Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Film dokumenter tentang musim hujan di Indonesia sangat bagus. - The documentary film about the rainy season in Indonesia is very good.

Indonesian does not have articles like a or the, so film dokumenter can mean “a documentary film” or “the documentary film” depending on context. To be specific you can add a demonstrative: film dokumenter ini (this documentary film) or film dokumenter itu (that documentary film).

What does the word tentang mean, and how is it used?

tentang is a preposition meaning about. It introduces the topic or subject of discussion. In this sentence, tentang musim hujan translates as “about the rainy season.”

Why is “rainy season” translated as musim hujan and not hujan musim?

In Indonesian compound nouns the head noun comes first and the modifier follows. Here musim (“season”) is the head and hujan (“rain”) is the modifier, giving musim hujan (“rainy season”). Reversing them to hujan musim would be ungrammatical.

What does di Indonesia mean, and why is di used?

di is a locative preposition meaning in/at/on. It goes directly before a place name, so di Indonesia means “in Indonesia.”

Where do you place the intensifier sangat in an Indonesian sentence?

sangat (“very”) always precedes the adjective or adverb it modifies. In this case, it comes before bagus, forming sangat bagus (“very good”).

Can you say bagus sekali instead of sangat bagus? Is there a difference?

Yes. sekali (“very/once”) can follow an adjective to add emphasis. bagus sekali also means “very good.” The nuance is similar: sangat is a straightforward “very,” while sekali often feels like “extremely” or “really.”

Why is there no yang before tentang musim hujan di Indonesia? In English we’d say “the documentary film that is about…”

In Indonesian, the relative pronoun yang is optional, especially when the clause starts with a preposition. You can drop yang in informal or simple statements, so film dokumenter tentang musim hujan di Indonesia is perfectly natural without yang.

Why is there no verb “is” or adalah in this sentence?

Simple equational sentences in Indonesian often omit adalah (“to be/is”). The subject and predicate adjective are placed directly together without a linking verb, so you say film dokumenter … sangat bagus rather than film dokumenter … adalah sangat bagus.

Is the overall word order the same as in English?

Yes, Indonesian generally uses Subject–Predicate order, similar to English Subject–Verb–Predicate. The main difference is dropping the verb adalah (“is”) and having adjectives directly after the subject phrase.