Kami makan malam bersama di meja makan.

Both kami and kita mean we, but they are not interchangeable.

• kami = we, but not including the person being spoken to
• kita = we, including the person being spoken to

So Kami makan malam bersama di meja makan means the speaker is talking about their group, but the listener is not part of that group.

If the listener is also included, you would normally say:

• Kita makan malam bersama di meja makan.

Yes, literally it is made up of:

• makan = to eat
• malam = night / evening

But together, makan malam is the normal expression for to have dinner or dinner.

This is very common in Indonesian: a phrase may look very literal word by word, but the combination has a standard meaning. So learners should treat makan malam as a set expression.

In this sentence, makan malam functions as a verb phrase: to eat dinner / to have dinner.

So the structure is roughly:

• Kami = subject
• makan malam = predicate / action
• bersama = together
• di meja makan = at the dining table

However, makan malam can also act like a noun in some contexts, similar to dinner in English. For example:

• Makan malam sudah siap. = Dinner is ready.

So Indonesian often allows the same expression to function in different ways depending on context.

Because makan appears in two different combinations:

• makan malam = to have dinner / dinner
• meja makan = dining table

In meja makan, makan describes the type of table: a table for eating.

This kind of noun combination is very common in Indonesian:

• meja = table
• meja makan = dining table
• kamar = room
• kamar tidur = bedroom
• jam = clock/watch/hour
• jam tangan = wristwatch

So even though the same word appears twice, it is doing different jobs in each phrase.

Bersama means together.

In this sentence, it tells you how the action is done: the group is eating dinner together.

It can also sometimes mean with, depending on the sentence. For example:

• Saya pergi bersama teman saya. = I went with my friend.

Here, though, bersama is best understood as together.

Indonesian word order is often quite flexible, but this placement is very natural.

• Kami makan malam bersama di meja makan.

This follows a common pattern:

• subject + verb/action + manner + place

So:

• Kami = subject
• makan malam = action
• bersama = manner
• di meja makan = place

You may sometimes hear slightly different ordering in real speech, but this version sounds normal and clear.

Di is a preposition meaning in, at, or on, depending on context.

Here, di meja makan means at the dining table.

So:

• di = at / on / in
• meja makan = dining table

Indonesian uses di very broadly for location, while English chooses more specific prepositions such as at, on, or in.

Literally, di can cover both ideas, so context matters.

With makan malam, di meja makan is most naturally understood as:

• at the dining table

because people typically eat at a table.

If the context were about an object sitting on top of the table, English would probably use on, but Indonesian may still use di:

• Buku itu di meja makan. = The book is on the dining table.

So di is less specific than English prepositions.

Indonesian does not usually use articles like a, an, and the the way English does.

So meja makan can mean:

• a dining table
• the dining table

The exact meaning depends on context.

In this sentence, English naturally translates it as the dining table or the dinner table, but Indonesian does not need a separate word for the.

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense the way English verbs do.

So makan malam by itself does not tell you whether it is:

• present: we eat / are eating dinner
• past: we ate dinner
• future: we will eat dinner

You normally understand the time from context or from time words such as:

• sekarang = now
• tadi = earlier / just now
• kemarin = yesterday
• nanti = later
• besok = tomorrow

For example:

• Kemarin kami makan malam bersama di meja makan. = Yesterday we ate dinner together at the dining table.
• Nanti kami makan malam bersama di meja makan. = Later we will eat dinner together at the dining table.

Yes, in some contexts Indonesian can omit the subject if it is already clear.

For example, in conversation, someone might simply say:

• Makan malam bersama di meja makan.

But without context, that sounds less complete and less specific. In a standalone example sentence, keeping kami is clearer.

So:

• with kami = explicit and complete
• without kami = possible in context, but more dependent on what was already said

Yes, meja makan is a very common set phrase meaning dining table.

It is built from:

• meja = table
• makan = eat / eating

Indonesian often forms compound-like expressions this way, where one noun is followed by a word that describes its function. So meja makan is literally something like eating table, but the natural English equivalent is dining table.

Not in this sentence.

• bersama = together / with
• sama-sama usually means things like you’re welcome, together, or equally, depending on context, but it does not fit naturally here in the same way.

So for this sentence, bersama is the correct and natural choice.

A native-like sentence is:

• Kami makan malam bersama di meja makan.

Not:

• Kami makan malam sama-sama di meja makan.

A simple approximate pronunciation is:

• KAH-mee MAH-kahn MAH-lahm ber-SAH-mah dee MEH-jah MAH-kahn

A few helpful notes:

• a is usually pronounced like the a in father
• i is usually like ee in see
• e in meja is closer to eh
• stress in Indonesian is usually fairly even compared with English, so do not over-stress one syllable too much

The sentence is generally spoken smoothly and evenly.