Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Kami duduk di antara kakek dan nenek di ruang tamu. - We sit between grandfather and grandmother in the living room.

In Kami duduk di antara kakek dan nenek di ruang tamu, kami tells us that the speaker and their group sat there without including the listener in that group.

If the speaker wanted to include the listener in we, they would say:

Kita duduk di antara kakek dan nenek di ruang tamu.
= We (you and I / you and us) sat between grandpa and grandma in the living room.

So kami is correct when the listener was not part of that group.

Why do we use di in this sentence, and why is it used twice?

In Indonesian, di is a preposition that marks a location (roughly in / at / on).

In the sentence:

di antara kakek dan nenek = between grandpa and grandma
di ruang tamu = in the living room

These are two separate location phrases, so di is used twice:

di antara → location relative to two people (between them)
di ruang tamu → the larger physical place (the living room)

You cannot let the first di “cover” both; you need di again before ruang tamu:

✔ Kami duduk di antara kakek dan nenek di ruang tamu.
✖ Kami duduk di antara kakek dan nenek ruang tamu. (wrong / unnatural)

Could I say antara kakek dan nenek without di?

You will almost always say di antara for physical position:

✔ Kami duduk di antara kakek dan nenek.

If you remove di:

Kami duduk antara kakek dan nenek.

This is grammatical but sounds odd or very literary in modern everyday Indonesian. For everyday speech and writing, use di antara to mean in between.

So, for normal usage:
→ di antara X dan Y = between X and Y.

Why is there dan between kakek and nenek?

Dan means and. The phrase:

kakek dan nenek = grandpa and grandma

So di antara kakek dan nenek literally means between grandpa and grandma – one person on each side.

Without dan, it would be unclear or ungrammatical:

✖ di antara kakek nenek (wrong / incomplete)
✔ di antara kakek dan nenek (between grandpa and grandma)

Why doesn’t Indonesian mark plural here, even though there are several people?

Indonesian nouns usually do not change form for singular vs plural.

kakek can mean grandfather or grandfathers (depending on context).
nenek can mean grandmother or grandmothers.

In kakek dan nenek, context tells us we’re talking about one grandpa and one grandma.

If you really want to emphasize plurality, Indonesian can:

use numbers: dua kakek, tiga nenek
or reduplicate: kakek-kakek, nenek-nenek (grandpas, grandmas)

But here, kami (“we”) and the natural family pair kakek dan nenek are enough for a native speaker to understand the intended meaning without any plural marking.

What exactly does di mean? Is it in, on, or at?

Di is a general location preposition and can correspond to in, on, or at, depending on context:

di meja → on the table
di rumah → at home / in the house
di ruang tamu → in the living room

In English, you must choose between in / on / at, but Indonesian uses di for all of these static locations. The context and the noun tell you which English preposition is appropriate.

So di ruang tamu is translated as in the living room, but structurally it’s just at/in the living room.

Can I move di ruang tamu to the beginning or the middle of the sentence?

Yes, Indonesian word order is flexible with place/time phrases. All of these are natural:

Kami duduk di antara kakek dan nenek di ruang tamu.
Kami duduk di ruang tamu di antara kakek dan nenek.
Di ruang tamu, kami duduk di antara kakek dan nenek.

The basic pattern is usually:

Subject – Verb – (Place / Time)

When you have two place phrases, you can put either one first, depending on what you want to emphasize:

If you say di ruang tamu first, you emphasize the setting.
If you keep di antara kakek dan nenek right after duduk, you emphasize the position relative to those two people.

Why isn’t there a word for the in ruang tamu (like “the living room”)?

Indonesian does not have articles like a / an / the.

ruang tamu by itself can mean a living room or the living room, depending on context.

So:

Kami duduk di ruang tamu.
→ could be We sat in a living room or We sat in the living room.

If the context clearly refers to your house or our house, speakers will automatically understand it as the living room (of that place) without any extra word.

What is the difference between ruang tamu and kamar tamu?

Both ruang and kamar can be translated as room, but they are used differently:

ruang = more general space/room/area (often larger or public areas)
- ruang tamu = living room / guest reception area
- ruang makan = dining room
kamar = usually bedroom or smaller private room
- kamar tidur = bedroom
- kamar mandi = bathroom

So ruang tamu specifically means the living room / guest reception area, not a guest bedroom.
A guest bedroom would be kamar tamu (rare, more often kamar untuk tamu or kamar tamu in context).

Could I drop kami and just say Duduk di antara kakek dan nenek di ruang tamu?

You can drop the subject pronoun in Indonesian, especially in spoken language, if the subject is clear from context.

Duduk di antara kakek dan nenek di ruang tamu.
Could mean: [we/they/someone] sat between grandpa and grandma in the living room, depending on context.

However:

In a textbook or a standalone sentence, you usually keep the subject (Kami duduk …) to avoid ambiguity.
In conversation, if you’ve already mentioned kami, you might omit it in later sentences.

Does kakek / nenek always mean my grandpa / my grandma, or can it be general?

kakek and nenek can be:

Specific relatives
- kakek saya = my grandfather
- nenek saya = my grandmother
  Often, when people just say kakek and nenek in a family context, it’s understood as our / my grandpa and grandma.
Older people in general (polite / affectionate address)
- You might call an old man Kakek or an old woman Nenek even if they’re not your real grandparents, similar to Grandpa / Grandma used affectionately in English.

In Kami duduk di antara kakek dan nenek di ruang tamu, context (a family scene) usually makes learners interpret it as our grandpa and grandma. If you wanted to be explicit, you could say:

Kami duduk di antara kakek dan nenek kami di ruang tamu.
= We sat between our grandpa and grandma in the living room.