Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Saya menempelkan kutipan pendek dari cerpen itu di meja belajar sebagai pengingat. - I stick a short quotation from that short story on my study desk as a reminder.

menempel
- Basic meaning: to stick / to be stuck.
- Often used intransitively (no direct object):
  - Kertas itu menempel di dinding. – The paper is stuck on the wall.
- It can be used transitively in colloquial speech, but it’s less explicit about the “causing” action.
menempelkan
- Formed from tempel
  - meN– … –kan.
- Clearly causative and transitive: to attach/stick something onto something.
- Typically takes:
  - a direct object (what you stick)
  - and a location with di/ke/pada (where you stick it):
    - Saya menempelkan poster di dinding.

In the sentence, you are clearly doing an action to an object (sticking a short quote onto the desk), so menempelkan is the most precise and natural form.

How do we know if this sentence is past, present, or future? There’s no tense marker.

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense. The verb menempelkan itself does not tell you whether the action is past, present, or future. The time is understood from:

Context (conversation topic, previous sentences)
Time words like:
- tadi – a little while ago
- kemarin – yesterday
- besok – tomorrow
- nanti – later
- akan – will

So:

Saya menempelkan kutipan pendek...
could mean “I stuck a short quote…”, “I am sticking a short quote…”, or “I will stick a short quote…”, depending on context.

To make it clearly past, you might say:

Tadi saya menempelkan kutipan pendek dari cerpen itu di meja belajar sebagai pengingat.
– Earlier I stuck a short quote from that short story on my study desk as a reminder.

Why is it kutipan pendek, with the adjective pendek after the noun, instead of before it?

In Indonesian, the normal order is:

Noun + Adjective

So:

kutipan pendek = short quote / short excerpt
cerita menarik = interesting story
meja besar = big table

Putting the adjective before the noun (like pendek kutipan) is not natural Indonesian; it sounds ungrammatical or poetic at best.

So kutipan pendek is the correct, standard word order.

What exactly does cerpen mean? Is it an abbreviation? Is it formal or informal?

Yes, cerpen is an abbreviation:

cerpen = cerita pendek = short story

It’s:

Very common and standard in both spoken and written Indonesian
Used in newspapers, school materials, literature discussions, etc.

Using cerpen is not slang; it is neutral and acceptable in formal contexts. You can still use the full form cerita pendek if you want to be very clear or are explaining to beginners, but most native speakers naturally say cerpen.

What does itu do in cerpen itu? How would the meaning change if we removed it or put it somewhere else?

itu is a demonstrative, similar to “that” or sometimes “the” in English. It marks something as specific/known.

cerpen = a short story (non-specific, could be any)
cerpen itu = that short story / the short story (one that both speaker and listener can identify)

In kutipan pendek dari cerpen itu:

It means a short quote from that (particular) short story.

If you remove itu:

kutipan pendek dari cerpen
sounds like a short quote from a short story (in general) – less specific.

If you move itu:

kutipan pendek itu dari cerpen
→ the quote is being made specific: that short quote is from a short story.
kutipan pendek itu dari cerpen itu
→ both the quote and the story are specific: that short quote from that short story.

In the original sentence, itu attaches to cerpen, signaling that the short story is a specific one already known in the context.

Why is di used in di meja belajar instead of pada or ke?

The three prepositions have different main uses:

di = at / in / on
- Used for location (static position).
- di meja belajar = on/at the study desk.
ke = to / towards
- Used for movement/direction:
  - Saya pergi ke sekolah. – I go to school.
pada = at / to / on
- More formal and often used with:
  - abstract objects: pada kesempatan itu – on that occasion
  - pronouns: pada saya, pada mereka

In this sentence, the quote ends up being located on the desk, so di meja belajar is the natural choice.
Pada meja belajar would sound overly formal/weird for a physical location here, and ke meja belajar would focus on the movement towards the desk rather than the final position.

What does meja belajar literally mean, and how is it different from saying meja untuk belajar?

