Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Ukuran tas ini cukup besar untuk membawa banyak buku. - The size of this bag is big enough to carry many books.

In Indonesian, demonstratives like ini (“this”) and itu (“that”) follow the noun they modify. So tas ini literally means “bag this” = “this bag.” Placing ini before the noun (e.g., ini tas) is not standard for attributive use and would sound awkward.

What does cukup mean in cukup besar, and why is it placed before besar?

Here cukup means “enough” or “sufficient.” When you put cukup before an adjective, it expresses that something meets a necessary degree:

cukup besar = “big enough.”
It can also soften the adjective to mean “quite/rather,” but the following purpose clause (untuk…) makes the “big enough to…” sense clear.

How do I know if cukup besar means “quite big” or “big enough”?

Context and sentence structure tell you:

With a following untuk
- verb phrase, cukup besar almost always means “big enough to …”
Without a purpose clause, cukup besar can mean “fairly/quite big.”
In our sentence, cukup besar untuk membawa… unambiguously means “big enough to carry…”

Why is untuk used before membawa? Can I omit it?

untuk marks purpose or “in order to.” In English we say “big enough to carry…,” but Indonesian normally needs untuk:

cukup besar untuk membawa banyak buku
If you omit untuk, you lose the explicit “in order to” marker and the phrase sounds incomplete or informal. In casual speech you might hear it dropped, but in standard Indonesian you keep untuk.

Why is membawa used instead of muat or memuat?

membawa means “to carry (along with you).”
muat (or memuat in active form) means “to fit” or “have capacity for.”
In this sentence, if you want to emphasize capacity rather than the act of carrying, you could say:
cukup besar muat banyak buku
But cukup besar untuk membawa… focuses on the bag’s ability to carry those books.

Why is banyak buku correct for “many books”? Don’t I need plural marking?

Indonesian nouns don’t change form for number. You indicate plurality with words like banyak (“many”), numbers, or context. So:

banyak buku = “many books”
If you reduplicate the noun (buku-buku), it adds a distributive or collective nuance (books one after another), but is unnecessary when you already have banyak.

Could I rephrase the sentence using a possessive suffix, like Tas ini ukurannya cukup besar untuk membawa banyak buku?

Yes. Adding -nya to ukuran makes it a possessive construction:

Tas ini ukurannya cukup besar…
This literally is “As for this bag, its size is big enough to carry many books.” Both versions are correct; the original ukuran tas ini is just a different word order without the suffix.

Is there any difference between cukup besar and agak besar or sangat besar?

Yes:

cukup besar = “big enough” or “fairly big” (focus on sufficiency)
agak besar = “a bit/rather big” (mild degree)
sangat besar = “very big” (high degree)
Choose based on what you want to express: sufficiency (cukup), slightness (agak), or intensity (sangat).