Kabut tebal menutupi jalan pagi ini.

Thick fog covers the road this morning.

Breakdown of Kabut tebal menutupi jalan pagi ini.

• pagi ini: this morning
• tebal: thick
• jalan: the road
• kabut: the fog

Questions & Answers about Kabut tebal menutupi jalan pagi ini.

In kabut tebal, why is the adjective tebal placed after the noun, unlike English thick fog?

In Indonesian, the normal order is noun + adjective, the opposite of English:

• kabut tebal = thick fog
  
  • kabut = fog
  • tebal = thick

Other examples:

• buku baru = new book
• rumah besar = big house
• mobil cepat = fast car

Putting the adjective before the noun (e.g. tebal kabut) is not normal in everyday Indonesian and will usually sound wrong or poetic at best. So you should generally follow:

NOUN + ADJECTIVE, not ADJECTIVE + NOUN

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There is no the or a/an in Kabut tebal menutupi jalan pagi ini. How do articles work in Indonesian?

Indonesian has no direct equivalent of English articles (a / an / the). Nouns stand on their own, and context tells you whether it’s specific or general.

In the sentence:

• kabut tebal could be understood as:

  • the thick fog
  • a thick fog
  • thick fog

• jalan can be:

  • the road, the street, or just the way / path