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Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Tempat itu suci. - That place is holy.

Hardcore Indonesian
/Browsing a flea market with friends
/Tempat itu suci.

Tempat itu suci.

Tempat itu suci.

That place is holy.

Breakdown of Tempat itu suci.

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Questions & Answers about Tempat itu suci.

Why is there no word for is in 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.

Why does itu come after tempat instead of before it?

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.

Does tempat itu mean that place or the place?

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.

What exactly does suci mean?

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.

Can adjectives come after nouns in Indonesian?

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

Can I say Itu tempat suci instead?

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.

How would I say this place is sacred instead?

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

Do I need words like a or the in Indonesian?

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

Can I use adalah here and say Tempat itu adalah suci?

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.

How is Tempat itu suci pronounced?

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

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