Breakdown of Saya menulis esai pendek tentang keluarga saya di perpustakaan malam ini.
Questions & Answers about Saya menulis esai pendek tentang keluarga saya di perpustakaan malam ini.
Indonesian verbs like menulis do not change form for tense. The single form menulis can mean:
- I write (habitually)
- I am writing (right now / around now)
- I wrote (in the past)
- I will write (in the future)
The time expression malam ini (tonight) gives the main clue that this is about the near future or a planned action: I am going to write / I will write a short essay tonight. If you really need to make the time clearer, you add extra time words such as tadi malam (last night), nanti malam (later tonight), besok (tomorrow), etc., but you still keep the verb as menulis.
The basic root is tulis (write). To make a normal active verb with a clear subject (like saya), Indonesian usually adds the prefix meN-, which becomes men- before t. So:
- tulis → menulis = to write / writing (active verb)
Bare tulis is most often seen in commands (Tulis namamu di sini – Write your name here) or in dictionary/headword form. In full sentences with a subject, especially in neutral/formal style, you generally use the meN- form: Saya menulis… not Saya tulis… (though Saya tulis can appear in more specific patterns and styles).
In Indonesian, the normal order is noun + adjective, the opposite of English.
- esai pendek = short essay
- keluarga besar = big/extended family
- perpustakaan baru = new library
So esai (noun) comes first, then pendek (adjective). pendek esai would be ungrammatical in standard Indonesian for this meaning.
Indonesian does not have articles like a/an or the. The phrase esai pendek can mean:
- a short essay
- the short essay
- just short essays in general, depending on context.
If you really want to emphasize one short essay, you can say satu esai pendek. If you want to make it clearly definite (something already known), you often rely on context, or add something like esai pendek itu (that short essay / the short essay).
It’s natural in Indonesian and not considered awkward. The two saya have different roles:
- First Saya = subject: I
- Second saya in keluarga saya = possessive: my family
Indonesian pronouns do not change form for possession (I / my / me are all saya), so you repeat saya where needed. This is exactly how you say my family in a neutral style: keluarga saya.
Yes, you can say keluargaku, and it also means my family. Differences:
- keluarga saya
- uses separate pronoun saya
- sounds neutral–formal
- keluargaku
- uses the enclitic -ku attached to the noun
- sounds more personal/intimate and is common in writing, songs, and casual speech (especially with aku instead of saya)
So, in your sentence, Saya menulis esai pendek tentang keluarga saya… is neutral and slightly formal; Aku menulis esai pendek tentang keluargaku… is more casual/intimate.
tentang means about / concerning / regarding. In:
- esai pendek tentang keluarga saya
→ a short essay about my family
If you remove tentang, you get esai pendek keluarga saya, which is odd and unclear; it sounds more like my family’s short essay (possessive) rather than an essay about my family. So when you mean about (a topic), you normally need tentang (or another similar preposition like mengenai in more formal style).
- di perpustakaan = at the library / in the library (location, where something happens)
- ke perpustakaan = to the library (direction, movement towards a place)
In your sentence, the action (writing an essay) happens at that place, so di perpustakaan is correct:
- Saya menulis esai pendek … di perpustakaan
→ I (will) write a short essay at the library
If you said ke perpustakaan, it would mean to the library and you’d be focusing on going there, not on what you do there.
malam ini is a time expression (tonight), and in this sentence it modifies the whole action, not the noun perpustakaan.
- Saya menulis esai pendek … di perpustakaan malam ini.
→ I’m writing a short essay at the library tonight.
Indonesian wouldn’t normally interpret di perpustakaan malam ini as at tonight’s library; for that kind of meaning you’d need a different structure. So you can safely read malam ini as tonight, referring to when you will be at the library writing.
The order is flexible. Some common, natural options are:
- Saya menulis esai pendek tentang keluarga saya di perpustakaan malam ini.
- Saya menulis esai pendek tentang keluarga saya malam ini di perpustakaan.
- Malam ini saya menulis esai pendek tentang keluarga saya di perpustakaan.
All of these can mean essentially the same thing. A typical “neutral” pattern often puts place before time at the end (…di perpustakaan malam ini), but speakers freely move malam ini to the front for emphasis or style.
You can omit Saya in some contexts, but it changes the feel and is not always natural. In Indonesian:
- Dropping the subject is common in instructions, headlines, notes, and some very informal or context-heavy situations:
- Menulis esai pendek tentang keluarga – [You] write a short essay about your family (like a teacher’s instruction).
In a normal, full sentence where you’re clearly talking about yourself, including Saya is preferred and sounds more complete: Saya menulis esai pendek…. Without prior context, Menulis esai pendek… is ambiguous about who is writing.
Yes, adding sedang makes the progressive aspect (am/is/are doing) more explicit:
- Saya sedang menulis esai pendek tentang keluarga saya di perpustakaan malam ini.
This can be understood as I am (currently) in the process of writing… or I’m in the middle of working on it. However, many speakers still say just Saya menulis… and let context show whether it’s a current, ongoing action or a planned one. sedang is optional but useful when you really want to stress that the action is in progress now.
Grammatically you can replace saya with aku:
- Aku menulis esai pendek tentang keluargaku di perpustakaan malam ini.
Main differences:
- saya: neutral–polite, safe in almost all situations (formal and informal).
- aku: more intimate/casual; common among friends, in songs, with children, in diaries, etc.
When you switch to aku, you usually also switch the possessive form to -ku (keluargaku) to keep the style consistent. Using aku … keluarga saya in one sentence is possible but sounds mixed in tone.