Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Puasa satu bulan penuh bukan berarti kita tidak boleh bekerja atau belajar. - Fasting for a whole month does not mean we may not work or study.

berarti = to mean, to signify
bukan is the negator used with nouns and equational statements, and often when you negate the idea of something, including with verbs like berarti.

So:

bukan berarti = does not mean / doesn’t imply
Puasa satu bulan penuh bukan berarti…
= Fasting for a whole month does not mean that…

Using tidak berarti is possible in some contexts, but bukan berarti is the very common fixed expression for “it doesn’t mean that …” when introducing a clarification or correction.

Is puasa here a noun (“fasting”) or a verb (“to fast”), and why is there no subject before it?

In this sentence, puasa can be understood as either:

a noun-like activity: “(the) fasting”
or a more verbal idea: “to fast / fasting”

Indonesian is flexible this way. The important thing is that puasa is treated as an activity/concept.

Why no subject?

The sentence starts with an activity as a topic:
Puasa satu bulan penuh = Fasting for a whole month / A full month of fasting.
This whole phrase is then followed by a comment about it:
…bukan berarti kita tidak boleh bekerja atau belajar.
= …does not mean we are not allowed to work or study.

So grammatically, the structure is:

[Topic / subject]: Puasa satu bulan penuh
[Comment / predicate]: bukan berarti kita tidak boleh bekerja atau belajar.

In English we might say: “Fasting for a whole month does not mean we may not work or study.”
We also start with an -ing phrase as the subject (“Fasting for a whole month…”), which also has no explicit “I/you/we” in front.

What exactly does satu bulan penuh mean, and can I say sebulan penuh instead?

satu bulan penuh literally is “one month full”, i.e. a full month / an entire month.

satu = one
bulan = month
penuh = full

About word order: in Indonesian, modifiers typically follow the noun:

bulan penuh = full month
(literally “month full”)

Having satu in front just specifies “one month”:

satu bulan penuh = one full month / a full month

You can definitely also say:

sebulan penuh = a full month (more compact, very natural)

So you could rewrite the beginning as:

Puasa sebulan penuh bukan berarti…
= Fasting for a full month does not mean…

Both satu bulan penuh and sebulan penuh are correct and natural.

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

In Indonesian:

kita = we / us, including the listener
kami = we / us, excluding the listener

In the sentence:

…bukan berarti kita tidak boleh bekerja atau belajar.

the speaker is talking about “all of us, including you”. It’s like a general statement for the whole community or audience:

It doesn’t mean *we (you and I / all of us) are not allowed to work or study.*

If the speaker said kami, it would sound like they are talking about their group only, not the listener:

It doesn’t mean *we (our group, not including you) are not allowed…*

Since the sentence expresses a general rule during fasting, kita is more natural.

Why is it tidak boleh and not tidak bisa after kita?

boleh = to be allowed / may (permission)
bisa = can / to be able to (ability)

So:

tidak boleh = not allowed / may not
tidak bisa = cannot / not able to

In the sentence:

…kita tidak boleh bekerja atau belajar.
= we are not allowed to work or study.

The idea is about permission or prohibition, not physical or practical ability. Fasting doesn’t forbid working or studying. Therefore boleh (permission) is the right verb.

If you used tidak bisa, it would change the meaning to:

we are not able to work or study (for some reason impossible)

which is not what is being said here.

Is there any “double negative” feeling in bukan berarti kita tidak boleh? How should I understand the negatives?

There are two negative elements, but they apply to different parts:

bukan berarti
- Negates the meaning/impression:
  It does *not mean that…*
tidak boleh
- Negates permission:
  …we are *not allowed…*

Put together:

Puasa satu bulan penuh bukan berarti kita tidak boleh bekerja atau belajar.
Literally: Fasting for a whole month does *not mean (that) we are not allowed to work or study.*

In natural English we might rephrase:

Fasting for a whole month *doesn’t mean we can’t work or study.*

So even though there are two negatives in the Indonesian sentence, it’s not a double negative in the sense of “two negatives make a positive.” They operate on different verbs: berarti and boleh.

Could I omit kita and just say “…bukan berarti tidak boleh bekerja atau belajar”?

Yes, you can omit kita:

Puasa satu bulan penuh bukan berarti tidak boleh bekerja atau belajar.

This would still be understood as a general statement:

Fasting for a whole month does not mean (that one is) not allowed to work or study.

Indonesian often drops subjects when they can be understood from context. Adding kita:

makes it clearer and more personal: we (including you and me)
can sound slightly more inclusive and direct: we are not forbidden…

So both versions are grammatically fine; the original just makes the subject explicit.

Why do we use atau (“or”) instead of dan (“and”) before belajar?

atau = or
dan = and

Here we have:

bekerja atau belajar = to work or (to) study

The sentence is saying that fasting for a month doesn’t mean you are forbidden from either activity. It’s not specifying that the rule would be about doing both at once, but about each of them as separate examples:

It doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to work, and it doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to study.

Logically, the prohibition would cover both, but using atau is a natural way to list alternative activities. You could say bekerja dan belajar, but:

bekerja atau belajar sounds more like: “work, or study” as typical activities you might do.
bekerja dan belajar might slightly emphasize “work and study (together/as a pair).”

Both can be understood, but atau is the more typical conjunction for listing option-like activities in this kind of general statement.

Could this be said as “Puasa satu bulan penuh tidak berarti kita tidak boleh…” instead of bukan berarti? Is there a difference?

You may see tidak berarti in Indonesian, but in the expression “it doesn’t mean that…”, the very common and natural phrase is:

bukan berarti (bahwa)…

So:

Puasa satu bulan penuh bukan berarti kita tidak boleh bekerja atau belajar.
is the most idiomatic.

Using tidak berarti here is not wrong grammatically, but:

bukan berarti feels like a set phrase used to correct a misconception, introduce a clarification, or soften a statement.
In many real-life contexts, speakers will automatically choose bukan berarti, not tidak berarti, for this structure.

So for learners, it’s best to treat bukan berarti (bahwa)… as the standard pattern for “does not mean (that)…”.

Can I add selama before puasa satu bulan penuh? What’s the difference with and without selama?

Yes, you could say:

Selama puasa satu bulan penuh, bukan berarti kita tidak boleh bekerja atau belajar.

Here:

selama = during

Adding selama:

makes it more explicit that you are talking about the period of time of fasting:
- During a whole month of fasting, it doesn’t mean we are not allowed to work or study.

Without selama, the original:

Puasa satu bulan penuh bukan berarti…

already implies “the act/period of fasting for a month” and is perfectly natural. The version with selama just sounds more like a typical “During X, Y happens” sentence.

Both are correct and natural; the original is a bit more compact.