Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Psikolog kampus kami menulis artikel ilmiah tentang pengaruh musik pada stres murid. - Our campus psychologist writes a scientific article about the effect of music on students’ stress.

In Indonesian, when you put two nouns together like this, the first noun is the main thing, and the following noun phrase describes or limits it. So it’s:

psikolog (head noun)
modified by kampus kami (which campus? our campus)

So it does not mean our psychologist campus; it means the psychologist belonging to our campus.

Why is it kampus kami and not kami kampus for “our campus”?

Indonesian possessive pronouns normally come after the noun they possess:

rumah saya = my house
buku mereka = their book
kampus kami = our campus

So the pattern is:

noun + possessor
kampus + kami → our campus

Putting kami in front (kami kampus) is ungrammatical in this meaning.

Why is it kami and not kita here? Don’t both mean “we / us / our”?

Both mean we / us / our, but:

kami = we/us (excluding the listener)
kita = we/us (including the listener)

In kampus kami, the speaker is talking about our campus, but not necessarily including the person they’re talking to. Typical situation:

A student talking about their own campus to someone from another university → kampus kami.

If you wanted to explicitly include the listener (e.g., two classmates talking about their campus), you could say kampus kita, meaning the campus that belongs to you and me. Both are grammatically correct; the choice is about who is included.

There’s no word for a/the in Psikolog kampus kami menulis…. How do I know if it means “a psychologist” or “the psychologist”?

Indonesian usually does not use articles like a or the. The noun psikolog kampus kami can be interpreted as:

a psychologist at our campus
the psychologist at our campus

The difference comes from context, not grammar.

To force a more specific meaning, you can add detail:

seorang psikolog kampus kami = a (certain) campus psychologist
psikolog kampus kami itu = that / the (specific) campus psychologist

But in everyday Indonesian, the simple form without markers is often enough; listeners infer definiteness from context.

Menulis looks like “write,” but how do I know the tense? Does it mean “wrote,” “is writing,” or “will write”?

Menulis itself is not marked for tense. It just means to write / writing.

So:

Psikolog kampus kami menulis artikel ilmiah…
can mean:
- Our campus psychologist is writing a scientific article…
- Our campus psychologist writes scientific articles… (habitually)
- Our campus psychologist wrote a scientific article…

To add time information, you typically use time expressions or particles:

kemarin = yesterday
tadi malam = last night
sedang = currently, in the process of
akan = will

Examples:

Psikolog kampus kami sedang menulis artikel ilmiah…
= is currently writing
Psikolog kampus kami kemarin menulis artikel ilmiah…
= wrote yesterday

Why is it artikel ilmiah and not ilmiah artikel like “scientific article” in English?

In Indonesian, descriptive words (adjectives) usually come after the noun:

artikel ilmiah = article scientific → scientific article
buku baru = book new → new book
musik klasik = music classical → classical music

So the pattern is:

noun + adjective
artikel + ilmiah → scientific article

Putting ilmiah before artikel (ilmiah artikel) is ungrammatical in standard Indonesian.

What’s the exact nuance of ilmiah in artikel ilmiah? Is it like “scientific,” “academic,” or “scholarly”?

Ilmiah is related to ilmu (knowledge/science), so:

ilmiah ≈ scientific / scholarly / based on systematic research

Artikel ilmiah typically refers to:

a research article
a paper that follows academic/scientific standards (method, data, references, etc.)

It’s stronger than just “informative” and clearly suggests a formal, research-based article, like what a psychologist would publish in a journal.

What’s the difference between tentang and mengenai? Could we say menulis artikel ilmiah mengenai pengaruh musik… instead?

Both tentang and mengenai can mean about / regarding.

tentang = about
mengenai = regarding / concerning / about

In your sentence:

menulis artikel ilmiah tentang pengaruh musik…
menulis artikel ilmiah mengenai pengaruh musik…

Both are grammatical and very close in meaning.

