Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Di sekolah, kami bermain basket dan voli di bawah bimbingan pelatih olahraga yang sabar. - At school, we play basketball and volleyball under the guidance of a patient sports coach.

Di sekolah = at school / in school (literal place)
Pada is more for abstract “at” (time, situation, recipient):
- pada hari Senin = on Monday
- pada kesempatan ini = on this occasion
- pada ibu = to (my) mother

Because sekolah here is a concrete place, di is the natural choice.

Is the comma after Di sekolah necessary? Could I say the sentence without it?

You can write it with or without the comma:

Di sekolah, kami bermain…
Di sekolah kami bermain…

The comma simply makes the pause clearer, because Di sekolah is a fronted adverbial phrase (“At school”). In everyday writing, many Indonesians would omit the comma here and it’s still correct and natural.

Why is kami used instead of kita?

Both mean “we,” but:

kami = we (but not you, the listener) → exclusive
kita = we (including you, the listener) → inclusive

In this sentence, kami implies “we at school” but not including the person being spoken to. If the speaker wanted to include the listener (e.g., talking to a classmate who is also in that group), they could say:

Di sekolah, kita bermain basket dan voli…
“At school, we (you and I) play basketball and volleyball…”

Why is it bermain and not just main?

bermain is the standard/formal form: to play
main is the colloquial/shortened form often used in speech and informal writing.

You could see:

Formal / neutral: Di sekolah, kami bermain basket dan voli.
Informal: Di sekolah, kami main basket dan voli.

Grammatically, bermain is ber- (a verb prefix) + main (root “play”). Using bermain is safer in writing and in any formal context.

Why are the sports written as basket and voli? Are they Indonesian words or English?

They’re loanwords from English:

basket ← “basketball”
voli ← “volleyball”

Indonesian often shortens and adapts English sports names:

sepak bola (football/soccer)
bulu tangkis (badminton)
tenis (tennis)

You don’t need a plural marker: basket and voli can already mean playing the sport in general, not just one game.

What does the phrase di bawah bimbingan literally mean, and is it a fixed expression?

Literally:

di bawah = under / below
bimbingan = guidance, supervision (from verb membimbing “to guide”)

So di bawah bimbingan = under the guidance (of).

It’s a very common collocation for “under someone’s guidance/supervision”:

di bawah bimbingan guru = under the teacher’s guidance
di bawah bimbingan dokter = under the doctor’s supervision

You could also say dengan bimbingan (“with the guidance of”), but di bawah bimbingan is more idiomatic for this “under the guidance of” nuance.

What is the difference between pelatih and guru in pelatih olahraga?

pelatih = coach / trainer (usually for sports, skills, or training)
guru = teacher (generally academic / school subjects)

So:

pelatih olahraga = sports coach
guru olahraga = PE teacher (school context), can also function as a “coach” in some settings.

Here, pelatih olahraga emphasizes the coaching aspect of sports rather than classroom teaching.

How does pelatih olahraga yang sabar work grammatically? Why is yang sabar at the end?

Indonesian puts adjectives and relative clauses after the noun:

pelatih = coach
pelatih olahraga = sports coach
pelatih olahraga yang sabar = the sports coach who is patient

Yang introduces a relative clause or descriptive phrase about the noun:

guru yang baik = teacher who is good / kind teacher
siswa yang rajin = student who is diligent

So yang sabar describes pelatih olahraga: “the sports coach who is patient.” You cannot normally put sabar before pelatih the way you would in English.

Why is there no word for “the” before pelatih olahraga? How do I know if it’s “a coach” or “the coach”?

Indonesian has no articles like “a / an / the.” Pelatih olahraga can mean:

a sports coach
the sports coach
sports coaches (in some contexts)

You get specificity from context, or by adding words:

seorang pelatih olahraga = a sports coach (one person, non-specific)
pelatih olahraga kami = our sports coach (definite)
para pelatih olahraga = the sports coaches (plural, more formal)

In this sentence, the most natural English is “under the guidance of a patient sports coach”, but Indonesian doesn’t mark “a/the” explicitly.

Is sabar an adjective or a verb? There is no to be in the sentence.

Sabar is a stative adjective that can function like “to be patient” without any to be verb.

pelatih yang sabar = coach who is patient
Dia sabar. = He/She is patient.

Indonesian often drops “to be” for qualities and states. You don’t say dia adalah sabar in this kind of simple description; just dia sabar is enough.

Could I leave out kami and just say Di sekolah, bermain basket dan voli…?

Usually no; it sounds incomplete or unnatural without a subject in this kind of sentence.

Better options:

Di sekolah, kami bermain basket dan voli… (we play…)
Di sekolah, siswa bermain basket dan voli… (students play…)
Di sekolah, anak-anak bermain basket dan voli… (children play…)

Indonesian does allow dropping subjects when they are very obvious from context, but in a standalone sentence like this, you normally keep kami.

How is bimbingan formed, and what is its base word?

Base word: bimbing (to guide — though used mainly within derived forms).
Common forms:

membimbing = to guide
bimbingan = guidance, mentoring, supervision

Morphology:

bimbing
- -an → bimbingan (forms a noun meaning the result or process related to the verb)

So di bawah bimbingan = “under (the) guidance.”

Is di here the same di used as the passive prefix di-?

No, and you can tell from spelling and spacing:

Preposition di = separate word, followed by a noun phrase:
- di sekolah (at school)
- di bawah meja (under the table)
Passive prefix di- = attached to a verb:
- dimakan (is/was eaten)
- ditulis (is/was written)

In the sentence:

di sekolah and di bawah bimbingan both use di as a preposition, so it is written separately.