kemarin

Kemarin is the Indonesian and Malay word for yesterday, used as a temporal adverb to denote the day before today. It appears in formal and informal contexts and serves to place events in the recent past.

In practice, kemarin can combine with different parts of the day to specify timing, such as kemarin pagi (yesterday morning), kemarin siang (yesterday at noon), kemarin sore (yesterday afternoon), and kemarin malam (yesterday evening). It can occur at the beginning of a sentence, as in "Kemarin saya bekerja," or later in the sentence, depending on style and emphasis. The term is common across Indonesian-speaking regions and is used similarly in Malay.

Nuance and usage notes: kemarin carries a straightforward temporal meaning but can also evoke nostalgia or retrospective sentiment in context, especially in storytelling, journalism, or lyrical language. It contrasts with hari ini (today) and besok (tomorrow), and with the more colloquial phrase kemarin lusa, which means the day before yesterday.

In media and culture, kemarin frequently appears in titles, headlines, and lyrics to reference the recent past or to evoke memory and immediacy. Its versatility makes it a core element of everyday speech and written Indonesian, alongside other time expressions.