Saya membersihkan remah kue dengan lap.

I clean the cake crumbs with a cloth.

Breakdown of Saya membersihkan remah kue dengan lap.

• sebuah: a
• saya: I
• dengan: with
• kue: the cake

Questions & Answers about Saya membersihkan remah kue dengan lap.

Why is it membersihkan and not just bersih?

Bersih means clean as an adjective: The table is clean.

Membersihkan is the verb to clean something. It is built from:

• bersih = clean
• meN- = a verbal prefix
• -kan = a suffix that often helps make a transitive verb

So membersihkan means to make something clean / to clean.

That is why it fits in this sentence:
Saya membersihkan remah kue... = I clean / cleaned the cake crumbs...

Why is remah kue written without a word like of?

In Indonesian, noun + noun combinations often do the job that English sometimes expresses with of.

So:

• remah kue = cake crumbs, cookie crumbs, or crumbs of cake/cookies

You do not need a separate word meaning of here. The second noun, kue, simply describes what kind of crumbs they are.

This pattern is very common in Indonesian.

What exactly does kue mean here?

Kue is a broad word in Indonesian. Depending on context, it can refer to:

• cake
• cookie
• pastry
• sweet snack

So remah kue could mean cake crumbs or cookie crumbs, depending on the situation.

If your translation already gives one specific meaning, that is just the context-specific choice.