Nuance:

tentang is very common and neutral.
mengenai can sound slightly more formal or “written,” but is also common in speech.

For learners, you can safely treat them as interchangeable in most contexts.

Why use pengaruh instead of mempengaruhi or efek?

These words are related but not identical:

pengaruh = influence / effect (a noun)
- pengaruh musik = the influence/effect of music
mempengaruhi = to influence / to affect (a verb)
- musik mempengaruhi stres murid = music affects students’ stress
efek = effect (a noun, often more concrete or technical, from English effect)

In your sentence:

artikel ilmiah tentang pengaruh musik pada stres murid

We need a noun here (influence/effect), so pengaruh is the natural choice.

You could say:

artikel ilmiah tentang efek musik pada stres murid

That’s also correct; efek may sound a bit more “technical” or directly borrowed from scientific jargon. Pengaruh is more general and very common.

Why is it pada stres murid instead of terhadap stres murid or ke stres murid?

In this context:

pada ≈ on / on the / to / in terms of
terhadap ≈ towards / with respect to
ke ≈ to (movement toward a place)

For expressing the effect on something, pada is very common:

pengaruh musik pada stres murid
= the influence of music on students’ stress

Terhadap is also possible:

pengaruh musik terhadap stres murid

This is grammatical and quite natural, especially in more formal or academic writing. It emphasizes “with respect to / toward” a bit more.

Ke would not be used here; it mainly indicates physical or figurative direction to a place/goal, not abstract “on/with respect to” relationships.

Does stres murid mean “the stress of one student” or “students’ stress in general”? How is plurality expressed?

Murid can be singular or plural, depending on context, because Indonesian usually doesn’t mark plural forms.

So stres murid can mean:

the stress of a student
the stress of students (in general)

In your sentence (a scientific article), it’s naturally understood as students’ stress in general.

To make plurality more explicit, you have options:

stres para murid
- para = plural marker for people; more formal
- emphasizes “the students’ stress” (more clearly plural)
stres murid-murid
- murid-murid = repeated noun → plural “students”
- common and clear in speech and writing

All are grammatically correct:

pengaruh musik pada stres murid
pengaruh musik pada stres para murid
pengaruh musik pada stres murid-murid

They mainly differ in how strongly they signal “plural.”

Is murid the right word for university students? What about siswa and mahasiswa?

Indonesian distinguishes these terms:

murid
- general term for pupil or student, but commonly used for school-age students (elementary to high school)
siswa
- more formal word for school student (usually primary/secondary)
mahasiswa
- specifically university/college student

Because your sentence mentions a kampus (campus), many speakers might prefer mahasiswa for clarity:

pengaruh musik pada stres mahasiswa
= the influence of music on university students’ stress

However, murid is still understandable; it just sounds less specific for a campus context.

What exactly is stres here? Is it a noun or an adjective? Why is it spelled stres, not “stress”?

In this sentence, stres is a noun:

stres murid = students’ stress

Indonesian often borrows English words but adapts the spelling:

stress → stres
bus → bus (same)
komputer from computer, etc.

Stres can also function like an adjective in some contexts:

Saya sedang stres. = I am stressed.

But grammatically, it often behaves as a noun, especially in phrases like:

tingkat stres = stress level
mengurangi stres = to reduce stress

Can I reorder the beginning as Psikolog kami di kampus? How does that differ from Psikolog kampus kami?

Both are possible but they don’t emphasize exactly the same thing:

Psikolog kampus kami
- literally: psychologist [of] our campus
- sounds like an official role/position: the campus psychologist who belongs to our campus organisation.
Psikolog kami di kampus
- literally: our psychologist at campus
- implies:
  - our psychologist, and this person is at the campus (location)
- could also imply you (as a group) have a psychologist, and their location happens to be on campus.

If you mean the formal campus psychologist (like a staff role of the university), psikolog kampus kami is the clearest. If you emphasize our psychologist (who is currently on campus), then psikolog kami di kampus might fit.