Saya duduk di lobi hotel sehingga hujan reda.

I sit in the hotel lobby until the rain subsides.

Breakdown of Saya duduk di lobi hotel sehingga hujan reda.

• saya: I
• duduk: to sit
• di: in
• hotel: the hotel

Questions & Answers about Saya duduk di lobi hotel sehingga hujan reda.

In this sentence, does duduk mean literally “to sit” or more like “to “stay / wait / hang around”?

In Saya duduk di lobi hotel sehingga hujan reda, duduk covers both ideas at once:

• Literally: to sit (your body is in a sitting position)
• By extension: to stay / remain in a place (often while you’re sitting)

So the sentence can naturally be understood as:

• “I sat in the hotel lobby until the rain eased off.” or
• “I stayed (sitting) in the hotel lobby until the rain eased off.”

Malay doesn’t need to choose as strictly as English does; duduk often implies both “being seated” and “remaining there” in contexts like this.

Could I say Saya tinggal di lobi hotel instead of Saya duduk di lobi hotel?

No, Saya tinggal di lobi hotel is not natural in this context.

• tinggal usually means:
  • to live / reside somewhere: Saya tinggal di London = “I live in London”
  • to stay (for a longer period): Kami tinggal di hotel itu selama seminggu = “We stayed in that hotel for a week”
  • or to be left / remaining: Ada dua keping lagi yang tinggal = “There are two pieces left”

Saying tinggal di lobi hotel sounds like you live in the hotel lobby, not that you’re waiting there for a while. For short-term waiting or just being there, duduk di lobi hotel is the natural choice.

Is the sentence talking about the past, the present, or the future? There’s no tense marker like “was” or “will”.