Ibadah pagi di gereja itu membuat saya merasa tenang.

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Questions & Answers about Ibadah pagi di gereja itu membuat saya merasa tenang.

What exactly does ibadah pagi mean? Is ibadah a noun or a verb here?

Ibadah pagi literally is “morning worship” / “morning service.”

  • ibadah is basically a noun: worship, religious service, act of devotion.
  • pagi is “morning” and here it functions like an adjective, narrowing down the kind of worship: ibadah pagi = “the worship that happens in the morning.”

So the whole subject Ibadah pagi di gereja itu can be understood as “The morning service at that church …”

Why is it di gereja itu and not something like pada gereja itu?

In Indonesian:

  • di is the normal preposition for location: “at / in / on (a place).”
  • pada is more abstract, often used with time or more formal written styles, and not usually used before a physical location like gereja.

So:

  • di gereja itu = “at that church / in that church”
  • pada gereja itu would sound odd or wrong in everyday Indonesian.

For time, you might see pada pagi hari (“in the morning”), but for a place, use di.

Does gereja itu mean “that church” or “the church”? How is itu working here?

Gereja itu literally means “that church.”

However, itu often also works like a definite marker (similar to “the” when referring to a specific, known thing). So:

  • If you are pointing or contrasting, it’s clearly “that church (not another one).”
  • If the church has already been mentioned in the conversation, gereja itu can also feel like “the church (we’ve been talking about).”

Roughly:

  • gereja = a church (in general, unspecific)
  • gereja itu = that/the specific church (known to speaker and listener)
What is the grammatical subject of the sentence?

The structure is:

  • Subject: Ibadah pagi di gereja itu
  • Verb: membuat
  • Object (clause): saya merasa tenang

So:

Ibadah pagi di gereja itu (The morning service at that church)
membuat (makes)
saya merasa tenang (me feel calm).

The entire phrase ibadah pagi di gereja itu is one noun phrase functioning as the subject.

There’s no tense marker like “-ed” or “will.” How do I know if it’s “makes” or “made” in Indonesian?

Indonesian verbs usually don’t change form for tense.

Membuat can mean:

  • makes (present / general)
  • made (past)
  • will make (future)

The tense is understood from context or added time words:

  • Kemarin, ibadah pagi di gereja itu membuat saya merasa tenang.
    “Yesterday, the morning service at that church made me feel calm.”
  • Besok, ibadah pagi di gereja itu akan membuat saya merasa tenang.
    “Tomorrow, the morning service at that church will make me feel calm.”

So the original sentence is naturally understood as either a general statement (“…makes me feel calm”) or talking about a specific time, depending on context.

Can I drop merasa and just say: Ibadah pagi di gereja itu membuat saya tenang?

Yes, that’s perfectly natural:

  • Ibadah pagi di gereja itu membuat saya merasa tenang.
    = “…makes me feel calm.”
  • Ibadah pagi di gereja itu membuat saya tenang.
    = “…makes me calm.”

The meaning is almost the same.

Nuance:

  • merasa tenang highlights the internal feeling.
  • tenang directly describes your state as a result.

Both are very idiomatic.

What’s the difference between merasa tenang and menjadi tenang?

Both relate to becoming/being calm, but with different focus:

  • merasa tenang = to feel calm

    • Focus on your subjective feeling.
    • Common with psychological or emotional states:
      • Saya merasa senang. – I feel happy.
      • Dia merasa takut. – He/She feels afraid.
  • menjadi tenang = to become calm

    • Focus on the change of state (from not calm → calm).
    • Often used when something transforms:
      • Setelah berdoa, hati saya menjadi tenang.
        After praying, my heart became calm.

In your sentence, merasa tenang is more natural because you’re describing your feeling caused by the church service.

Could I say Ibadah pagi membuat saya merasa tenang di gereja itu instead? Does word order change the meaning?

You can say that, but the nuance changes.

Original:

  • Ibadah pagi di gereja itu membuat saya merasa tenang.
    Focus: the morning worship at that specific church is what makes you feel calm.

Changed:

  • Ibadah pagi membuat saya merasa tenang di gereja itu.
    This can sound like:
    • “Morning worship makes me feel calm at that church (as opposed to elsewhere).”

Now di gereja itu tends to be heard as modifying merasa tenang (where you feel calm), not ibadah pagi (where the worship takes place).

So grammatically okay, but the original word order is clearer for “the morning service at that church …”

When should I use saya instead of aku here?

Both saya and aku mean “I / me”, but differ in formality and context:

  • saya
    • Neutral–formal
    • Safe in almost all situations: speaking to strangers, older people, professional settings.
  • aku
    • Informal / intimate
    • Used with close friends, family, in casual speech, songs, social media, etc.

Your sentence with aku:

  • Ibadah pagi di gereja itu membuat aku merasa tenang.

Grammatically fine, but feels more casual. For a textbook-style or polite sentence, saya is preferred.

Is tenang an adjective like “calm,” or an adverb like “calmly”? How would I say “calmly” in Indonesian?

Tenang here is an adjective: “calm, peaceful.”

Indonesian often uses the same word for what English separates as adjective/adverb. The function depends on position:

  • Saya tenang. – I am calm. (adjective)
  • Dia berbicara dengan tenang. – He/She speaks calmly. (adverb-like, but phrase dengan tenang)

To express “calmly,” common patterns are:

  • dengan tenang – “calmly”
    • Dia menjawab dengan tenang. – He/She answered calmly.
  • Sometimes just tenang after the verb:
    • Dia tidur tenang. – He/She sleeps calmly/peacefully.

In your sentence, merasa tenang = “feel calm.”

Can you break down the sentence word by word with a simple gloss?

Sure:

  • Ibadah – worship, (religious) service
  • pagi – morning
    • ibadah pagi – morning worship / morning service
  • di – at / in (location preposition)
  • gereja – church
  • itu – that / the (specific, known one)
    • gereja itu – that church / the (aforementioned) church
  • membuat – makes / causes (from buat, “to make”)
  • saya – I / me (formal/neutral)
  • merasa – to feel (emotionally or physically)
  • tenang – calm, peaceful

Literal-ish sequence:

Ibadah pagi di gereja itu – The morning worship at that church
membuat – makes
saya – me
merasa tenang – feel calm.

Is ibadah ever used as a verb, or should it always be beribadah?

In standard grammar:

  • ibadah is mainly treated as a noun.
  • The corresponding verb is beribadah = “to worship / to perform worship.”

Examples:

  • Kami beribadah setiap minggu. – We worship every week.
  • Tempat ibadah – place of worship.

In everyday religious talk, you might sometimes see or hear ibadah used in a verb-like way, but beribadah is the clearer, more typical verb form.

In your sentence, ibadah pagi is clearly a noun phrase (“morning worship/service”), not a verb.