Wastafel di dapur tersumbat, jadi Ibu memanggil tukang.

Indonesian often leaves out the verb to be when describing something.

So:

• Wastafel di dapur tersumbat
  literally: sink in kitchen blocked
• natural English: The sink in the kitchen is clogged.

This is completely normal in Indonesian. In descriptive sentences, you usually do not need a separate word for is.

Compare:

• Rumah itu besar = That house is big
• Airnya dingin = The water is cold
• Wastafel di dapur tersumbat = The sink in the kitchen is clogged

di is a preposition meaning in, at, on, depending on context.

So:

• di dapur = in the kitchen
• di rumah = at home / in the house
• di meja = on the table

In this sentence, wastafel di dapur means the sink in the kitchen.

Important: this di is a preposition, written separately.
That is different from the passive prefix di-, which is attached to a verb, for example:

• dibuka = opened / is opened
• ditutup = closed / is closed

So:

• di dapur ✅ preposition
• dibuka ✅ passive prefix

tersumbat means blocked, clogged, obstructed.

It comes from the root sumbat, which has to do with blocking or plugging something.
The prefix ter- often forms a state or resulting condition, especially something that is already the case.

So tersumbat is best understood as:

• clogged
• blocked
• in a blocked state

In this sentence, wastafel ... tersumbat means the sink is in a clogged condition.

With ter-, the focus is often on the state, not on who caused it.

Not exactly. It can overlap with passive-like meanings, but ter- is not simply the same as the English passive.

In tersumbat, ter- emphasizes the resulting state:

• The sink is clogged
  rather than
• The sink was clogged by someone

If you want to think of it simply for this sentence, tersumbat = clogged is a good translation.

More broadly, ter- can have several uses, including:

• a state/result: tertutup = closed
• something happening unintentionally: terjatuh = accidentally fell
• something being the most/able in some contexts

But here, the important idea is just a clogged state.

Ibu can mean several related things depending on context:

• mother / mom
• Mrs. / ma’am
• a respectful way to address an adult woman

In this sentence, because it appears without a name and is capitalized, Ibu most likely means Mother / Mom as a family role.

So:

• Ibu memanggil tukang = Mom called a repairman / worker

Capitalization often happens when a family title is used like a name, similar to English Mom or Mother.

Compare:

• Ibu saya = my mother
• Ibu memanggil tukang = Mom called a repairman

Yes. memanggil means to call, but like English call, it can mean different things depending on context:

• to call out to someone
• to summon someone
• to call someone on the phone

In this sentence, memanggil tukang most naturally means to call for / summon a repair person, and in real life it could imply phoning them or asking them to come.

The verb comes from the root panggil = call, with the prefix meN-, giving memanggil.

tukang is a very common Indonesian word for a skilled worker, tradesperson, or someone associated with a practical job.

Depending on context, it can mean things like:

• repairman
• handyman
• craftsman
• worker
• technician of some kind

So in this sentence, tukang is not just any random worker. It implies someone who can fix the clogged sink.

Common examples:

• tukang kayu = carpenter
• tukang ledeng = plumber
• tukang cukur = barber
• tukang jahit = tailor

Here, tukang alone is a bit general, but the context makes it clear it is someone hired to fix the problem.

Indonesian often leaves nouns bare without an article system like English a/the.

So tukang can mean:

• a repairman
• the repairman
• some repairman / worker

The exact meaning depends on context.

In English, you must usually choose a or the. In Indonesian, you often do not need to.

If the speaker wanted to be more specific, they could say:

• seorang tukang = a repairman
• tukangnya = the repairman / his-her-the repairman / the relevant repairman

But Ibu memanggil tukang is already perfectly natural.

jadi here means so, therefore, or as a result.

It connects the two clauses:

• Wastafel di dapur tersumbat = the kitchen sink was clogged
• jadi Ibu memanggil tukang = so Mom called a repairman

So the whole sentence shows cause and result.

Other common connectors with similar functions are:

• karena = because
• maka = therefore/so
• sehingga = so that / resulting in

But jadi is very common in everyday speech and writing.

The comma is natural because the sentence has two clauses:

• Wastafel di dapur tersumbat
• jadi Ibu memanggil tukang

In informal writing, punctuation can vary, and some people might write it without a comma. But with the comma, the cause-and-result structure is very clear.

So:

• Wastafel di dapur tersumbat, jadi Ibu memanggil tukang. ✅
• Wastafel di dapur tersumbat jadi Ibu memanggil tukang. also possible in less careful writing

Yes. wastafel in Indonesian commonly means sink or washbasin.

It is a loanword, historically from Dutch, and in modern Indonesian it usually refers to a sink basin, especially in a kitchen or bathroom context.

So:

• wastafel di dapur = kitchen sink
• wastafel kamar mandi = bathroom sink

You may also hear other words in different contexts, but wastafel is very common and normal.

Indonesian usually puts the noun first, then a phrase that describes or locates it.

So:

• wastafel di dapur = the sink in the kitchen
• buku di meja = the book on the table
• orang di luar = the person outside

The phrase di dapur tells you which sink is being talked about.

If you said di dapur wastafel, it would sound unnatural in standard Indonesian.

Yes, that is a reasonable interpretation.

Because tersumbat describes the clogged state, English translations can vary a little depending on style:

• The kitchen sink was clogged, so Mom called a repairman.
• The sink in the kitchen got clogged, so Mom called someone.
• The kitchen sink was blocked, so Mother called a worker.

The best translation depends on how specifically you want to render tukang and how naturally you want the English to sound.

Yes, but the nuance changes slightly.

• Ibu with a capital letter often works like Mom or a title used as a name.
• ibu in lowercase is the common noun mother, Mrs., or lady, depending on context.

So:

• Ibu memanggil tukang = Mom called a repairman
• Ibu saya memanggil tukang = My mother called a repairman

In many informal texts, capitalization may not be perfectly consistent, but the capitalized version is very natural when referring to one’s mother directly as a family title.

Yes. In Indonesian, memanggil often focuses on the idea of summoning someone to come, not only the method of contacting them.

So Ibu memanggil tukang suggests:

• Mom contacted the repair person
• and/or asked him to come over
• because the sink needed fixing

If you wanted to emphasize a phone call specifically, you might say something like menelepon tukang = to phone the repairman. But memanggil works very naturally here because the important point is that she got a worker to come deal with the problem.