Latihan pernapasan singkat membantu saya mengurangi stres.

A short breathing exercise helps me reduce stress.

Breakdown of Latihan pernapasan singkat membantu saya mengurangi stres.

• singkat: short
• membantu: to help
• stres: the stress
• saya: me
• mengurangi: to reduce
• latihan: the exercise
• pernapasan: the breathing

Questions & Answers about Latihan pernapasan singkat membantu saya mengurangi stres.

Why does singkat come after pernapasan, not before it like in English?

In Indonesian, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe.

• latihan = exercise/practice (noun)
• pernapasan = breathing (noun)
• singkat = short (adjective)

So the structure is:

• latihan (noun) + pernapasan (noun) + singkat (adjective)
  → literally: exercise breathing short

This corresponds to English “short breathing exercises”.

Putting the adjective first, like singkat latihan pernapasan, is not natural in standard Indonesian.

Does latihan mean “exercise” or “practice”? How is it used?

Latihan can mean both “exercise” and “practice/training”, depending on context. It’s a noun formed from the verb melatih (to train).

Common patterns:

• latihan pernapasan – breathing exercises
• latihan fisik – physical exercises
• latihan musik – music practice
• latihan lari – running training

So in this sentence, latihan is best understood as “exercises” or “practice sessions” of breathing.

What exactly does pernapasan mean, and how is it related to napas and bernapas?

These three words are related:

• napas – breath (noun)
  
  • Tarik napas dalam-dalam. – Take a deep breath.
• bernapas – to breathe (verb)
  
  • Saya sulit bernapas. – I have trouble breathing.
• pernapasan – breathing / respiration (the process, noun)
  
  • Latihan pernapasan – breathing exercises
  • Sistem pernapasan – the respiratory system

So latihan pernapasan literally means “breathing exercises” (exercises related to the process of breathing).

I’ve also seen pernafasan with an f. Is that the same word or a mistake?

You’ll see both pernapasan and pernafasan, but:

• The official standard spelling (according to modern Indonesian spelling rules) is pernapasan.
• pernafasan is older/less standard, but still widely used informally and even sometimes in media.

Why pernapasan?
It comes from the prefix peN- + napas:

• peN-
  • napas → pernapasan → pernapasan

So for formal or careful writing, you should use pernapasan.

In membantu saya mengurangi stres, who is actually reducing the stress: the exercises or saya?

Grammatically, the structure is:

• Latihan pernapasan singkat – subject
• membantu – verb “help(s)”
• saya – object of “help” (the person being helped)
• mengurangi stres – what I am helped to do (“reduce stress”)

So the meaning is:

• The short breathing exercises help me (so that I can) reduce stress.

The one doing the reducing is understood to be saya (me), not the exercises themselves.
In English: “Short breathing exercises help me reduce stress.”

Can I say membantu saya untuk mengurangi stres, or is untuk wrong here?

You can say membantu saya untuk mengurangi stres. Both are correct:

• membantu saya mengurangi stres
• membantu saya untuk mengurangi stres

Differences:

• Without untuk is slightly shorter and more common in everyday speech.
• With untuk can sound a bit more explicit or formal, emphasizing the purpose (“to reduce stress”).

Semantically, they mean almost the same thing. For normal conversation, membantu saya mengurangi stres is perfectly natural.

There’s no word showing tense. How do I know if this means “helps”, “helped”, or “has helped”?

Indonesian verbs usually don’t change form for tense. The verb membantu can mean:

• helps / help (present, habitual)
• helped (past)
• has helped (present perfect)
• will help (future)

The tense is understood from context or from extra words:

• Biasanya, latihan pernapasan singkat membantu saya mengurangi stres.
  → Usually, short breathing exercises help me reduce stress. (habit)
• Kemarin, latihan pernapasan singkat membantu saya mengurangi stres.
  → Yesterday, short breathing exercises helped me reduce stress. (past)
• Latihan pernapasan singkat akan membantu saya mengurangi stres.
  → … will help me reduce stress. (future, marked by akan)

In your sentence by itself, the most natural reading is habitual/present:
Short breathing exercises help me reduce stress.

Why is stress spelled stres in Indonesian? Are there more natural alternatives?

Stres is a loanword from English “stress”, adapted to Indonesian spelling:

• English: stress
• Indonesian: stres (one s at the front, one at the end; str cluster kept)

Pronunciation is very close to English “stress”.

More “Indonesian” or descriptive alternatives in some contexts:

• tekanan – pressure
• tekanan batin – emotional/inner pressure
• ketegangan – tension

But in everyday modern Indonesian, stres is extremely common and natural when talking about psychological stress.

Can I drop saya and just say Latihan pernapasan singkat membantu mengurangi stres? Does the meaning change?

Yes, that sentence is also correct, but the nuance changes:

• Latihan pernapasan singkat membantu saya mengurangi stres.
  → The exercises help me reduce stress. (personal, focused on my experience)

• Latihan pernapasan singkat membantu mengurangi stres.
  → Short breathing exercises help reduce stress (in general).
  It sounds more general, like a statement about their effect for people overall, not specifically just for you.

So both are grammatical; choose the one that matches what you want to say.

Could I use aku instead of saya here? How would that sound?

Yes, grammatically you can:

• Latihan pernapasan singkat membantu aku mengurangi stres.

However, in practice:

• saya is neutral/formal and works in almost any context (writing, speaking, polite situations).
• aku is informal/intimate, used with friends, family, or people close to you.

Also, membantu aku is correct but sounds a bit less smooth than membantu saya in many dialects. Often, speakers would rephrase informally, for example:

• Latihan pernapasan singkat bisa bantu aku mengurangi stres.

For safe, natural usage—especially in writing or with people you don’t know well—saya is the better choice in this sentence.