Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Pagi itu saya terlambat ke kantor karena hujan deras. - That morning I was late to the office because of heavy rain.

pagi itu = that morning (in the past, specific, previously mentioned / understood)
pagi ini = this morning (today’s morning)
tadi pagi = earlier this morning / this morning (earlier today)

In your sentence, Pagi itu saya terlambat… sounds like narrating a story about a particular past morning: That morning, I was late to the office…

Why is there no pada before pagi itu? Could we say Pada pagi itu saya terlambat…?

You can say:

Pada pagi itu saya terlambat ke kantor…

It is grammatically correct. However, in everyday speech and writing, Indonesians often drop pada before time expressions.

General pattern:

With pada (more formal / explicit):
Pada pagi itu saya terlambat ke kantor…
Without pada (very natural, common):
Pagi itu saya terlambat ke kantor…

Both mean the same. Leaving out pada is normal and sounds natural.

How is past tense shown here? There is no past tense verb form in saya terlambat ke kantor.

Indonesian verbs do not change form for past, present, or future the way English verbs do.

The sentence:

Saya terlambat ke kantor
literally: I late to office

It can mean I am late to the office or I was late to the office depending on context.

In this sentence, past time is indicated by the time phrase pagi itu (that morning). Once you see pagi itu, you understand the event happened in the past.

So Indonesian shows time mostly through:

time words: kemarin (yesterday), tadi (earlier), besok (tomorrow), pagi itu, etc.
sometimes particles: sudah / telah (already), akan (will)

What exactly is terlambat? Is it a verb or an adjective?

Terlambat comes from:

ter- (a prefix)
lambat (slow/late)

In practice, terlambat functions like an adjective meaning late, but it can play the role of a predicate (like a verb) in an Indonesian sentence.

Examples:

Saya terlambat. = I am late.
Dia sering terlambat. = He/She is often late.
Kereta itu terlambat. = The train is late.

In Indonesian, adjectives can directly act as the main predicate without a separate “to be” verb. So saya terlambat literally is I late, which we translate as I was late / I am late depending on context.

Why is it terlambat ke kantor and not terlambat di kantor?

The prepositions:

ke = to / towards (direction, destination)
di = at / in / on (location)

In terlambat ke kantor, the focus is that you were late going to the office (late to arrive there).

If you say terlambat di kantor, it sounds like you were “late at the office,” which is unusual and usually not what you mean. You are not late inside the office; you are late getting to the office.

So:

Saya terlambat ke kantor.
= I was late to the office. ✅ (natural)
Saya terlambat di kantor.
= I was late at the office. ❌ (odd in this context)

Does kantor here mean “my work” or literally “office building”? Why don’t we say kantor saya?

Kantor literally means office (the place / building).

In context, ke kantor is usually understood as to (my) office / to work, because you normally talk about your own workplace unless you say otherwise.

You could say:

Pagi itu saya terlambat ke kantor saya…

This is grammatically fine, but it feels a bit redundant unless you are:

contrasting with another office (kantor lain),
or emphasizing whose office it is.

In everyday speech, ke kantor is enough to convey to work for “my own office/workplace.”

Is karena used exactly like “because”? Can the clause order be reversed?

Yes, karena is a conjunction meaning because.

Your sentence:

Saya terlambat ke kantor karena hujan deras.
= I was late to the office because it was raining heavily.

You can also put the karena clause at the beginning:

Karena hujan deras, saya terlambat ke kantor.

Both orders are correct. If you put karena at the beginning, you usually add a comma after the reason clause in writing.

So structurally it works very similarly to English because:

Because of the heavy rain, I was late to the office.
I was late to the office because of the heavy rain.

Why is it hujan deras and not deras hujan or hujan yang deras?

Word order:

In Indonesian, adjectives normally come after the noun:
- hujan deras = heavy rain
- mobil baru = new car
- baju merah = red shirt

So:

hujan deras (noun + adjective) = ✅ natural
deras hujan (adjective + noun) = ❌ unnatural in standard Indonesian

About yang:

hujan deras is already complete: heavy rain.
hujan yang deras is possible, but it’s more like the rain that is heavy and can sound a bit more descriptive or literary. For a simple reason clause, speakers normally just say hujan deras.

So karena hujan deras is the most natural everyday phrasing.

Why is there no subject like “it” in hujan deras? In English we say “it rained heavily.”

In Indonesian, hujan can function as a noun (rain) and also behaves like a verb (to rain) in many contexts.

Hujan. = It’s raining. / It rained.
Kemarin hujan. = It rained yesterday.

In karena hujan deras, you can understand hujan as “rain” (noun) or “to rain” (verb) with deras acting like “heavily.” Indonesian does not need a dummy subject like English it.

So:

English: It rained heavily.
Indonesian: Hujan deras.
(literally: rain heavy)

Could I say karena turun hujan deras or karena hujan deras sekali instead? Are they correct?

Yes, both are correct and natural, with slightly different nuance:

Karena turun hujan deras…

turun = to fall / to come down
Literally: because (there) fell heavy rain
It sounds a bit more descriptive or narrative; you’re explicitly mentioning the action of rain falling.

Karena hujan deras sekali…

sekali here = very
Meaning: because it rained very heavily / because the rain was very heavy

Your original karena hujan deras is the simplest and most neutral, but these alternatives are fine and common, especially in narration or when emphasizing intensity.

Why is the pronoun saya used here instead of aku? Does it change the meaning?

Both mean I / me, but they differ in formality and context:

saya
- more formal and polite
- used in workplaces, with strangers, in writing, or in neutral/formal situations
aku
- more informal / intimate
- used with close friends, family, or in casual speech

In a sentence about going to the office, saya fits well because work context tends to be more formal or neutral.

You could say:

Pagi itu aku terlambat ke kantor karena hujan deras.

This is grammatically correct and would sound like you’re talking informally to a friend about your job. The core meaning doesn’t change; only the level of formality does.

Can I omit itu and just say Pagi saya terlambat ke kantor…?

No, Pagi saya terlambat ke kantor… by itself sounds incomplete or unnatural.

You normally need:

a demonstrative: pagi itu (that morning), pagi ini (this morning)
or another time marker: tadi pagi (earlier this morning), besok pagi (tomorrow morning), etc.

So you would say, for example:

Pagi itu saya terlambat ke kantor… (That morning, I was late to the office.)
Tadi pagi saya terlambat ke kantor… (This morning / earlier today, I was late to the office.)
Besok pagi saya harus ke kantor lebih cepat. (Tomorrow morning I have to go to the office earlier.)

A bare pagi at the beginning usually needs something else to specify which morning.

Could I move pagi itu to the end and say Saya terlambat ke kantor pagi itu karena hujan deras? Is that still natural?

Yes, this word order is possible:

Saya terlambat ke kantor pagi itu karena hujan deras.

It still means I was late to the office that morning because of heavy rain.

Differences in feel:

Pagi itu saya terlambat ke kantor karena hujan deras.
- Starts by setting the time frame (That morning…), then tells what happened.
- Common in storytelling or narratives.
Saya terlambat ke kantor pagi itu karena hujan deras.
- Starts with I was late to the office, then specifies on that morning.
- Also natural, just a slightly different emphasis.

Both are correct; the original version more clearly foregrounds “that particular morning” as the setting for the story.