Breakdown of Parasit laut di gambar terlihat menakutkan, tetapi penjelasan ilmuwan membuat kami tenang.
Questions & Answers about Parasit laut di gambar terlihat menakutkan, tetapi penjelasan ilmuwan membuat kami tenang.
Parasit laut is a noun phrase:
- parasit = parasite
- laut = sea / ocean
So literally, parasit laut = “sea parasite(s)” or “marine parasites.”
In Indonesian, this is a very natural way to form such a phrase: [main noun] + [modifier]. So:
- parasit laut = sea parasites
- ikan laut = sea fish / marine fish
- angin laut = sea breeze
No hyphen is needed; Indonesian usually just puts the words side by side.
All three can be used with slightly different nuances, and actual usage depends on context and speaker preference:
di gambar
- Literally: “at/on/in the picture”
- Very common in everyday speech.
- Feels a bit more casual/neutral.
dalam gambar
- Literally: “inside the picture”
- Often used in written or slightly more formal contexts (e.g. textbooks, captions).
- Emphasizes being inside the boundaries of the image.
pada gambar
- Literally: “on/at the picture”
- More formal, often found in instructions, exam questions, or academic texts.
- Example: Perhatikan data pada gambar berikut.
In your sentence, Parasit laut di gambar... is natural and conversational. Using dalam gambar or pada gambar would not be wrong; it would just sound a bit more formal or bookish.
In the sentence, terlihat works like the English verb “looks” or “appears” in the sense of “to seem visually.”
terlihat
- Passive-like form of lihat (to see).
- Meaning here: “to be seen as / to look / to appear.”
- Parasit laut di gambar terlihat menakutkan
= “The sea parasites in the picture look scary.”
melihat
- Active verb: “to see / to look at.”
- Saya melihat parasit laut. = “I see sea parasites.”
- You can’t use melihat in the original sentence because we’re talking about how they look, not who is seeing them.
kelihatan
- Colloquial variant with similar meaning to terlihat.
- Parasit laut di gambar kelihatan menakutkan.
= also perfectly fine, sounds a bit more casual.
So here terlihat = “look(s)/appear(s)” (not “see”).
Menakutkan comes from the base adjective takut (afraid, scared).
- takut = afraid / scared
- menakutkan = scary / frightening; literally “causing fear”
Morphology:
- meN- (verb prefix) + takut
- -kan (suffix)
- The combination meN-...-kan often means “to cause X” or “to make (someone) X.”
Functions of menakutkan:
As an adjective (very common):
- Parasit itu menakutkan.
= “Those parasites are scary.” - Same role as the English adjective “scary.”
- Parasit itu menakutkan.
As a transitive verb (cause fear):
- Film itu menakutkan anak-anak.
= “That movie frightens the children.”
- Film itu menakutkan anak-anak.
In your sentence, terlihat menakutkan is best read as:
terlihat (sangat) menakutkan = “look very scary.”
These structures look similar but work a bit differently:
menakutkan kami
- Verb menakutkan directly takes kami as its object.
- Means: “frightens us / scares us.”
- Example: Penjelasan ilmuwan itu tidak menakutkan kami.
= “The scientist’s explanation did not scare us.”
membuat kami takut / membuat kami tenang
- Pattern: membuat + [object] + [adjective/state]
- Literally: “make us afraid / make us calm.”
- Focus on the resulting state.
In your sentence we have:
- penjelasan ilmuwan membuat kami tenang
= “the scientist’s explanation made us calm / put us at ease.”
You could also say:
- Penjelasan ilmuwan itu menenangkan kami.
(from tenang → menenangkan = “to calm (someone) down”)
This is slightly more formal or literary than membuat kami tenang, but both are correct.
Both are possible, but there’s a nuance:
penjelasan ilmuwan
- Noun–noun phrase: penjelasan (explanation) + ilmuwan (scientist).
- Most natural reading: “the scientist’s explanation” (explanation given by the scientist).
- In many contexts, this N1 + N2 pattern expresses possession, source, or type.
penjelasan dari ilmuwan
- Literally: “explanation from a/the scientist.”
- Slightly more explicit about the source being “from” the scientist.
