Last updated on May 8, 2022
The Indonesian word for climate is iklim /EE.k’leem/. The word cuaca /choo.WĀ.chā/ is usually used like the English “weather” to talk about a particular situation on a certain day. Like the English words “climate” and “weather”, iklimand cuaca also quite often overlap in meaning.
When you talk about the weather in English you often use the word “it”. For example:
It is raining.
It is dry in Bangkok.
How cold is it today?
“It” in these sentences is often called an “expletive” or “false subject” because it doesn’t seem to stand for anything semantically identifiable. Rather it serves the purely grammatical function of “getting the sentence going” by filling a slot in the sentence where you would normally expect a subject to be.
Hujan.
It is raining.
Kering di Bangkok.
It is dry in Bangkok.
Sudah terang.
It has stopped raining (literally: “already clear”).
Kemarin panas di sini.
It was hot here yesterday.
In Indonesian there is no false subject, so you can say:
Hujan.
It is raining.
Kering di Bangkok.
It is dry in Bangkok.
Sudah terang.
It has stopped raining (literally: “already clear”).
Kemarin panas di sini.
It was hot here yesterday.
The question word bagaimana (what is _____ like?) can be used to ask about climate and weather.
Bagaimana iklim di Kalimantan?
What is the climate like in Kalimantan?
Bagaimana cuaca kemarin?
What was the weather like yesterday?
Bagaimana cuaca besok?
What will the weather be like tomorrow?
Bagaimana cuaca di Tokyo pada musim dingin?
What’s the weather like in Tokyo in winter?
Bagaimana cuacanya? Panas atau hujan?
How is the weather? Is it sunny or is it raining?
Note that the word panas (hot) is often used to refer to sunny weather regardless of the actual temperature. The official terminology used by the Badan Meteorologi dan Geofisika, the Indonesian National Weather Service, is:
bright
cloudy
overcast
rainy
thunderstorm
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