Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Mentor memberi umpan balik mendalam untuk membantu saya memperbaiki portofolio. - The mentor gives in-depth feedback to help me improve my portfolio.

In the sentence, Mentor memberi … is understood as The mentor gave … or My mentor gave … depending on the broader context, even though there is no explicit the.

Can mentor really start the sentence like that? Does it need something like seorang?

Yes, Mentor can start the sentence by itself. Indonesian often uses a bare noun as the subject:

Mentor memberi umpan balik…
Guru menjelaskan pelajaran. = The teacher explained the lesson.
Dokter memeriksa pasien. = The doctor examined the patient.

Adding seorang changes the nuance slightly:

Seorang mentor memberi umpan balik…
→ A mentor (one mentor, not previously specified) gave feedback…

Without seorang, Mentor memberi… often sounds like we’re talking about a specific mentor that both speaker and listener already know about (for example, “my mentor”), or about “mentor” as a role in general.

What is the basic word order in this sentence? Why is it Mentor memberi umpan balik… and not some other order?

Indonesian’s neutral word order is Subject – Verb – Object (SVO), like English.

Mentor = Subject
memberi = Verb
umpan balik mendalam = Object (a noun phrase)

So the structure is:

Mentor (S) memberi (V) umpan balik mendalam (O) …

If you scrambled the order, it would be wrong or unnatural:

✗ Mentor umpan balik mendalam memberi… (incorrect)
✗ Memberi mentor umpan balik mendalam… (would need extra context and punctuation, sounds wrong as a normal sentence)

So the sentence follows the standard SVO pattern.

What is the difference between memberi and memberikan? Could I say Mentor memberikan umpan balik… instead?

Both memberi and memberikan come from the root beri (to give). They are very close in meaning and often interchangeable, but there are some tendencies:

memberi + direct object (thing)
- Mentor memberi umpan balik.
- Dia memberi hadiah. = He/She gave a gift.
memberikan + direct object (thing), often a bit more formal or emphatic:
- Mentor memberikan umpan balik.
- Dia memberikan hadiah.
With both:
- memberi sesuatu kepada seseorang
- memberikan sesuatu kepada seseorang
  Example:
- Dia memberi / memberikan buku kepada saya.

In your sentence:

Mentor memberi umpan balik mendalam…
Mentor memberikan umpan balik mendalam…

Both are acceptable. memberikan may sound slightly more formal or “complete”, but in everyday use memberi is perfectly natural.

What exactly does umpan balik mean, and why is it two words?

umpan balik is the normal Indonesian term for feedback (comments, responses, evaluation to help someone improve).

Literally:

umpan = bait
balik = return / back

Historically it comes from a technical/scientific term for “feedback” (in systems), but in everyday language it now just means feedback.

It is written as two separate words: umpan balik, not umpanbalik. Together they form a fixed expression, similar to an English two‑word noun like traffic jam or coffee shop.

Other words with similar meaning in some contexts:

masukan = input / suggestions (commonly used as “feedback”)
- Mentor memberi masukan mendalam…
saran = suggestions/advice
- Mentor memberi saran mendalam… (less common collocation, but understandable)

Why is it umpan balik mendalam and not mendalam umpan balik? Where do adjectives go?

In Indonesian, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe, not before it as in English.

umpan balik mendalam = in‑depth feedback
- umpan balik = feedback
- mendalam = deep / in‑depth

Compare:

rumah besar = big house
buku baru = new book
guru baik = kind teacher

So mendalam umpan balik is incorrect. The correct order is:

noun + adjective → umpan balik mendalam

What is the difference between dalam, mendalam, and mendalami?

