Questions & Answers about Bos laki-laki di perusahaan lain cukup tegas.
Where is the verb “to be” (is) in this sentence? Why is it missing?
- Indonesian doesn’t use a linking verb with adjectives. A basic pattern is: Noun Phrase + Adjective/Adverb, so Bos laki-laki di perusahaan lain cukup tegas literally reads “Male boss at another company quite firm.”
- Do not add adalah before an adjective here. Adalah is generally used before a noun: Bos itu adalah manajer. But with adjectives you say: Bos itu tegas.
What does cukup mean here—“enough” or “quite/pretty”?
- Before an adjective, cukup most often means “quite/pretty/fairly.” So cukup tegas = “quite firm.”
- It can mean “enough/sufficiently” if the context makes a threshold explicit, often with an untuk… phrase:
- Cukup tegas untuk menegakkan aturan. = “Firm enough to enforce the rules.”
- A more explicit “enough” structure is: Ketegasannya sudah cukup. (“His/Her firmness is sufficient.”)
Can cukup come after the adjective (e.g., “tegas cukup”)?
- No. Degree words like cukup, agak, sangat, terlalu, lebih go before the adjective: cukup tegas, sangat tegas.
- One common intensifier that goes after the adjective is sekali: tegas sekali = “very firm.”