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Pelatih memberi bimbingan singkat agar gerakan lebih efisien.

Pelatih memberi bimbingan singkat agar gerakan lebih efisien.
The coach gives brief guidance so that the movements are more efficient.
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Questions & Answers about Pelatih memberi bimbingan singkat agar gerakan lebih efisien.

What exactly does agar do in this sentence, and how is it different from untuk or supaya?

agar introduces a purpose/result clause and is best translated as “so that” or “in order that”.

  • Pelatih memberi bimbingan singkat agar gerakan lebih efisien.
    → The coach gives brief guidance so that the movements are more efficient.

Comparison:

  • agar and supaya
    These are near-synonyms. Both mean “so that / in order that”.

    • agar: slightly more formal, often seen in writing, instructions, official speech.
    • supaya: very common in speech, neutral–informal.

    You could say:

    • Pelatih memberi bimbingan singkat supaya gerakan lebih efisien. (also natural)

  • untuk
    Usually “for / to”, and it fits better with a verb phrase than with a plain clause:

    • Natural: Pelatih memberi bimbingan singkat untuk membuat gerakan lebih efisien.
      (“…to make the movements more efficient.”)
    • Odd / wrong: ✗ Pelatih memberi bimbingan singkat untuk gerakan lebih efisien.

So in this exact structure (agar + clause), agar (or supaya) is more appropriate than untuk.

Why is there no word for “a” before bimbingan singkat (no “a short guidance”)?

Indonesian generally does not use articles like “a” or “the”. Nouns by themselves can be interpreted as a / the / some depending on context.

  • bimbingan singkat can mean:
    • “brief guidance”
    • “a brief piece of guidance”
    • “some brief guidance”

If a speaker really wants to emphasize “a single, specific instance”, they can use classifiers like sebuah, suatu, etc., but with bimbingan this sounds unnatural or too literal:

  • ✗ Pelatih memberi sebuah bimbingan singkat.
    Grammatically possible, but odd in everyday usage because bimbingan behaves like an uncountable noun (“guidance”).

Normally you just say memberi bimbingan singkat and let context show that it’s “some / a bit of” guidance.

Why memberi bimbingan instead of just membimbing? Are they interchangeable?

Both are related but not always interchangeable:

  • memberi bimbingan

    • Literally: “to give guidance”.
    • Structure: memberi (“to give”) + bimbingan (“guidance” – a noun).
    • Common collocation in Indonesian; sounds natural, especially in instructional or coaching contexts.

  • membimbing

    • Verb: “to guide, to coach, to mentor” (direct action).
    • Needs an object if you mention who is guided:
      • Pelatih membimbing para atlet. – “The coach guides the athletes.”

In your sentence, you could say:

  • Pelatih membimbing para atlet agar gerakan lebih efisien.
    (The coach guides the athletes so that the movements are more efficient.)

But if you omit the object:

  • Pelatih membimbing agar gerakan lebih efisien.
    This is grammatical but a bit vague; memberi bimbingan sounds more natural for “provides some guidance.”

About memberi vs memberikan:

  • memberi bimbingan and memberikan bimbingan are very close in meaning here.
  • memberikan often slightly emphasizes the thing given (bimbingan), but in everyday usage they are almost interchangeable in this phrase.
Why is it bimbingan singkat, not singkat bimbingan for “short guidance”?

In Indonesian, adjectives normally come after the noun:

  • bimbingan singkat – “short / brief guidance”
  • gerakan cepat – “fast movements”
  • pelatih baru – “new coach”

So the pattern is Noun + Adjective, unlike English.

singkat bimbingan is not grammatical as a normal noun phrase. Pre-adjectival use (adjective before noun) appears only in limited, mostly fixed or poetic expressions; it does not apply here.

What is the nuance of gerakan here, and how is it different from gerak or bergerak?

All three are related to “movement,” but with different grammatical roles:

  • gerak (root noun)

    • Basic idea of motion / movement.
    • Can appear in compounds or technical terms (e.g. gerak tubuh “body movement”).