Literally:

meja = table / desk
belajar = to study
meja belajar = study desk / study table (a compound noun)

meja belajar is a fixed, conventional phrase meaning a desk whose usual function is studying — like “study desk” in English.

meja untuk belajar means a desk for studying:

more descriptive, explaining the purpose
could be any desk that you intend to use for studying

In this sentence:

di meja belajar sounds like “on my study desk” (a recognized type of furniture).
di meja untuk belajar is grammatically OK, but sounds wordier and less natural for this everyday object.

What does sebagai mean in sebagai pengingat, and how is it different from untuk?

sebagai means “as” (in the sense of function/role):

sebagai pengingat = as a reminder (the quote’s role is to serve as a reminder).

untuk means “for / in order to / to (do something)”, and usually goes before a verb or a purpose:

untuk mengingat = to remember
untuk belajar = to study

Compare:

Saya menempelkan kutipan itu sebagai pengingat.
– I stuck the quote as a reminder (the quote itself is the reminder).
Saya menempelkan kutipan itu untuk mengingat pelajaran.
– I stuck the quote to remember the lesson (expressing purpose using a verb).

So here sebagai pengingat is correct because pengingat is a noun (“a reminder”) and you’re describing the role of the quote.

What is the form pengingat, and how is it related to ingat, mengingat, and mengingatkan?

They are all built from the root ingat (remember):

ingat
- basic root: to remember / to be mindful.
mengingat
- verb: to remember, to recall.
- Saya mengingat kejadian itu. – I remember that event.
mengingatkan
- verb: to remind (someone of something).
- Pattern: mengingatkan (sesuatu) kepada (seseorang).
- Saya mengingatkan dia tentang tugasnya. – I remind him about his task.
pengingat
- noun (often “tool/thing/person that causes remembering”).
- reminder in English.
- Can refer to:
  - a person: Dia adalah pengingat yang baik. – He is a good reminder (of something).
  - an object: Alarm itu pengingat saya. – That alarm is my reminder.

In sebagai pengingat, pengingat = a reminder (thing) — the quote serves as a reminder.

Can the subject Saya be omitted here?

Yes, Indonesian often allows dropping the subject if it’s clear from context. You could say:

Menempelkan kutipan pendek dari cerpen itu di meja belajar sebagai pengingat.

Grammatically this is possible, but:

In written or careful Indonesian, keeping Saya makes the sentence clearer and more complete.
In conversation, if it’s already clear who is doing the action, speakers might omit Saya.

So it’s acceptable to drop Saya when the subject is already understood, but in isolation (as a standalone sentence), Saya is better.

Can we change the word order, like moving sebagai pengingat or di meja belajar to the front?

Yes, Indonesian word order is fairly flexible for adverbial phrases (time, place, purpose, role). Some possible variants:

Sebagai pengingat, saya menempelkan kutipan pendek dari cerpen itu di meja belajar.
– Emphasizes the purpose/role (“as a reminder”).
Di meja belajar, saya menempelkan kutipan pendek dari cerpen itu sebagai pengingat.
– Emphasizes the location first.
Saya, sebagai pengingat, menempelkan kutipan pendek dari cerpen itu di meja belajar.
– Makes sebagai pengingat sound like a parenthetical comment.

All of these are grammatical. The original order:

Saya menempelkan … di meja belajar sebagai pengingat.

is the most neutral, straightforward order: Subject – Verb – Object – Place – Purpose.

Is there any plural marking here? How would I say “several short quotes” instead of just one?

Indonesian usually does not mark plural on nouns unless it needs to be emphasized or clarified. So:

kutipan pendek
can mean “a short quote” or “short quotes” depending on context.

To make the plural idea more explicit, you can use:

beberapa kutipan pendek – several short quotes
banyak kutipan pendek – many short quotes
kutipan-kutipan pendek – short quotes (reduplication to show plurality; can sound a bit more literary or emphatic)

So if you wanted to say “I stuck several short quotes…”, you could say:

Saya menempelkan beberapa kutipan pendek dari cerpen itu di meja belajar sebagai pengingat.