Tempat itu suci.

In Indonesian, the verb to be is often left out in simple sentences like this.

So:

• Tempat itu suci = That place is holy / sacred

Literally, it is more like:

• place that holy

This is completely normal Indonesian.

A word like adalah can sometimes mean is, but it is not usually used before adjectives like suci. So Tempat itu suci is the natural form.

In Indonesian, demonstratives like ini and itu usually come after the noun.

So:

• tempat itu = that place
• rumah itu = that house
• orang itu = that person

This is different from English, where that comes before the noun.

Most directly, tempat itu means that place.

However, in real context, it can sometimes feel closer to the place, especially when both speaker and listener already know which place is being discussed.

So depending on context, Tempat itu suci could be understood as:

• That place is sacred
• The place is sacred

But the basic grammar of itu is still demonstrative: that.

Suci means holy, sacred, or pure in a spiritual or religious sense.

It is not the usual word for physically clean. For physical cleanliness, Indonesian more often uses bersih.

So:

• suci = spiritually pure / sacred
• bersih = clean

That is why Tempat itu suci means the place is sacred, not just clean.

Yes. In Indonesian, adjectives usually come after the noun.

For example:

• tempat suci = holy place
• air dingin = cold water
• rumah besar = big house

So this sentence follows normal Indonesian patterns:

• tempat itu = that place
• suci = adjective describing it

Yes, but the meaning changes.

• Tempat itu suci = That place is sacred
• Itu tempat suci = That is a sacred place

So the same words can give a different sentence depending on the order.

In Tempat itu suci, the subject is tempat itu.
In Itu tempat suci, the subject is itu = that.

You would say:

• Tempat ini suci.

Here, ini means this and, like itu, it comes after the noun.

Compare:

• tempat ini = this place
• tempat itu = that place

No. Indonesian does not have articles like English a, an, and the.

That means Indonesian often leaves definiteness to context, or uses words like ini and itu when needed.

So English uses articles, but Indonesian does not:

• a sacred place
• the sacred place
• that sacred place

Indonesian expresses these ideas in other ways, such as:

• tempat suci
• tempat itu
• tempat ini

Normally, no. Tempat itu adalah suci sounds unnatural in standard Indonesian.

Why? Because adalah is generally used to link a subject with a noun phrase, especially in formal definitions or explanations, not with an adjective like suci.

So these are better:

• Tempat itu suci.
• Tempat itu adalah tempat suci. = That place is a sacred place.

The first one is the natural sentence if you just want to say the place is sacred.

A simple English-friendly approximation is:

• Tempat ≈ TUM-paht
• itu ≈ EE-too
• suci ≈ SOO-chee

A few useful notes:

• c in Indonesian is pronounced like ch in chair
• u is usually like oo in food
• Indonesian stress is usually not very strong, so the rhythm sounds fairly even compared with English

So the whole sentence sounds roughly like:

• TUM-paht EE-too SOO-chee