Log inSign up

Kesabaran penting bagi hubungan kami.

Kesabaran penting bagi hubungan kami.
Patience is important for our relationship.
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Indonesian grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Indonesian now

Questions & Answers about Kesabaran penting bagi hubungan kami.

Why is kesabaran used instead of just sabar?

Sabar is an adjective or verb-like word meaning patient / to be patient.
Kesabaran is a noun meaning patience (the abstract quality).

Indonesian often makes abstract nouns from adjectives by adding ke- … -an:

  • sabar → kesabaran (patient → patience)
  • penting → kepentingan (important → interest, concern)
  • maju → kemajuan (advanced → progress)

In this sentence, kesabaran is the subject of the sentence:

  • Kesabaran = Patience
  • penting = is important

So you need the noun form kesabaran, not the adjective sabar.

Where is the word “is” in this sentence?

Indonesian usually does not use a separate word for is / am / are in simple sentences like this, where the pattern is:

[Noun] + [Adjective]

So:

  • Kesabaran penting
    literally: Patience important
    meaning: Patience is important

You can add adalah between the noun and adjective in some contexts, but here it would sound overly formal or unnatural in everyday speech:

  • Kesabaran adalah penting bagi hubungan kami.
    Grammatically possible but stiff / overly formal.

The natural everyday version is without adalah: Kesabaran penting …

What exactly does bagi mean here, and how is it different from untuk?

In this sentence, bagi roughly means for (in the sense of for the sake of / in relation to).

  • Kesabaran penting bagi hubungan kami.
    ≈ Patience is important for our relationship.

You could also say:

  • Kesabaran penting untuk hubungan kami.

Both are acceptable. Nuance:

  • bagi: a bit more formal, often used with abstract things (values, opinions, effects on something).
  • untuk: more general, everyday for, used with many kinds of nouns (objects, people, purposes).

Here, bagi and untuk are interchangeable without a big change in meaning. Many speakers would probably use untuk in casual speech.

Can I say buat instead of bagi?

Yes, in informal spoken Indonesian you can say:

  • Kesabaran penting buat hubungan kami.

Comparative feel:

  • bagi – more formal / written / careful
  • untuk – neutral, common in speech and writing
  • buat – informal, conversational

So for everyday conversation between friends or partners, buat or untuk would sound very natural.

What is the difference between hubungan kami and hubungan kita?

Both mean our relationship, but the pronouns differ:

  • kami = we / us, excluding the person you are talking to
  • kita = we / us, including the person you are talking to

So:

  • hubungan kami – our relationship (between me and someone else, not including you the listener)
  • hubungan kita – our relationship (between me and you, the listener)

In the sentence:

  • If you are talking to your partner about your relationship, you would normally say:
    Kesabaran penting bagi hubungan kita.
    (Patience is important for our [you + me] relationship.)

  • If you are telling a third person about your relationship with someone else, you use:
    Kesabaran penting bagi hubungan kami.
    (Patience is important for our relationship – mine and someone else’s, not yours.)

Can I say Kesabaran itu penting bagi hubungan kami? What does itu add?

Yes, this is correct and natural:

  • Kesabaran itu penting bagi hubungan kami.

Adding itu after a noun often gives a sense of:

  • that patience / this patience
  • emphasizing or pointing to something already known or mentioned

Nuance:

  • Kesabaran penting … – a general statement: Patience is important …
  • Kesabaran itu penting … – more like: That patience (we’re talking about) is important … or Patience really is important …, with a slightly more emphatic / specific feel.

Both are fine; without itu is the more neutral, general statement.

Can I change the word order, like Bagi hubungan kami, kesabaran penting?

Yes, you can front the bagi phrase:

  • Bagi hubungan kami, kesabaran penting.
    = For our relationship, patience is important.

This is grammatically correct. Nuance:

  • Kesabaran penting bagi hubungan kami.
    The usual, neutral order. Focus starts with Patience.

  • Bagi hubungan kami, kesabaran penting.
    Slightly more formal or rhetorical style, emphasizing for our relationship as the context, then making the comment patience is important.

Both are grammatically fine; the original order is more common in everyday use.

Can I say Kesabaran sangat penting bagi hubungan kami? Where does sangat go?

Yes, that is very natural:

  • Kesabaran sangat penting bagi hubungan kami.
    = Patience is very important for our relationship.

Sangat (very) goes before the adjective:

  • sangat penting – very important
  • sangat besar – very big
  • sangat sulit – very difficult

You could also say sangat after the adjective (penting sekali):

  • Kesabaran penting sekali bagi hubungan kami.

Both sangat penting and penting sekali are common and correct.

Is penting an adjective or a verb here? How does it function?

Penting is an adjective meaning important.

In Indonesian, adjectives can function as the predicate (the part that tells something about the subject) without needing a verb like to be:

  • Kesabaran penting.
    literally: Patience important
    meaning: Patience is important.

So the structure is:

  • Subject: Kesabaran
  • Predicate (adjective): penting
  • Prepositional phrase: bagi hubungan kami
What is the difference between penting and kepentingan?
  • penting = important (adjective)
  • kepentingan = interest / concern / importance (as a thing) (noun)

Examples:

  • Kesabaran penting bagi hubungan kami.
    Patience is important for our relationship.

  • Kami harus mempertimbangkan kepentingan semua pihak.
    We must consider the interests of all parties.

In your sentence, you want to describe how something is (important), so you use the adjective penting, not the noun kepentingan.