German to Indonesian: location, destination and the small words that keep them separate
A moving person can still be at a location
German IDS guidance distinguishes the location of movement from its destination. Its example of fish swimming im Aquarium uses a location expression even though swimming is movement. A rule that every moving action requires the same directional construction would misread the German source.
The Indonesian language office describes di as a location preposition, with examples including di kantor and di sekolah. Official spelling guidance separately illustrates ke kantor in a departure expression and dari rumah in an expression of leaving a house. These are different spatial relationships, rather than interchangeable words for the same place.
For German-to-Indonesian directions, determine whether the person is already at the place, travelling toward it or leaving it. The activity verb alone does not answer that question. Walking around an office and walking to an office can involve the same person and destination noun but require different spatial interpretations in the translation.
German im and ins contain information beyond in
IDS explains the contractions im from in dem and ins from in das. In its spatial examples, these participate in the location versus destination distinction. Reducing both German forms to an undifferentiated dictionary entry for in loses information before the Indonesian sentence has even been constructed.
The Indonesian spelling guide requires prepositions such as di, ke and dari to be written separately from the following word. A target phrase can therefore express the source spatial relationship with a separately written preposition rather than a German-style contraction containing an article.
For a German message about putting something inside a cabinet, distinguish the action of moving it into place from the later statement that it is there. The first reports a destination or placement; the second locates an item. Indonesian word spacing does not reproduce German article fusion, but the underlying sequence of moving and resulting location must remain clear.
An in phrase can describe time rather than physical space
The Indonesian language office warns against treating di, pada and dalam as interchangeable. Its time examples include pada hari Minggu and pada tahun lalu, while its location examples use di. It also discusses dalam for an interior or something conceptualized as having space. These distinctions prevent a single source preposition from deciding every target choice.
A German sentence can include both a physical setting and a date. Translate those relationships independently: where the appointment happens is different from when it happens. Choosing one Indonesian preposition for both simply because German uses a similar-looking expression can blur the schedule or produce an awkward target phrase.
Read a compact German instruction as a set of relations: departure point, destination, current location and time. Not every sentence contains all four, and the target should not add missing travel information. But when the source distinguishes them through its preposition, case or contracted article, retain the distinction. The useful Indonesian result tells the recipient where to be or go and when, while observing the target convention of separating the preposition from its following word.
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