Adik perempuan saya kedinginan di ruang tamu malam ini.

Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Indonesian grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Indonesian now

Questions & Answers about Adik perempuan saya kedinginan di ruang tamu malam ini.

What exactly does adik perempuan mean? Does it always mean "younger sister"?

Adik by itself means "younger sibling" (gender‑neutral).
Perempuan means "female" or "woman".

So:

  • adik = younger sibling (could be brother or sister)
  • adik perempuan = younger sister
  • adik laki‑laki = younger brother

You use adik perempuan when you specifically want to say the younger sibling is female. In many everyday situations, if context is clear, people might just say adik saya and let context or previous mention show whether it’s a boy or a girl.

Why is it adik perempuan saya and not saya adik perempuan, like in English "my younger sister"?

In Indonesian, possessive pronouns (my, your, his, etc.) usually come after the noun, not before it.

  • adik perempuan saya
    = younger‑sibling female I
    = my younger sister

Other common patterns:

  • rumah saya = my house
  • buku kamu = your book

You can also attach the pronoun as a suffix:

  • adik perempuanku = my younger sister
  • rumahmu = your house

But you don’t say saya adik perempuan to mean my younger sister; that would sound like “I [am] a younger sister” (and even then the grammar is off without a verb).

Is adik perempuan saya the subject of the sentence?

Yes. The structure of the sentence is:

  • Adik perempuan saya – subject (my younger sister)
  • kedinginan – predicate (is/feels cold)
  • di ruang tamu – place phrase (in the living room)
  • malam ini – time phrase (tonight)

So the basic pattern is:

Subject – Predicate – Place – Time

What is the difference between dingin and kedinginan?

Both relate to “cold,” but they’re used differently.

  • dingin = cold (describes temperature or a state)

    • Airnya dingin. = The water is cold.
    • Saya dingin. = I am cold. (possible, but less common than kedinginan for “feeling cold”)
  • kedinginan = to feel cold / to be freezing / suffering from cold

    • Formed with ke- … -an, which often expresses an involuntary or excessive state.
    • It carries a nuance like “is (too) cold,” “is feeling the cold,” or “is really cold and uncomfortable.”

So:

  • Adik perempuan saya dingin. – grammatically OK, but sounds more like “My younger sister is cold” as a neutral description, and can even be understood as “She has a cold personality” depending on context.
  • Adik perempuan saya kedinginan. – clearly means she feels cold / is suffering from the cold (the natural choice here).
Why is there no word like “is” in the sentence? Why not Adik perempuan saya adalah kedinginan?

Indonesian usually does not use a separate “to be” verb with adjectives.

  • Adik perempuan saya kedinginan.
    literally: “My younger sister cold‑(ish)”
    = My younger sister is cold.

You generally don’t use adalah before adjectives like dingin, kedinginan, tinggi, capek, etc. Adalah is mainly for equating one noun with another noun or noun phrase:

  • Dia adalah dokter. = She/He is a doctor.
  • Ini adalah masalah besar. = This is a big problem.

So Adik perempuan saya adalah kedinginan is unnatural and ungrammatical in standard Indonesian.

Could kedinginan here ever mean “cold‑hearted” or “emotionally cold”?

No. Kedinginan is about physical temperature: feeling cold, freezing, shivering, etc.

For emotional coldness (cold‑hearted, not warm or friendly), Indonesian usually uses:

  • dingin (of personality, tone, attitude)
    • Sikapnya dingin. = Her/His attitude is cold.
    • Dia orangnya dingin. = She/He is a cold person (emotionally).

In this sentence, kedinginan clearly means she is physically feeling cold, especially with the context di ruang tamu malam ini.

Why is it di ruang tamu and not something like “in the a living room” or “in the living room”? How do I know if it’s definite or indefinite?

Indonesian doesn’t use articles like a/an or the.

  • di ruang tamu simply means “in (the) living room” / “in a living room” depending on context.
  • ruang tamu literally: “guest room,” but in everyday speech it’s the normal term for “living room” in a house.

Indonesian relies on context to show definiteness:

  • If you’re talking about your house, di ruang tamu will naturally be understood as in the living room (of that house).
  • If you want to be explicitly definite, you can add itu: di ruang tamu itu = in that living room / in the living room (already known).

But in most normal contexts, di ruang tamu is understood as “in the living room.”

Why is the time phrase malam ini at the end? Could I say Malam ini adik perempuan saya kedinginan di ruang tamu?

Indonesian word order for extra information like time and place is quite flexible.

Your original sentence:

  • Adik perempuan saya kedinginan di ruang tamu malam ini.
    Subject – Predicate – Place – Time
    → very natural and common.

You can also say:

  • Malam ini adik perempuan saya kedinginan di ruang tamu.
    Time – Subject – Predicate – Place

This version is also correct. Putting malam ini at the beginning slightly emphasizes tonight (as a setting), similar to English “Tonight, my younger sister is cold in the living room.”

Both versions are fine; Indonesians often put time at the beginning or the end of the sentence.

Could I say malam ini di ruang tamu instead of di ruang tamu malam ini? Does the order of place and time matter?

You can use both orders, and both are acceptable:

  1. … di ruang tamu malam ini.
    → in the living room tonight.
    (Place then time)

  2. … malam ini di ruang tamu.
    → tonight in the living room.
    (Time then place)

Common patterns:

  • Subject – Predicate – Place – Time
  • Subject – Predicate – Time – Place

They’re both used in real speech. The difference in nuance is very small; it can slightly affect what feels more like the “background” detail, but in everyday conversation they’re basically interchangeable.

Does malam ini always mean “tonight”? Can it also mean “this evening”?

Literally, malam ini is “this night,” and it is usually translated as tonight.

In practice:

  • malam covers the period after dark, so it can overlap with what English calls “evening” and “night.”
  • malam ini therefore can be understood as “this evening” or “tonight,” depending on context and how late it is.

If you specifically want “this evening” (earlier, before very late at night), you might add more context (e.g. nanti malam, “later tonight/this evening”), but malam ini is the natural phrase you’ll see for “tonight.”

Could I say sedang kedinginan to show it’s happening now, like “is currently cold”?

You can say sedang kedinginan, but it’s not really necessary, and in many contexts it sounds a bit heavy or overly explicit.

  • sedang marks an ongoing action/state (similar to “is doing / is currently”).
  • Adik perempuan saya kedinginan. already implies a current state in this context, especially with malam ini.

You’d usually reserve sedang for actions that unfold over time:

  • Dia sedang makan. = She/He is eating.
  • Mereka sedang menonton TV. = They are watching TV.

With states like kedinginan, capek (tired), sakit (sick), etc., sedang is often dropped because “now” is already understood from context. Saying sedang kedinginan isn’t wrong, but kedinginan alone is more natural here.