Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Dokter hewan lokal datang ke penampungan untuk memeriksa kesehatan semua hewan liar dan terlantar. - A local veterinarian comes to the shelter to check the health of all stray and abandoned animals.

Indonesian often forms professions by putting two nouns together like this. There isn’t a separate single root like vet in English; dokter hewan is the standard way to say veterinarian.

Why is it dokter hewan lokal and not lokal dokter hewan?

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

dokter (noun) + hewan (noun functioning like an adjective here) + lokal (adjective)

So:

dokter hewan lokal = local veterinarian
Putting lokal before the noun (lokal dokter hewan) is ungrammatical in standard Indonesian.

Is dokter hewan lokal singular (“a local vet”) or plural (“local vets”)?

By itself, dokter hewan lokal is number‑neutral. It can mean:

a local veterinarian
the local veterinarian
local veterinarians

Indonesian usually doesn’t mark singular vs plural unless needed. Context (or added words like seorang “a (person)” or para “(group of)”) would clarify:

Seorang dokter hewan lokal = a local vet
Para dokter hewan lokal = the local vets (as a group)

Why is it datang ke penampungan and not just datang penampungan?

You generally need a preposition before a place:

datang ke penampungan = come to the shelter
- datang = to come
- ke = to (direction)
- penampungan = shelter

Without ke, datang penampungan sounds incomplete or ungrammatical. Ke marks the destination.

What is the difference between datang ke and pergi ke?

Both use ke (“to”), but the verb changes the perspective:

datang ke penampungan = come to the shelter (toward the speaker or a reference point)
pergi ke penampungan = go to the shelter (leaving the current place)

In many written contexts, both can describe someone moving to a location, but:

Use datang when emphasizing arrival at a place.
Use pergi when emphasizing leaving for a place.

What exactly does penampungan mean here?

Penampungan is a noun from the root tampung (to hold, to accommodate, to collect). Literally, it is “a place or facility for holding/collecting”.

Common uses:

penampungan air = water reservoir
tempat penampungan pengungsi = refugee shelter

In this sentence, penampungan refers to an animal shelter (a place where stray or wild animals are taken in). Often people say:

penampungan hewan or
tempat penampungan hewan

to be more explicit.

What is the function of untuk in untuk memeriksa kesehatan?

Untuk introduces a purpose (similar to “to” or “in order to” in English):

datang ke penampungan untuk memeriksa kesehatan…
= came to the shelter to check the health…

So the pattern is:

[do something] + untuk + [purpose]

You could also say, in many contexts:

…datang ke penampungan memeriksa kesehatan…

and omit untuk, but untuk makes the purpose connection clear and is very natural in standard Indonesian.

Why is it memeriksa and not the base form periksa?

Periksa is the root. To form an active transitive verb (“to examine/check something”), Indonesian commonly adds meN-:

memeriksa = to examine / to check (something)

Patterns:

periksa (root) → memeriksa (verb: to examine)
pemeriksaan (noun: an examination/check)

So here memeriksa is needed because the doctor is doing the action of examining.

In memeriksa kesehatan semua hewan, what is the direct object?

The direct object of memeriksa is kesehatan semua hewan (“the health of all the animals”):

memeriksa = to check / examine
kesehatan = health
semua hewan = all (the) animals

So structurally:

memeriksa [kesehatan [semua hewan]]

This focuses on their health, not just the animals as physical bodies.
If you said:

memeriksa semua hewan

it would be “examine all the animals” (more general, not specifically their health).

Why is semua placed before hewan and not after it?

The usual pattern is:

semua + noun = all (the) [noun]

So:

semua hewan = all animals

You can sometimes put semua after, but it changes nuance:

hewan semua can sound more like “the animals, all of them” and is less neutral/standard in this kind of formal sentence.

Here, semua hewan is the most natural and standard order.

Why are there no plural markers on hewan liar dan terlantar even though it means “all wild and abandoned animals”?

Indonesian usually does not change the noun form for plural. Hewan can be:

hewan = animal / animals

Plurality is shown by:

context (e.g. semua “all”), or
repetition (e.g. hewan-hewan), or
words like banyak (“many”).

Here, semua already shows the idea of “all”, so hewan stays in its base form:

semua hewan liar dan terlantar = all wild and abandoned animals

Do liar and terlantar both describe the same animals, or is it “wild animals and abandoned animals”?

As written, hewan liar dan terlantar is slightly ambiguous, but it most naturally reads as:

animals that are both wild and abandoned (one group having both qualities).

If you strongly want to separate the two groups, you would usually repeat hewan:

…semua hewan liar dan hewan terlantar.
= all wild animals and abandoned animals.

In everyday usage, though, many people still say hewan liar dan terlantar and rely on context for whether it’s one group or two.

What is the nuance of terlantar here?

Terlantar means:

neglected, abandoned, uncared for

For hewan, hewan terlantar typically means stray or abandoned animals (for example, dumped pets or animals roaming with no owner and no care).

So hewan liar dan terlantar evokes animals that are either naturally wild or living as strays/abandoned.

There’s no word for “the” or “a” in this sentence. How do articles work in Indonesian?

Indonesian has no direct equivalents of English “a/an” or “the” as separate words. Nouns stand alone:

dokter hewan lokal = a/the local vet
penampungan = a/the shelter
semua hewan = all (the) animals

If needed, specificity can be shown by:

seorang dokter hewan = a veterinarian (one vet)
dokter hewan itu = that/the veterinarian (previously known)

But usually context alone tells you whether English should use a or the.