  • gerakan (gerak + suffix -an)

    • A more concrete “movement” / “motion” / “a move”, often:
      • a specific movement in exercise or sport,
      • a physical action or motion,
      • or even a social/political “movement” (e.g. gerakan pemuda “youth movement”).
    • In your sentence, gerakan refers to the physical movements being performed (e.g., in a sport or exercise).

  • bergerak (verb with prefix ber-)

    • Means “to move” (intransitive verb).
    • Example: Tubuhnya bergerak cepat. – “His/her body moves quickly.”

So agar gerakan lebih efisien = “so that the movements are more efficient”, not “so that (someone) moves more efficient(ly).”

How does lebih efisien work? Do you always need lebih for “more efficient,” and where is daripada?
  • lebih in front of an adjective means “more” (comparative):
    • efisien – “efficient”
    • lebih efisien – “more efficient”

Basic pattern:

  • A lebih [adjective] daripada B.
    • Mobil ini lebih efisien daripada mobil itu.
      “This car is more efficient than that car.”

In your sentence there is no explicit comparison word like “than before,” but Indonesian often leaves it implicit:

  • agar gerakan lebih efisien
    → understood as “so that the movements are more efficient (than before / than they used to be).”

If you wanted to state the comparison explicitly, you could add something like:

  • agar gerakan lebih efisien daripada sebelumnya.
    “so that the movements are more efficient than before.”

Without lebih, efisien would just mean “efficient,” not “more efficient.”

In agar gerakan lebih efisien, is gerakan the subject? Can we change it to things like gerakan itu or gerakannya?

Yes, within the agar-clause, gerakan functions as the subject:

  • (agar) [gerakan] [lebih efisien]
    → Subject: gerakan
    → Predicate: lebih efisien

You can make the subject more specific:

  • agar gerakan itu lebih efisien
    – “so that that movement is more efficient”
  • agar gerakan mereka lebih efisien
    – “so that their movements are more efficient”
  • agar gerakannya lebih efisien
    – “so that the movement(s) (his/her/their/its) is/are more efficient”
    (-nya here can mean “the” or “his/her/their,” depending on context.)

All of these are grammatically fine; they just differ in how specific and referential the subject is.

Can the agar-clause be moved to the front, like in English: “So that the movements are more efficient, the coach …”?

Yes. Indonesian allows that, and it’s quite natural:

  • Agar gerakan lebih efisien, pelatih memberi bimbingan singkat.

This fronting often emphasizes the purpose. Both versions are correct:

  • Pelatih memberi bimbingan singkat agar gerakan lebih efisien.
  • Agar gerakan lebih efisien, pelatih memberi bimbingan singkat.

The meaning is the same; only the focus and rhythm change slightly.

How formal or informal does this sentence sound? Are there more casual equivalents?

The sentence is neutral and fits well in:

  • textbooks,
  • news reports,
  • training manuals,
  • everyday speech that’s not very casual.

More casual variants might use biar instead of agar, or simplify:

  • Pelatih ngasih bimbingan singkat biar gerakannya lebih efisien.
    (Colloquial; ngasih for memberi, biar for agar/supaya, gerakannya for gerakan.)

More formal/written variants could expand the noun phrases:

  • Pelatih memberikan bimbingan singkat kepada para atlet agar gerakan mereka lebih efisien.

So your original sentence sits comfortably in the middle: standard, clear, and neutral in register.

Why is Pelatih capitalized? Is it a title like a name?

Here, Pelatih is capitalized simply because it’s the first word of the sentence.

In general:

  • Job titles like pelatih, dokter, guru, manajer are not capitalized in Indonesian unless:
    • they start a sentence, or
    • they are part of an official title (e.g., in a formal address).

So elsewhere you’d usually write:

  • Saya berbicara dengan pelatih tadi pagi. – “I spoke with the coach this morning.”
    (pelatih in lowercase)