- Can sound a bit longer or more formal.
In everyday Indonesian, penjelasan ilmuwan is concise and standard for “the scientist’s explanation,” so it’s perfectly natural in your sentence.
Penjelasan is a noun derived from the adjective/verb jelas.
jelas = clear (in the sense of understandable, not transparent)
- Penjelasannya sangat jelas. = “The explanation is very clear.”
menjelaskan = to explain (to make something clear)
- Dia menjelaskan konsep itu kepada kami. = “He/she explained the concept to us.”
penjelasan = explanation
- Saya membutuhkan penjelasan. = “I need an explanation.”
Morphology:
- jelas (base)
- meN- + jelas + -kan → menjelaskan (verb “to explain”)
- peN- + jelas + -an → penjelasan (noun “explanation”)
So penjelasan ilmuwan literally = “the scientist’s explanation.”
They are related but have different roles:
ilmu = knowledge; especially scientific/academic knowledge, a field of study
- ilmu fisika = physics
- ilmu biologi = biology
ilmiah (adjective) = scientific
- artikel ilmiah = scientific article
- pendekatan ilmiah = scientific approach
ilmuwan (noun) = scientist
- ilmuwan biologi = biologist
- Built from ilmu
- suffix -wan, which often creates “a person associated with X” (e.g. seniman from seni, ilmuwan from ilmu).
In your sentence, penjelasan ilmuwan = “the scientist’s explanation.”
Both kami and kita translate as “we/us,” but they differ in inclusivity:
kami = we (excluding the listener)
- Speaker + some others, but not the person being spoken to.
kita = we (including the listener)
- Speaker + listener + possibly others.
In penjelasan ilmuwan membuat kami tenang:
- kami implies that the scientist’s explanation made the speaker and their group feel calm, not necessarily including the person they are talking to.
If the speaker wanted to include the listener in that feeling of calm, they would say:
- Penjelasan ilmuwan membuat kita tenang.
= “The scientist’s explanation makes us (you and me) feel calm.”
Both tetapi and tapi mean “but / however”, with differences in formality:
tetapi
- More formal / neutral.
- Common in writing, speeches, and careful speech.
- Fits well in your sentence’s style.
tapi
- Shortened, more informal version.
- Very common in everyday conversation.
- You could say:
Parasit laut di gambar kelihatan menakutkan, tapi penjelasan ilmuwan membuat kami tenang.
Grammatically, in the middle of a sentence like this, they behave the same; the choice is mainly about tone and register.
All three are possible but differ in style and emphasis:
membuat kami tenang
- Pattern: membuat + [object] + [adjective/state]
- Very common and natural.
- Directly: “made us calm.”
- This is the simplest and most typical choice.
membuat kami menjadi tenang
- Adds menjadi (“to become”).
- Slightly more formal or emphatic: “made us become calm.”
- Grammatically fine but wordier; often unnecessary unless you want to stress the change from not calm → calm.
menenangkan kami
- From tenang → menenangkan (to calm someone).
- Means: “calmed us / reassured us.”
- Also correct:
Penjelasan ilmuwan menenangkan kami. - Slightly more formal or literary than membuat kami tenang, but very natural.
In everyday, neutral Indonesian, membuat kami tenang is the most straightforward and idiomatic.
Indonesian word order is fairly flexible, but some options feel more natural than others.
Your original sentence:
- Parasit laut di gambar terlihat menakutkan
= “The sea parasites in the picture look scary.”
Other acceptable variants:
Parasit laut yang ada di gambar terlihat menakutkan.
- Adds yang ada, explicitly “that are in the picture.”
- Slightly more explicit/emphatic.
Parasit laut yang terlihat di gambar itu menakutkan.
- Focus: “The sea parasites that appear in that picture are scary.”
- Moves menakutkan to the end.
What you generally wouldn’t do in neutral style is:
- Terlihat menakutkan parasit laut di gambar. (strange / poetic)
- Menakutkan terlihat parasit laut di gambar. (ungrammatical)
So the safest, most natural patterns keep:
[subject] + [location phrase] + [stative verb “terlihat”] + [adjective].
Your original structure is perfectly standard.