Saya memeriksa foto presentasi sebelum rapat dimulai.

I check the presentation photo before the meeting starts.

Breakdown of Saya memeriksa foto presentasi sebelum rapat dimulai.

• saya: I
• sebelum: before
• rapat: the meeting
• dimulai: to start
• memeriksa: to check
• foto presentasi: the presentation photo

Questions & Answers about Saya memeriksa foto presentasi sebelum rapat dimulai.

What exactly does bold memeriksa mean here? Is it more like “check,” “review,” or “inspect”?

bold Memeriksa means to examine/check carefully, often for accuracy or errors. It’s neutral-to-formal.

• Quick/casual check: bold mengecek / cek (colloquial: bold ngecek)
• Reviewing content: bold meninjau, menelaah, mereview (loan), meninjau ulang
• Just looking: bold melihat (to look at), melihat-lihat (to browse)
• Editing: bold menyunting, mengedit

Examples:

• bold Saya memeriksa foto presentasi. (I examined/checked them carefully.)
• bold Saya mengecek foto presentasi. (I gave them a quick check.)
• bold Saya meninjau materi presentasi. (I reviewed the presentation materials.)

Why is it bold memeriksa and not something like bold menperiksa? What’s going on morphologically?

The root is bold periksa. Adding the active prefix bold meN- causes assimilation:

• With roots starting in p, the p drops and the prefix becomes bold mem-. So bold meN- + periksa → bold memeriksa (not menperiksa). This is a regular pattern:
• bold meN- + pakai → bold memakai
• bold meN- + buat → bold membuat

Does bold foto presentasi mean “photos in the presentation,” or “photos of the presentation event”? Is it idiomatic?

bold Foto presentasi is ambiguous. Depending on intent:

• Photos used in the slides: prefer bold foto untuk presentasi, bold gambar untuk presentasi, or more naturally bold materi presentasi / slide presentasi.
• Photos of the event (someone presenting): use bold foto-foto saat presentasi, bold foto presentasi tadi siang, or bold foto suasana presentasi.

In office contexts, if you meant the slide deck, say bold materi presentasi or bold slide presentasi rather than bold foto presentasi.

Should it be bold foto-foto to show plural?

Indonesian usually leaves number unmarked unless it matters. bold Foto presentasi can mean “the photos” from context. To emphasize plural, use:

• Reduplication: bold foto-foto presentasi
• Quantifiers: bold beberapa foto presentasi (several), bold semua foto presentasi (all), bold dua foto presentasi (two)

How do I say “the photos” or “the meeting” specifically? Do I need an article?

Indonesian has no articles. To make something feel definite/specific, you can add bold -nya:

• bold fotonya (the photo[s]; also can mean his/her photo depending on context)
• bold rapatnya (the meeting) In your sentence, you could say bold Saya memeriksa fotonya sebelum rapatnya dimulai if both are specific and already known in context.

Why say bold sebelum rapat dimulai instead of just bold sebelum rapat?

Both are fine.

• bold sebelum rapat = before the meeting (starts), concise and common.
• bold sebelum rapat dimulai = explicitly “before the meeting is started/begins,” a bit more formal/explicit. You can also use:
• bold Sebelum memulai rapat, … (Before starting the meeting, …)
• bold Sebelum rapat mulai, … (colloquial; acceptable in speech)

What’s the difference between bold mulai and bold dimulai here?

• bold mulai = “start/begin” (active/intransitive). bold Rapat mulai jam 9. (The meeting starts at 9.) Natural and common.
• bold dimulai = passive “is started/begun,” often used impersonally/formally. bold Rapat dimulai jam 9. Also very common, slightly more formal. If you name who starts it, use active transitive bold memulai:
• bold Pimpinan memulai rapat jam 9. (The chair started the meeting at 9.)

How do we know this sentence is past tense? Indonesian has no tense, right?

Correct—Indonesian doesn’t mark tense. Time is inferred or added with adverbs:

• Past: bold tadi, tadi pagi, tadi malam, kemarin, sudah
  • bold Tadi saya memeriksa foto presentasi.
  • bold Saya sudah memeriksa foto presentasi.
• Future: bold nanti, besok, akan
• Progressive: bold sedang Your sentence implies a sequence (checking happened before the meeting), but not necessarily past unless context adds it.

Can I drop bold Saya? Is subject dropping okay?

You can omit pronouns when context makes the subject clear, especially in notes, headlines, or chats. In full, neutral sentences, keeping bold Saya is clearer.

• Full: bold Saya memeriksa foto presentasi sebelum rapat dimulai.
• Note style: bold Memeriksa foto presentasi sebelum rapat dimulai. (understood “I”)

Is bold Saya the best pronoun here? What about bold Aku or bold Gue?

• bold saya: polite/neutral, safe for work and formal contexts. Best choice here.
• bold aku: informal/neutral among friends/peers.
• bold gue: very informal Jakarta slang; avoid in formal settings. The verb form doesn’t change with the pronoun.

Can I move the time clause to the front? Any punctuation rules?

Yes. Fronting the time clause is common:

• bold Sebelum rapat dimulai, saya memeriksa foto presentasi. Add a comma after the initial clause when writing. Both orders are natural.

How do I negate this sentence? Is it bold tidak or bold bukan?

Use bold tidak to negate verbs/adjectives:

• bold Saya tidak memeriksa foto presentasi sebelum rapat dimulai. (I didn’t check…) Use bold bukan to negate nouns/pronouns:
• bold Itu bukan foto presentasi. (That is not a presentation photo.)

Is bold rapat the only word for “meeting”? What about bold pertemuan or “meeting” (loanword)?

• bold rapat: a meeting, usually organizational/formal (work, committee). Most common for office meetings.
• bold pertemuan: a meeting/encounter more generally; can be formal or informal.
• bold meeting (loan): widely used in business speech; informal/Englishy. For formal writing, prefer bold rapat. Other options: bold sidang (session/hearing), bold diskusi (discussion).

Should I say bold foto or bold gambar for images in slides? And how do I say “slides” or “deck”?

• bold foto: a photograph.
• bold gambar: an image/drawing/illustration (umbrella term; often what you put on slides). Slides/deck:
• bold slide (very common), optionally pluralized: bold slide-slide
• bold materi presentasi (presentation materials; natural for “the deck”)
• bold salindia is the official Indonesian term but rarely used in everyday speech. Examples:
• bold Saya memeriksa materi presentasi. (I reviewed the deck.)
• bold Saya mengecek slide-slide presentasi. (I checked the slides.)

Is bold dimulai really passive? Can I add an agent?

Yes. bold dimulai is the passive form of bold mulai. You can add an agent with bold oleh, though it’s often unnecessary:

• bold Rapat dimulai oleh pimpinan pada pukul 9. (The meeting was started by the chair at 9.) More naturally, use active if you name the agent:
• bold Pimpinan memulai rapat pada pukul 9.