Breakdown of Jalan tol pagi ini macet.
adalah
to be
jalan tol
the toll road
pagi ini
this morning
macet
congested
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Questions & Answers about Jalan tol pagi ini macet.
Why doesn’t this sentence include a verb like is or adalah?
Indonesian often uses a verbless predicate: you link subject and predicate directly. Here jalan tol (subject) + macet (predicate). You could add adalah for emphasis or formality—Jalan tol pagi ini adalah macet—but in everyday speech it’s dropped.
What does jalan tol mean?
Jalan means road or street, tol is borrowed from English toll. Together jalan tol means toll road or highway where you pay a fee to drive.
What part of speech is macet, and how is it used here?
Macet can be an adjective (congested) or an intransitive verb (to be jammed). In this sentence it describes the condition of the highway—so it functions like an adjective/predicate.
Why is pagi ini placed between jalan tol and macet, and can we move it elsewhere?
Time expressions (like pagi ini) are flexible. You can put them at the front, in the middle, or at the end:
- Pagi ini jalan tol macet.
- Jalan tol pagi ini macet. (original)
- Jalan tol macet pagi ini. All are grammatically correct; placement only affects emphasis.
What does ini do in pagi ini?
Here ini is a post-noun demonstrative meaning this. So pagi ini is this morning. If you drop ini, pagi alone just means morning without specifying which one.
How would you ask Is the highway congested this morning? in Indonesian?
You can form a yes/no question by adding apakah at the start:
- Apakah jalan tol pagi ini macet? Or use the enclitic -kah on the predicate:
- Jalan tol pagi ini macet-kah?
In spoken language you might simply add kan or ya at the end: - Jalan tol pagi ini macet, kan?
How do you make this sentence negative to say The highway is not congested this morning?
Insert tidak before the predicate:
- Jalan tol pagi ini tidak macet.
Why isn’t there an explicit pronoun like itu or dia as the subject?
In Indonesian it’s normal to use the noun phrase itself (jalan tol) as subject. You only use pronouns like itu (that) or dia (he/she/it) if you’re referring back to something already mentioned or want a demonstrative sense. Here the highway is introduced directly.