduplication) often:

• Forms a new meaning
• Can mark plurality or variety
• Or, as here, becomes the name of a color

Other examples:

• hijau = green (no reduplication needed)
• merah muda = light pink (not reduplicated)
• kupu-kupu = butterfly (from kupu)

Spelling rule:

• Reduplicated words are usually written with a hyphen, so abu-abu, not abu abu.

So in berwarna abu-abu, it means “gray in color,” not “ash-colored” in a literal dusty sense.