Teman saya baru saja putus dengan pacarnya, jadi perasaannya campur aduk.

Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Indonesian grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Indonesian now

Questions & Answers about Teman saya baru saja putus dengan pacarnya, jadi perasaannya campur aduk.

What does baru saja mean here? Is it like “just” or “just now”?

Baru saja is an adverbial phrase meaning “just (recently)”, “just now”, or “only just”.

In Teman saya baru saja putus…, it emphasizes that the breakup happened very recently, not long ago.

Related forms and nuances:

  • baru saja putus – has just broken up (very recent)
  • baru putus – also “just broke up”; often used in speech, slightly shorter
  • barusan putus – very colloquial, same idea: “just now / very recently broke up”

Without anything:

  • Teman saya putus dengan pacarnya – “My friend broke up with their partner / is broken up with their partner”
    The time is less clear; it could be “recently” or sometime before, depending on context.

Where can I put baru saja in the sentence? Is the position fixed?

The most natural position is before the verb (or verb phrase):

  • Teman saya baru saja putus dengan pacarnya.

Other possibilities:

  • ⚠️ Teman saya putus dengan pacarnya baru saja.
    • This can be heard in speech, but it sounds a bit more informal and puts extra emphasis on how recent it was.
  • Teman saya putus baru saja dengan pacarnya.
    • This is not natural; baru saja normally doesn’t split the verb and its prepositional phrase like that.

As a rule of thumb:
> Put baru saja right after the subject or before the main verb.


What exactly does putus dengan pacarnya mean? Is putus always “to break up”?

In everyday Indonesian, putus with people and relationships usually means “to break up” (end a romantic relationship).

In this sentence:

  • putus = to break (off) / to end
  • dengan = with
  • pacarnya = his/her/their boyfriend/girlfriend

So putus dengan pacarnya“broke up with their boyfriend/girlfriend”.

But putus on its own is more general:

  • tali ini putus – “this rope broke”
  • hubungan kami sudah putus – “our relationship has ended”

With relationships, you often see:

  • mereka sudah putus – “they already broke up”
  • dia baru putus dengan pacarnya – “he/she just broke up with their partner”

There is also memutuskan (transitive) which can mean “to decide” or “to break something off” (e.g. a contract, a connection).


Why is there dengan after putus? Can I just say putus pacarnya?

With romantic relationships, putus dengan [someone] is the common, natural pattern:

  • Dia putus dengan pacarnya. – “He/She broke up with their boyfriend/girlfriend.”

You cannot say ❌putus pacarnya to mean “broke up with their boyfriend/girlfriend.”
Without dengan, pacarnya would look like a direct object, and the sentence becomes ungrammatical or confusing.

Correct patterns:

  • Dia putus dengan pacarnya.
  • Mereka putus minggu lalu. (no partner mentioned)

So remember:
> Use putus dengan [person] for “to break up with [person]”.


What does pacarnya mean exactly? How do I know if it’s “boyfriend” or “girlfriend”?

Pacar is a gender‑neutral word for a romantic partner. It can mean:

  • boyfriend
  • girlfriend

Pacarnya = pacar + -nya. Here, -nya marks possession: “his/her/their boyfriend/girlfriend.”

Indonesian often does not show gender, so pacarnya alone doesn’t tell you if it’s a boyfriend or girlfriend. You’d need context:

  • If the friend is male, English speakers might choose “girlfriend”.
  • If female, they might choose “boyfriend”.
  • If you don’t know or don’t want to specify, you can translate more neutrally as “partner”.

So in this sentence:

  • pacarnya = his/her boyfriend/girlfriend (or their partner).

Could pacarnya mean “my boyfriend/girlfriend” instead of “my friend’s”?

In theory, -nya can refer to any third person (he/she/they/that person), and sometimes even to things previously mentioned. So purely grammatically, it’s a bit flexible.

