Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Saya sulit konsentrasi di rumah karena kebisingan jalan. - I have trouble concentrating at home because of the street noise.

sulit konsentrasi = to find it difficult to concentrate
- This suggests it’s possible, but it takes effort or is hindered.
tidak bisa konsentrasi = cannot concentrate
- This sounds stronger, as if you’re basically unable to concentrate at all.

In English, the difference is similar to:

I have trouble concentrating (sulit konsentrasi)
I can’t concentrate (tidak bisa konsentrasi)

The sentence uses sulit to sound natural and not overly dramatic.

Is “sulit” the same as “susah”? Could I say “Saya susah konsentrasi”?

They’re very close in meaning, but with some nuance and register differences:

sulit
- Slightly more formal or neutral.
- Common in writing, news, and polite speech.
susah
- More casual/colloquial, often heard in everyday conversation.

You can say:

Saya susah konsentrasi di rumah karena kebisingan jalan.

That sounds perfectly natural in informal speech.
In a textbook or formal writing, sulit is a bit more typical.

Is “konsentrasi” here a verb or a noun? Should it be “berkonsentrasi”?

konsentrasi can function like a verb-like noun, and in everyday Indonesian it’s very common to say:

sulit konsentrasi
tidak bisa konsentrasi
lagi konsentrasi (I’m focusing right now)

More “textbook” grammar would add the ber- prefix:

sulit berkonsentrasi
tidak bisa berkonsentrasi

Both are correct. The version without ber- is very common and sounds natural and conversational.
Think of konsentrasi here as similar to English “to concentrate” used informally, like: I can’t concentrate.

Why is it “Saya sulit konsentrasi” and not “Saya sulit untuk konsentrasi”?

You can say:

Saya sulit untuk konsentrasi di rumah.

That’s also grammatically correct.
However, after sulit, Indonesian often simply puts the verb (or verb-like word) directly after it, without untuk:

sulit tidur (hard to sleep)
sulit belajar (hard to study)
sulit menjelaskan (hard to explain)

So Saya sulit konsentrasi is more natural and more concise than Saya sulit untuk konsentrasi in everyday speech.

Can I drop “Saya” and just say “Sulit konsentrasi di rumah karena kebisingan jalan.”?

Yes, you can.

Indonesian often omits the subject when it’s clear from context. If you’re talking about yourself and it’s obvious, you can say:

Sulit konsentrasi di rumah karena kebisingan jalan.

This is understood as “(I) find it hard to concentrate at home because of the street noise.”
If you specifically want to emphasize you as the subject, keep Saya. Otherwise, dropping it is very natural.

Why is it “di rumah” and not something like “pada rumah”?

For location, Indonesian almost always uses:

di = at / in / on (for places)

So you say:

di rumah (at home)
di kantor (at the office)
di sekolah (at school)

pada is usually more formal and used for abstract things, time, or in official/written language (e.g. pada hari Senin – on Monday), not for simple physical location like at home.

So di rumah is the natural and correct choice.

Could I move “di rumah” to the beginning, like “Di rumah, saya sulit konsentrasi…”?

Yes. Indonesian word order is quite flexible:

Saya sulit konsentrasi di rumah karena kebisingan jalan.
Di rumah, saya sulit konsentrasi karena kebisingan jalan.

Both are correct and mean the same thing.
Starting with Di rumah just puts extra emphasis on the location, as in:

At home, I find it hard to concentrate because of the street noise.

Why is it “karena kebisingan jalan” and not “karena bisingnya jalan” or “karena suara bising di jalan”?

All of these are possible, but they differ in structure and nuance:

karena kebisingan jalan
- kebisingan = the noise / noisiness
- jalan = the road/street
- Together: “because of the street’s noise / the noise of the street.”
- Compact and natural.
karena bisingnya jalan
- bisingnya jalan = the noisiness of the road or how noisy the road is
- Feels a bit more descriptive, like focusing on the quality of the road (it is noisy).
karena suara bising di jalan
- Literally: because of the noisy sounds on the street
- More concrete, emphasizing the sounds themselves.

The original karena kebisingan jalan is short, abstract enough, and very idiomatic for general background noise from the street.

What exactly does “kebisingan” mean, and what is the ke-…-an form?

bising = noisy (adjective)
kebisingan = noise / noisiness (noun)

The pattern ke- + adjective + -an often creates a noun that expresses a state or quality:

bising → kebisingan (noisy → noise/noisiness)
ramai → keramaian (crowded → crowd/bustle)
macet → kemacetan (jammed → congestion/traffic jam)

So kebisingan jalan literally means “the noisiness of the street” or more naturally “the street noise.”

Does “kebisingan jalan” mean one specific noise, or noise in general?

kebisingan is usually uncountable, like noise in English. It refers to the general condition of being noisy, not one specific sound.

kebisingan jalan = the overall noisiness or general noise coming from the street.

If you wanted to refer to individual sounds, you might say suara-suara dari jalan (sounds from the street), not kebisingan-kebisingan (which is rarely used).

Does “jalan” here mean “road” or “street”? Could it be confused with “to walk”?

In Indonesian, jalan can be:

A noun = road/street/way
- di jalan = on the road/street
A verb = to walk, to go
- Saya mau jalan. = I want to walk/go.

In kebisingan jalan, jalan is clearly a noun because it’s part of a noun phrase describing a thing:

kebisingan (noise) + jalan (road) = noise of the road/street.

So in this sentence it is understood as “street/road”, not the verb to walk.

Do we need a word for tense, like “sedang” or “akan”, to show when the difficulty concentrating happens?

No tense marker is required. Indonesian verbs do not change form for past, present, or future. Context usually tells you when something happens.

Saya sulit konsentrasi di rumah karena kebisingan jalan.
Depending on context, it can mean:
- I find it hard to concentrate at home… (generally)
- I’m finding it hard to concentrate at home… (these days)

You can add markers if you want to be more precise:

Sekarang saya sulit konsentrasi… (Right now / these days I find it hard…)
Dulu saya tidak sulit konsentrasi… (In the past I didn’t find it hard…)

But they’re optional; the original sentence is complete as it is.