Sekolah itu tidak punya guru tua lagi.

That school does not have old teachers anymore.

Breakdown of Sekolah itu tidak punya guru tua lagi.

• itu: that
• punya: to have
• tidak: not
• guru: the teacher

Questions & Answers about Sekolah itu tidak punya guru tua lagi.

Why does itu come after sekolah instead of before it?

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

• sekolah itu = that school / the school
• guru itu = that teacher / the teacher

So sekolah itu is the normal Indonesian order. In many contexts, itu can also make the noun feel more definite, so it can sometimes sound like the school, not just that school.

Why is tidak used here, not bukan?

Because tidak is used to negate verbs, adjectives, and some other predicates, while bukan is mainly used to negate nouns or noun phrases.

Here, punya means to have, which is a verb, so:

• tidak punya = do not have

Compare:

• Sekolah itu tidak punya guru tua lagi. = That school no longer has old teachers.
• Itu bukan sekolah. = That is not a school.

So bukan punya would be wrong here.

Is punya the normal word for to have?