But in a typical reading of:
> Teman saya baru saja putus dengan pacarnya, jadi perasaannya campur aduk.

most Indonesian speakers will understand pacarnya as:

  • the boyfriend/girlfriend of “teman saya” (my friend).

If the speaker wanted to clearly say “my boyfriend/girlfriend”, they’d normally use:

  • pacar saya – my boyfriend/girlfriend

To avoid ambiguity, speakers often:

  • Repeat the noun: Teman saya baru putus dengan pacar teman saya.
  • Or clarify in context: Teman saya baru putus dengan pacar dia yang di Jepang itu.

But in this simple sentence, default interpretation is “my friend’s boyfriend/girlfriend.”


What is the role of jadi here? Is it like “so”?

Yes. In this sentence, jadi is a conjunction meaning “so / therefore”.

  • …, jadi perasaannya campur aduk.
    = “…, so his/her feelings are all mixed up.”

Uses of jadi:

  1. Conjunction (therefore/so):
    • Dia sakit, jadi tidak masuk kerja. – “He’s sick, so he didn’t go to work.”
  2. Verb “to become”:
    • Dia jadi guru. – “He/She became a teacher.”

Here it is type 1: a connector explaining the result of the breakup.

You could drop jadi and say:

  • Teman saya baru saja putus dengan pacarnya. Perasaannya campur aduk.
    (Still correct, but the causal link “so” is slightly weaker/less explicit.)

What does perasaannya mean, and how does -nya work here?

Perasaan = feeling(s) / emotions.

Perasaannya = perasaan + -nya. Here, -nya again marks possession:

  • perasaannya = “his/her feelings” (or their feelings).

So:

  • perasaannya campur aduk
    = “his/her feelings are mixed up”

You could also say:

  • Perasaan dia campur aduk. – same meaning, a bit more explicit.

Other examples:

  • Kepalanya pusing. – “His/Her head hurts / He/She feels dizzy.”
  • Tangannya luka. – “His/Her hand is injured.”

In all of these, -nya ties the noun to some third person mentioned in context.


What does the phrase campur aduk mean? Is it literally “mix stir”?

Literally, campur = mix, and aduk = stir.

Together as an idiom, campur aduk means:

  • mixed up
  • all jumbled together
  • (for emotions) confused / a mix of many feelings

In perasaannya campur aduk, it means:
> “His/Her feelings are all mixed up” — he/she is feeling many emotions at once (sad, angry, confused, etc.).

The phrase can be used for:

  • emotions:
    • Perasaan saya campur aduk. – “My feelings are mixed.”
  • things/situations (informally):
    • Kamar ini campur aduk. – “This room is a mess / all mixed up.”

So here it’s describing an emotional state, not a physical mixing.


How do we know this is talking about the past? There’s no past tense verb.

Indonesian verbs don’t change form for tense (no -ed, no -s).
Instead, time is usually shown by time expressions like kemarin (yesterday), sudah (already), tadi (earlier), baru saja (just now), etc.

In this sentence:

  • baru saja acts as the time/aspect marker, telling us the breakup happened very recently in the past.

Without baru saja, you would need context to know when it happened:

  • Teman saya putus dengan pacarnya.
    • Could be “My friend broke up with their partner” (past),
    • or “My friend is broken up with their partner” (state), depending on context.

So:
> The past‑ness comes from baru saja, not from a change in the verb form.


Are there more colloquial ways to say this sentence in everyday speech?

Yes, in casual spoken Indonesian, people often change pronouns and some words. For example:

  • Temen gue baru putus sama pacarnya, jadi perasaannya campur aduk.
    • temen instead of teman (more colloquial pronunciation)
    • gue instead of saya (“I / me” in Jakarta slang)
    • sama instead of dengan (“with”, very common in speech)
    • baru instead of baru saja (still “just” / “recently”)

Meaning is the same, but the style is more informal.

The original sentence with teman saya, dengan, and baru saja sounds neutral/polite, good for writing or more formal contexts.