Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Latihan kebugaran intensif diadakan setiap Sabtu pagi. - Intensive fitness training is held every Saturday morning.

Latihan alone is vague: training/practice in anything (music, language, sports, etc.).
Olahraga = sports / exercise in general.
- Saya suka olahraga. = I like sports / exercising.
Latihan kebugaran focuses specifically on physical fitness exercises, not just any sport or skill.

So “Latihan kebugaran intensif” is something like “intensive fitness training” / “intense workout session”.

Why is “intensif” placed after “kebugaran” instead of before it, like in English?

In Indonesian, most adjectives come after the noun they describe.

Latihan (noun)
kebugaran (noun used as a descriptor: fitness)
intensif (adjective: intensive)

The structure is:
[noun] + [descriptor] + [adjective]
→ latihan kebugaran intensif

Literally: training fitness intensive → “intensive fitness training”.

Placing intensif before the noun (intensif latihan kebugaran) sounds unnatural in standard Indonesian.

What does “diadakan” mean, and why is it used here?

Diadakan is a passive verb meaning “is held / is organized / is conducted.”

Base verb: adakan = to hold / to organize (from mengadakan in active form).
Passive prefix: di-
diadakan = “to be held / to be organized”.

The sentence is passive:

Latihan kebugaran intensif diadakan …
→ Intensive fitness training is held …

We don’t mention who organizes it. If you wanted to say it actively:

Kami mengadakan latihan kebugaran intensif setiap Sabtu pagi.
→ We hold intensive fitness training every Saturday morning.

Where is the subject in this sentence? Who is doing the action?

In Indonesian passive sentences, the object of the action becomes the grammatical subject.

Latihan kebugaran intensif = the thing being held → subject in the passive sentence.
diadakan = is held (by someone – implied, but not stated).

The organizer is not explicitly mentioned, but it’s understood from context (a gym, a club, a school, etc.). You could add it with “oleh”:

Latihan kebugaran intensif diadakan oleh klub kami setiap Sabtu pagi.
→ Intensive fitness training is held by our club every Saturday morning.

Why is there no word for “is” or “are” in “diadakan”?

Indonesian verbs do not use separate “be” verbs like is/are/am as English does.

English: is held → auxiliary is
- past participle held.
Indonesian: diadakan alone covers “is held” / “are held”.

So:

Latihan kebugaran intensif diadakan …
literally: “Intensive fitness training held …”
naturally: “Intensive fitness training is held …”

Why do we say “setiap Sabtu pagi” and not something like “setiap Sabtu paginya” or “setiap Sabtu pagis”?

A few points:

No plural “-s” in Indonesian
- Sabtu pagi can mean “Saturday morning” or “Saturday mornings” depending on context.
- setiap = every → already implies repetition, so no plural ending is needed.
No “-nya” here
- -nya can mean the / its / that or make something more definite.
- setiap Sabtu paginya would sound odd here; it could feel like talking about some specific Saturday mornings that are already known in context. For a general schedule, setiap Sabtu pagi is standard.

So “setiap Sabtu pagi” is the natural way to say “every Saturday morning.”

Why is “Sabtu” capitalized but “pagi” is not?

In Indonesian spelling:

Days of the week are capitalized:
- Senin, Selasa, Rabu, Kamis, Jumat, Sabtu, Minggu.
Parts of the day are not capitalized:
- pagi (morning), siang (midday), sore (late afternoon/evening), malam (night).

So:

Sabtu = proper name of the day → capitalized.
pagi = common noun (morning) → lowercase.

Thus “Sabtu pagi” is written exactly like that.

Can we move the time expression to the front, like “Setiap Sabtu pagi, latihan kebugaran intensif diadakan”?

Yes, that’s completely natural and very common:

Setiap Sabtu pagi, latihan kebugaran intensif diadakan.
Latihan kebugaran intensif diadakan setiap Sabtu pagi.

Both mean the same thing. Indonesian word order is relatively flexible, and putting the time expression first often emphasizes when something happens.

Is there any tense in “diadakan”? How do we know if it’s present, past, or future?

Indonesian verbs generally don’t change form for tense. Diadakan can mean:

is held (present / habitual)
was held (past)
will be held (future / scheduled)

Context and time words tell you the tense.

In this sentence, “setiap Sabtu pagi” shows it’s describing a regular / habitual event. In English we translate it as:

“Intensive fitness training is held every Saturday morning.”

For explicit future, you could say:

Latihan kebugaran intensif akan diadakan pada Sabtu pagi.
→ Intensive fitness training will be held on Saturday morning.

Can we say “setiap hari Sabtu pagi” instead of “setiap Sabtu pagi”?

You can, but it’s a bit redundant.

setiap Sabtu pagi = every Saturday morning.
setiap hari Sabtu pagi literally = every day Saturday morning.

Native speakers sometimes say “setiap hari Sabtu”, but in careful, concise Indonesian, “setiap Sabtu pagi” is more natural and already clear. The word hari (day) is often dropped when talking about days of the week with setiap.

Could we drop some words, like just say “Latihan kebugaran diadakan setiap Sabtu pagi”?

Yes, you can drop “intensif” if you don’t need to stress that it’s intensive:

Latihan kebugaran diadakan setiap Sabtu pagi.
→ Fitness training is held every Saturday morning.

You can also shorten in other ways depending on context:

Latihan diadakan setiap Sabtu pagi.
→ The training is held every Saturday morning. (if it’s already clear what kind of training)

But each word you remove makes it less specific:

removing intensif → no emphasis on intensity.
removing kebugaran → could be any training.