Sepanjang pagi, lorong sekolah terasa tenang.

Throughout the morning, the school hallway feels calm.

Breakdown of Sepanjang pagi, lorong sekolah terasa tenang.

• pagi: the morning
• sekolah: the school
• tenang: calm
• terasa: to feel
• sepanjang: throughout
• lorong: the corridor

Questions & Answers about Sepanjang pagi, lorong sekolah terasa tenang.

What does sepanjang mean here, and how is it different from selama?

Sepanjang literally means “along the length of” and, with time expressions, it means “throughout / all (of)”:

• sepanjang pagi = throughout the morning / all morning
• sepanjang hari = all day
• sepanjang tahun = all year

Selama means “for (the duration of)” or “during”:

• selama dua jam = for two hours
• selama liburan = during the holidays

In this sentence, sepanjang pagi is the most natural choice.
You could say selama pagi, but it sounds less idiomatic; speakers almost always say sepanjang pagi for “all morning.”

Why is there a comma after sepanjang pagi? Is it required?

The comma separates a fronted time phrase from the main clause:

• Sepanjang pagi, lorong sekolah terasa tenang.

This is similar to English:

• All morning, the school corridor felt calm.

In Indonesian, putting a time or place phrase at the beginning is very common, and a comma is standard but not absolutely mandatory. Without the comma it’s still understandable, but the comma:

• makes the sentence easier to read, and
• clearly marks sepanjang pagi as a time expression, not part of the subject.

You can also move the time phrase to the end:

• Lorong sekolah terasa tenang sepanjang pagi.

In that position, you don’t use a comma. Both orders are natural.

How does lorong sekolah mean “school corridor” when there’s no word for “of” or “the”?

Indonesian often uses noun + noun to express what English does with “of” or possessives:

• lorong sekolah
  
  • lorong = corridor
  • sekolah = school
    → literally “corridor [of] school” → school corridor / the corridor of the school

There is no separate word for “of” here; sekolah directly modifies lorong.

Compare:

• pintu rumah = door of the house / house door
• guru matematika = math teacher (teacher of math)

You could also say:

• lorong di sekolah = corridor at the school / corridor in the school

This emphasizes the location (a corridor that happens to be in a school).
Lorong sekolah sounds smoother and more like a fixed noun phrase (“the school corridor”).

What exactly does terasa mean, and why not just say lorong sekolah tenang?

Base word: rasa (feeling, taste, sense).
Verb: terasa ≈ “to feel / to be felt / to seem (in terms of feeling)”.

In lorong sekolah terasa tenang:

• subject: lorong sekolah (the school corridor)
• verb: terasa (feels / is felt)
• complement: tenang (calm)

So it’s like saying:
“The school corridor felt calm / was experienced as calm.”

If you say:

• Lorong sekolah tenang sepanjang pagi.

you are stating a fact: “The school corridor was calm all morning.”

With terasa, you add a nuance of perception or impression — how it feels to someone, not just an objective fact:

• terasa hangat = feels warm
• terasa sunyi = feels silent
• terasa aneh = feels strange

So:

• without terasa → neutral description of a state
• with terasa → “it felt calm (to us / to people there)”

Can terasa be used with adjectives like tenang in general?

Yes. A very common pattern is:

terasa + adjective

Examples:

• terasa dingin = feels cold
• terasa manis = tastes sweet / feels sweet
• terasa berat = feels heavy
• terasa sempit = feels cramped
• terasa tenang = feels calm

The subject is the thing that gives that feeling:

• Air itu terasa dingin. = The water feels cold.
• Suasana di sini terasa nyaman. = The atmosphere here feels comfortable.
• Lorong sekolah terasa tenang. = The school corridor feels calm.

When the person is the one who feels something, Indonesian usually uses merasa:

• Saya merasa tenang. = I feel calm.
• Dia merasa sedih. = He/She feels sad.

What nuance does tenang have? How is it different from sepi or hening?

Tenang is most often “calm / peaceful / tranquil”. It can:

• describe people’s emotions:
  
  • Saya merasa tenang. = I feel calm.
• describe situations/places:
  
  • Suasana di desa itu sangat tenang. = The atmosphere in that village is very peaceful.

For this sentence, tenang suggests the corridor is peaceful and undisturbed, not noisy or chaotic.

Rough contrasts:

• tenang → calm, peaceful, not disturbed (can be emotional or environmental)
• sepi → quiet because there are few or no people; can imply emptiness or loneliness
  
  • Jalan itu sepi. = That street is deserted/quiet.
• hening → very quiet, often poetic/literary, focusing on deep silence
  
  • Malam itu hening. = The night was still/silent.

If the point was “almost nobody was there,” sepi would be more direct:
Sepanjang pagi, lorong sekolah sepi. = The school corridor was deserted all morning.

Tenang here focuses more on peaceful atmosphere than just emptiness.

Is pagi here a noun like “morning”, or an adverb like “in the morning”?

Formally, pagi is a noun meaning “morning”.

In Indonesian, time nouns are very often used directly after words like sepanjang, pada, sampai, etc., and the whole phrase functions like a time adverbial:

• sepanjang pagi = throughout the morning
• pada pagi hari = in the morning
• sampai pagi = until morning

Variants:

• sepanjang pagi hari – a bit more explicit/formal (“throughout the morning (daytime)”)
• pagi-pagi – early in the morning

In everyday speech, sepanjang pagi is completely natural for “all morning.”

How is tense expressed here? How do we know it’s not about the future?

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense (past/present/future). Time is usually shown by:

• time expressions: kemarin, besok, tadi, sekarang, tadi pagi, nanti, etc.
• context (what was said before/after)
• sometimes aspect words like sudah, sedang, akan.

In:

• Sepanjang pagi, lorong sekolah terasa tenang.

we know it’s “all morning” from sepanjang pagi. Whether it’s past, present, or habitual depends on context:

• In a story about yesterday: it means “all morning (earlier today/yesterday) the corridor felt calm.”
• In a general description (e.g., of exam days): it could mean “On (those) mornings, the corridor is calm all morning.”

The Indonesian sentence itself is time-neutral; English translation must pick a tense based on context.

Does lorong sekolah mean one corridor or many corridors?

Grammatically, lorong sekolah is number-neutral. It can mean:

• “the school corridor” (one)
• “the school corridors” (in general / all of them)

Indonesian usually leaves number to context. If you want to force the meaning:

• singular:

  • satu lorong sekolah = one school corridor
  • sebuah lorong di sekolah = a corridor in the school

• plural:

  • lorong-lorong sekolah = the corridors of the school
  • semua lorong di sekolah = all the corridors in the school

In isolation, lorong sekolah is just “school corridor(s)”; the listener infers quantity from the situation.

Can I move sepanjang pagi to a different position in the sentence?

Yes. All of these are grammatical, with very similar meanings:

1. Sepanjang pagi, lorong sekolah terasa tenang.
   – Time phrase first; slightly more emphasis on “all morning”.

2. Lorong sekolah terasa tenang sepanjang pagi.
   – Neutral, very natural; often the most common order.

3. Less common but still possible in speech, with slight rhythm/naturalness differences:

   • Lorong sekolah, sepanjang pagi, terasa tenang. (often more spoken/expressive)

Overall, either:

• Sepanjang pagi, lorong sekolah terasa tenang.
• Lorong sekolah terasa tenang sepanjang pagi.

is perfectly natural. The meaning doesn’t really change; it’s mostly about flow and emphasis.