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Hubungan kami tetap baik setelah konflik kecil itu.

Hubungan kami tetap baik setelah konflik kecil itu.
Our relationship remains good after that small conflict.
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Questions & Answers about Hubungan kami tetap baik setelah konflik kecil itu.

What does hubungan mean here, and what kinds of “relationships” can it refer to in Indonesian?

Hubungan literally means relationship / connection. It’s a general word and can refer to:

  • Romantic relationships:
    • hubungan kami = our (romantic) relationship
  • Family relationships:
    • hubungan saya dengan orang tua saya = my relationship with my parents
  • Friendship / personal relations:
    • hubungan saya dengan tetangga = my relationship with the neighbor
  • Professional / business relations:
    • hubungan kerja = working relationship
  • More abstract connections:
    • hubungan antara dua negara = relationship between two countries

The word itself doesn’t specify what kind of relationship; the context does. In this sentence it could be romantic, friendly, or professional, depending on context.

Why is kami used instead of kita in Hubungan kami? What is the difference between kami and kita?

Both mean “we / us”, but they are used differently:

  • kami = we (not including the listener)
  • kita = we (including the listener)

In Hubungan kami tetap baik..., kami suggests the relationship is between the speaker and someone else, but not including the person being spoken to.

If you said Hubungan kita tetap baik..., it would mean “Our relationship (yours and mine) is still good…”, including the listener as part of that relationship.

So the choice between kami and kita changes who is included in “we”.

What does tetap mean here, and how is it different from masih?

In this sentence, tetap means “remain / stay / keep being”.

  • Hubungan kami tetap baik
    = Our relationship remained good / stayed good.

tetap emphasizes that the condition did not change, even though something happened (here: a small conflict).

masih means “still”, focusing more on continuity up to now, not strongly on resistance to change. Compare:

  • Hubungan kami masih baik.
    = Our relationship is still good (up to now; no strong sense of “despite something”).

  • Hubungan kami tetap baik setelah konflik kecil itu.
    = Our relationship stayed / remained good even after that small conflict.

So tetap fits well with the idea of “despite X, it stayed the same.”

Does baik here mean “good” in a moral sense, or more like “okay / fine”?

Baik is flexible and context-dependent. In this sentence, baik means something like:

  • good / fine / okay / on good terms

It’s not about moral goodness here (like “a good person”), but rather about the quality of the relationship: harmonious, not broken, no serious problems.

So Hubungan kami tetap baik is closer to:

  • Our relationship was still good / fine / okay
  • We were still on good terms
Is setelah konflik kecil itu a full clause? There’s no verb—how does that work?

In Indonesian, setelah (after) can be followed by:

  1. A clause (with a verb):

    • Setelah kami bertengkar, hubungan kami membaik.
      After we argued, our relationship improved.

  2. A noun phrase, like in this sentence:

    • setelah konflik kecil itu
      after that small conflict

So setelah konflik kecil itu is a prepositional phrase, not a full clause, but that’s completely natural in Indonesian. You don’t have to say “after it happened” explicitly; it’s understood.

What is the function of itu in konflik kecil itu? Could we leave it out?

Itu means “that”, and here it does two things:

  1. It makes konflik kecil itu = that small conflict (specific, known to both speaker and listener).
  2. It signals that the conflict is something already known or previously mentioned in the conversation.

Compare:

  • setelah konflik kecil itu
    = after that small conflict (the one we both know about)

  • setelah konflik kecil
    = after a small conflict (more general, not pointing to a specific conflict already established in the context)

You can drop itu, but you slightly lose the “you know which one I mean” nuance.

Why is it konflik kecil and not kecil konflik? What’s the rule for adjective position?

In Indonesian, adjectives normally come after the noun they describe.

  • konflik kecil
    = small conflict
    (literally: conflict small)

So:

  • rumah besar = big house
  • masalah penting = important problem
  • hubungan baik = good relationship

Putting the adjective before the noun (kecil konflik) is ungrammatical in standard Indonesian.

Does this sentence express past tense? How do we know it’s about the past when there’s no tense marking on the verb?

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense. Past, present, and future are usually shown by time expressions and context, not by verb endings.

Here, the word setelah (after) and the phrase konflik kecil itu (that small conflict) imply:

  • The conflict is something that already happened.
  • The relationship remained good after that point.

So even though tetap and baik don’t change form, the time relationship is clear from setelah and itu. In a natural English translation, you’d use the past:

  • Our relationship remained good after that small conflict.
Could the sentence also be Hubungan kami masih baik setelah konflik kecil itu? What difference would that make?

Yes, you can say:

  • Hubungan kami masih baik setelah konflik kecil itu.

The meaning is very close, but the nuance changes slightly:

  • tetap baik:
    Emphasis on “it stayed / remained good; it didn’t change”, often with a sense of “in spite of something that might have damaged it.”

  • masih baik:
    Emphasis on “it is still good (up to now)”, more neutral about resistance to change.

Both sound natural; tetap just highlights better that the conflict did not manage to ruin the relationship.

Is Hubungan kami tetap baik setelah konflik kecil itu formal, informal, or neutral?

This sentence is neutral and slightly bookish / standard, but it can be used in:

  • Written Indonesian (articles, reports, essays)
  • Spoken Indonesian in semi-formal or neutral contexts

In casual conversation, people might say something like:

  • Hubungan kita tetap baik kok, meskipun cuma ada konflik kecil waktu itu.
  • Kita tetap akur kok, cuma ada konflik kecil kemarin.

Your original sentence is perfectly natural and correct in standard Indonesian.

Are there any common synonyms for konflik kecil that I should know?

Yes, some common alternatives, depending on nuance:

  • masalah kecil = small problem
  • pertengkaran kecil = small quarrel / argument
  • cekcok kecil (colloquial) = little spat / tiff
  • selisih kecil = small disagreement / small difference (often more neutral)

So you might also see:

  • Hubungan kami tetap baik setelah pertengkaran kecil itu.
    Our relationship remained good after that small argument.