All three come from the root dalam (deep).

dalam (adjective / preposition)
- As an adjective: air dalam = deep water
- As a preposition: dalam kotak = in the box
mendalam (adjective / stative verb: “to be deep”)
- umpan balik mendalam = deep / in‑depth feedback
- Rasa sedihnya sangat mendalam. = His/Her sadness is very deep.
In your sentence, mendalam functions like an adjective describing umpan balik.
mendalami (active verb: “to study deeply / to delve into”)
- Saya ingin mendalami bahasa Indonesia. = I want to study Indonesian in depth.
- Dia mendalami psikologi. = He/She studies psychology in depth.

So:

dalam = deep / in
mendalam = deep / in‑depth (quality/state)
mendalami = to study/explore something deeply

What does untuk do here? How is untuk membantu different from just membantu?

untuk generally means for or to (in order to) and introduces a purpose.

untuk membantu saya memperbaiki portofolio
= to help me improve my portfolio (purpose of the feedback)

Structure:

Verb 1 … untuk Verb 2 …
memberi … untuk membantu …

Compare:

Saya belajar bahasa Indonesia untuk bekerja di Jakarta.
= I study Indonesian to work in Jakarta.
Dia menabung untuk membeli rumah.
= He/She saves money to buy a house.

If you removed untuk and just said … membantu saya memperbaiki portofolio, it could be read as a second verb phrase, not clearly marked as purpose. untuk makes the purpose relation explicit.

Why is saya used here? What’s the difference between saya and aku?

Both saya and aku mean I / me, but they differ in formality and typical usage:

saya
- More formal and neutral.
- Used in polite conversation, in writing, in professional contexts.
- Safe default pronoun, especially with people you don’t know well.
aku
- More informal/intimate.
- Used with close friends, family, or in casual speech.
- Common in songs, poetry, some informal writing.

In your sentence:

… untuk membantu saya memperbaiki portofolio.
sounds neutral and suitable for professional or learning contexts.

You could say:

… untuk membantu aku memperbaiki portofolio.

This is grammatically correct, but feels more casual and is less common in formal written style.

What is the structure and meaning of memperbaiki?

memperbaiki comes from the base baik (good) with the prefix memper‑ and suffix ‑i:

baik = good
perbaiki (imperative / root form used in some resources) = fix / improve
memperbaiki = to fix, to repair, to improve

Meaning:

memperbaiki sesuatu = to make something better; to fix or improve something

Examples:

Saya memperbaiki portofolio. = I am improving/fixing my portfolio.
Mereka memperbaiki mobil itu. = They repair that car.
Guru membantu saya memperbaiki kesalahan. = The teacher helps me correct my mistakes.

You may also see:

perbaikan = improvement / repair (noun)
- perbaikan portofolio = portfolio improvement

In the sentence, memperbaiki portofolio = to improve my portfolio.

Why is there no preposition before portofolio? Why not something like memperbaiki pada portofolio?

In Indonesian, many verbs, including memperbaiki, take a direct object without a preposition, just like English:

memperbaiki portofolio = improve/fix the portfolio
memperbaiki mobil = repair the car
membaca buku = read a book
makan nasi = eat rice

Adding a preposition like pada here would be unnatural:

✗ memperbaiki pada portofolio (incorrect in this meaning)

So the pattern is simply:

memperbaiki + [thing being improved]
memperbaiki portofolio

How do we know this sentence is in the past (gave feedback) and not present or future? Indonesian verbs don’t seem to change.

Indonesian verbs do not conjugate for tense (no different forms for past, present, future). The verb memberi is the same for:

gave
give
will give

Tense and time are normally shown by:

Time words
- kemarin = yesterday
- tadi = earlier today
- sekarang = now
- besok = tomorrow
  Example:
- Kemarin mentor memberi umpan balik… = Yesterday the mentor gave feedback…
Context
In many cases, context alone tells you whether it’s past, present, or future.

So:

Mentor memberi umpan balik mendalam…
can be translated as:
- The mentor gave in‑depth feedback… (past)
- The mentor gives in‑depth feedback… (habitual/present)
- The mentor will give in‑depth feedback… (future, if context indicates)

The English translation chooses a tense based on context, but the Indonesian form memberi itself doesn’t change.