Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Gosip tentang pasangan orang lain belum tentu benar, jadi kami tidak ikut menyebarkannya. - Gossip about other people’s partners is not necessarily true, so we do not help spread it.

It is usually followed by a noun or noun phrase.
It roughly corresponds to English “about” in phrases like talk about, book about, information about, etc.

Examples:

Buku tentang sejarah Indonesia = a book about Indonesian history
Kita sedang berbicara tentang pekerjaan. = We are talking about work.

You could often replace tentang with mengenai or soal with similar meaning, though tentang is very neutral and common:

Gosip mengenai pasangan orang lain
Gosip soal pasangan orang lain (a bit more informal)

What exactly does pasangan orang lain mean, and why not just pasangan lain?

Pasangan orang lain literally means other people’s partners.

Breakdown:

pasangan = partner (romantic partner, spouse, or just a pair, depending on context)
orang lain = other people
pasangan orang lain = the partners that belong to other people

If you said pasangan lain, it would mean other partners (other than the ones already mentioned), but not clearly “other people’s partners”.

Compare:

Dia tidak suka membicarakan pasangan orang lain.
He doesn’t like talking about other people’s partners.
Kalau kamu tidak cocok, kamu bisa mencari pasangan lain.
If you’re not compatible, you can look for another partner / a different partner.

So orang lain adds the idea that these are other people, not “you and me”.

What does belum tentu mean, and how is it different from just tidak?

Belum tentu literally means not yet certain or not necessarily.

In this sentence:

belum tentu benar = not necessarily true / not guaranteed to be true

Differences:

tidak benar = not true (clearly false)
belum benar = not true yet (but might be true later)
belum tentu benar = not certain to be true / may or may not be true

So belum tentu expresses:

doubt
lack of certainty
possibility that something might be false, but not a firm statement that it is false

Example:

Murah belum tentu bagus. = Cheap doesn’t necessarily mean good.
Dia salah? Belum tentu. = Is he wrong? Not necessarily.

Is benar here an adjective (“true”) or an adverb (“correctly”)? How flexible is this word?

In belum tentu benar, benar functions like an adjective: true / correct.

Indonesian benar is quite flexible:

As an adjective: jawaban yang benar = the correct answer
As an adverb: Dia menjawab dengan benar. = He answered correctly.
As a standalone comment: Benar! = That’s right! / Correct!

In this sentence:

belum tentu benar = not necessarily true
You’re describing the truth value of the gossip, so it behaves like an adjective.

You may also see benar-benar meaning really / truly:

Itu benar-benar salah. = That is really wrong.

What is the function of jadi here, and how formal or informal is it?

Jadi in this sentence is a conjunction meaning so / therefore / as a result.

Structure:

Gosip ... belum tentu benar, jadi kami tidak ikut menyebarkannya.
Gossip about other people’s partners isn’t necessarily true, so we don’t spread it.

About jadi:

Very common in spoken and written Indonesian
Neutral to slightly informal
Connects cause (first clause) and result/conclusion (second clause)

More formal alternatives:

oleh karena itu = therefore
maka = so / thus
sehingga = so that / resulting in (often used more with results than decisions)

Example:

Hujan deras, jadi kami tidak jadi pergi.
It rained heavily, so we didn’t go.

Why is kami used instead of kita? What’s the difference?

Both kami and kita mean we, but the inclusion is different:

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

In this sentence:

kami tidak ikut menyebarkannya implies we (not including you) don’t spread it. For example, the speaker and their friends/family have this principle, and they’re telling it to someone else.

If you said:

kita tidak ikut menyebarkannya
It would mean we (including you, the person I’m talking to) don’t spread it, suggesting:
- you share the same principle, or
- the speaker is inviting you to adopt that behavior.

Both are grammatically correct; the choice depends on whether the listener is considered part of the “we”.

What does ikut add in tidak ikut menyebarkannya? Why not just tidak menyebarkannya?

Ikut literally means to follow / to join / to take part.

In tidak ikut menyebarkannya, it adds the nuance of not joining in or not taking part in the spreading.

Nuances:

tidak menyebarkannya = we do not spread it (simple statement)
tidak ikut menyebarkannya = we do not join others in spreading it / we refuse to participate in spreading it

So ikut here emphasizes:

there is some group or general behavior of spreading gossip
we choose not to participate in that behavior

Examples:

Semua orang tertawa, tapi dia tidak ikut tertawa.
Everyone laughed, but he didn’t join in laughing.
Mereka demonstrasi, tapi saya tidak ikut.
They protested, but I didn’t join (them).

What does the -nya at the end of menyebarkannya mean?

The -nya suffix here works like a pronoun it (or the gossip).

Breakdown:

menyebarkan = to spread (something)
menyebarkan-nya = to spread it

In Indonesian, -nya can:

Replace a possessive pronoun (his/her/its/their)
- bukunya = his/her/their book
Act like the or that (definite marker) in some contexts
Stand for him/her/it/them as an object, like here

In this sentence, -nya clearly refers back to gosip tentang pasangan orang lain:

tidak ikut menyebarkannya = we don’t join in spreading it (that gossip)

You could also say:

tidak ikut menyebarkan gosip itu = not join in spreading that gossip
The meaning is the same; -nya is just a very common, compact way to refer back.

Is the word order gosip tentang pasangan orang lain belum tentu benar fixed, or can it be changed?

Here the word order is quite natural and fairly fixed:

Gosip tentang pasangan orang lain (subject / topic)
belum tentu benar (predicate/comment)

So the pattern is:

[topic/subject] + [what you say about it]

You normally would not say:

Belum tentu benar gosip tentang pasangan orang lain.
This sounds unusual and marked; it might appear in poetry or very stylized speech, not in normal conversation.

However, you could front the adjective phrase for emphasis in special contexts, but you’d usually add a pause or extra words, e.g.:

Belum tentu benar, gosip tentang pasangan orang lain itu.
Even then, it sounds like a special, emphatic style.

For everyday Indonesian, the given order is the natural one.

Could gosip tentang pasangan orang lain be expressed in another way, like using mengenai or soal? Any difference in nuance?

Yes, you can replace tentang with mengenai or soal with only small changes in nuance:

mengenai
- Slightly more formal or bookish than tentang
- Gosip mengenai pasangan orang lain belum tentu benar...
soal
- More informal, conversational
- Similar to “about” in casual speech, or “about the matter of”
- Gosip soal pasangan orang lain belum tentu benar...

Nuances:

tentang = neutral, very common
mengenai = sounds a bit more formal/official
soal = more colloquial, “about the issue of”

All are acceptable; the core meaning “gossip about other people’s partners” remains the same.