Awak kapal meminta kami memakai pelampung ketika ombak mulai besar.

Awak kapal means the ship’s crew or boat crew.

• awak = crew
• kapal = ship / boat / vessel

So awak kapal is a noun phrase meaning the crew of the boat/ship.

A learner might notice that awak can also mean you in some regional varieties of Malay/Indonesian usage, but in standard Indonesian, in this sentence, awak kapal clearly means crew.

Meminta means to ask or to request.

In this sentence, awak kapal meminta kami memakai pelampung means the crew asked us to wear life jackets.

A very common Indonesian pattern is:

meminta + person + verb

So:

• meminta kami memakai pelampung = asked us to wear life jackets

In English, we usually need to: asked us to wear... In Indonesian, the next verb can come directly after the object.

Yes, you can.

Both are natural:

• Awak kapal meminta kami memakai pelampung.
• Awak kapal meminta kami untuk memakai pelampung.

The version without untuk is very common and direct. The version with untuk can sound a little more explicit or slightly more formal, but both are correct.

This is an important Indonesian distinction.

• kami = we/us, excluding the listener
• kita = we/us, including the listener

Here, kami means us as the people being told to wear life jackets. The listener is not included in that group.

Since the sentence is narrating what happened to us, kami is the right choice.

Yes. Memakai can mean to wear, to use, or to put on/use something depending on context.

Here:

• memakai pelampung = to wear a life jacket

Because a life jacket is something you put on your body, memakai works naturally.

Other possible verbs include:

• mengenakan = to wear, often a bit more formal
• berpelampung would not be the normal way to say this

So memakai pelampung is a very natural everyday choice.

Pelampung literally refers to something that floats or helps someone float.

In this sentence, it means a life jacket or flotation device.

Depending on context, Indonesians may also say:

• jaket pelampung = life jacket
• pelampung = float / flotation aid / life jacket

So here pelampung is understood as the safety gear the crew told them to wear.

Ketika means when.

It introduces a time clause:

• ketika ombak mulai besar = when the waves started getting big

It is similar to:

• saat
• waktu

All of these can often mean when, though ketika can sound a bit more written or formal than waktu.

You could also reverse the order:

• Ketika ombak mulai besar, awak kapal meminta kami memakai pelampung.

That means the same thing.

Literally, it is:

• ombak = waves
• mulai = start / begin
• besar = big

So, word-for-word, it is something like the waves began big or the waves started to become big.

Natural English would be:

• the waves started getting bigger
• the waves began to get rough
• the waves started to get big

Indonesian often allows mulai + adjective without needing a separate word for become.

Good question. Besar literally means big, and tinggi means high/tall.

For waves, both kinds of ideas can make sense depending on what you want to emphasize:

• ombak besar = big waves / rough waves
• ombak tinggi = high waves

In everyday Indonesian, ombak besar is very natural and common. It suggests the waves are large and potentially dangerous.

So ombak mulai besar is a normal way to say the waves were starting to become big or rough.

The structure is:

Awak kapal / meminta / kami / memakai pelampung / ketika ombak mulai besar

Breakdown:

• Awak kapal = subject
• meminta = verb
• kami = object
• memakai pelampung = action requested of the object
• ketika ombak mulai besar = time clause

So the pattern is roughly:

Subject + verb + object + second verb phrase + time clause

That is why it feels like:

The crew asked us to wear life jackets when the waves started getting big.

No, there is no explicit tense marker like English past, present, or future verb endings.

Indonesian usually does not mark tense on the verb itself. Time is understood from:

• context
• time words
• the situation being described

Here, English translation often uses the past:

• The crew asked us... when the waves started getting big

That past meaning comes from context, not from a special past-tense verb form.

Because Indonesian grammar works differently.

In English, after ask someone, we usually say:

• ask someone to do something

In Indonesian, it is very common to say:

• meminta seseorang melakukan sesuatu

So Indonesian can go straight from the object to the action:

• meminta kami memakai pelampung

That is completely normal Indonesian syntax.

If you want, you can add untuk, but it is not required:

• meminta kami untuk memakai pelampung

Yes.

Kapal is often translated as ship, but in real use it can also refer to a boat or vessel, depending on context.

So awak kapal could be:

• ship crew
• boat crew
• vessel crew

The exact English choice depends on the situation, not just the single Indonesian word.