Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Pelatih perempuan kami selalu mengingatkan bahwa kesehatan lebih penting daripada menang. - Our female coach always reminds us that health is more important than winning.

You cannot say kami pelatih perempuan to mean our female coach; that would mean something more like we are female coaches (with extra context).

Why doesn’t Indonesian mark singular/plural or “a/the” in pelatih perempuan kami?

Indonesian doesn’t have articles like a/an or the, and it usually doesn’t mark singular vs. plural on the noun itself.

So pelatih perempuan kami could be:

our female coach (singular), or
our female coaches (plural),

depending on context. In normal sports context, it will almost always be interpreted as singular unless something else indicates a plural.

If you really want to emphasize plural, you might say:

para pelatih perempuan kami – our (group of) female coaches
pelatih-pelatih perempuan kami – our female coaches (reduplicated plural)

What’s the difference between kami and kita, and why is it kami here?

Both mean “we/us”, but:

kami = we (EXCLUDING the person we’re talking to)
kita = we (INCLUDING the person we’re talking to)

In pelatih perempuan kami, kami tells you whose coach she is: the coach of us (but not you).

Examples:

Talking to someone outside the team:
- Pelatih perempuan kami… – our female coach (our team’s coach; you’re not part of this “we”)
Talking to a teammate:
- You could also say pelatih perempuan kita, including the listener inside the group.

The sentence naturalness depends on who “we” and “you” are, but grammatically kami is correct as long as the listener isn’t part of that group.

Why is it pelatih perempuan kami and not pelatih kami perempuan?

Both are grammatically possible, but they have different typical uses:

pelatih perempuan kami – our female coach
- Neutral, standard way to say our female coach.
pelatih kami perempuan – our coach is female
- Sounds more like a statement about identity: “Our coach is (in fact) a woman.”

So:

When you’re just naming/identifying the person: pelatih perempuan kami.
When you’re emphasizing the fact that the coach is female, often in contrast to something: pelatih kami perempuan.

In your sentence, we are just referring to her as a role, so pelatih perempuan kami is better.

What does selalu do, and where can it go in the sentence?

selalu means always.

In the sentence:

Pelatih perempuan kami selalu mengingatkan bahwa…

it modifies the verb mengingatkan – “always reminds”.

Typical positions:

Subject + selalu + verb
- Pelatih perempuan kami selalu mengingatkan… – Our female coach always reminds (us)…
You cannot usually put selalu after the verb in this kind of sentence (*mengingatkan selalu sounds wrong here).

Other examples:

Dia selalu datang tepat waktu. – He/She always comes on time.
Mereka selalu berlatih setiap pagi. – They always practice every morning.

What exactly is mengingatkan? Why not just ingat?

Base verb: ingat – to remember

With meN- and -kan, it becomes:

mengingatkan – to remind (cause someone to remember)

So:

ingat – remember
mengingatkan – remind (make someone else remember)

Structure in your sentence:

Pelatih perempuan kami selalu mengingatkan (kami) bahwa…
Our female coach always reminds (us) that…

The object kami (us) is often omitted when it’s obvious from context, which is why you just see mengingatkan followed by bahwa-clause.

Why is bahwa used here? Can it be left out?

bahwa is like “that” in English when introducing a clause:

mengingatkan bahwa kesehatan lebih penting…
remind (us) that health is more important…

Functions of bahwa:

Introduces an embedded statement: “that …”
Often used in more formal or careful speech/writing

You can leave it out in many everyday contexts:

Pelatih perempuan kami selalu mengingatkan kesehatan lebih penting daripada menang.

This is still understandable, but mengingatkan bahwa… sounds smoother and more natural in standard Indonesian, especially in writing or careful speech.

What is kesehatan, and how is it related to sehat?

sehat – healthy (adjective)
kesehatan – health (noun)

kesehatan is formed by adding ke- … -an around the root:

sehat → ke-sehat-an = kesehatan

So the sentence contrasts:

kesehatan – health
menang – winning / to win

Other examples of ke- … -an:

tinggi (tall) → ketinggian (height / too high)
penting (important) → kepentingan (interest / importance)

How does the comparison lebih penting daripada menang work?

This is the standard comparative pattern:

lebih + adjective + daripada + thing being compared

Here:

lebih penting – more important
daripada menang – than winning

So:

kesehatan lebih penting daripada menang
health is more important than winning

You can also see variations:

lebih penting dari menang – common in speech; dari is a shortened form of daripada here.
If both sides are nouns or noun phrases, same pattern:
- Kesehatan lebih penting daripada uang. – Health is more important than money.

Why is it menang and not kemenangan in daripada menang?

menang – to win / winning (verb, but can act like a noun-ish “winning”)
kemenangan – victory (a more formal, clear noun form)

In everyday Indonesian, verbs are often used directly where English might use a -ing noun:

Kesehatan lebih penting daripada menang.
Health is more important than (to) win / winning.

Using kemenangan is also possible:

Kesehatan lebih penting daripada kemenangan.

This version feels a bit more formal or abstract (health is more important than victory). Both are correct; menang is very natural and conversational.

Why isn’t there an “adalah” or “ialah” like kesehatan adalah…?

In Indonesian, the copula (the equivalent of “is/are”) is often omitted when:

A noun or noun phrase is directly equated with an adjective phrase or another noun phrase.

So instead of:

Kesehatan *adalah lebih penting daripada menang.* ❌ (sounds off here)

We simply say:

Kesehatan lebih penting daripada menang. ✅
Health is more important than winning.

adalah is mainly used for:

Noun = noun definitions:
- Kucing adalah hewan. – A cat is an animal.
More formal explanatory contexts.

With adjectives like penting, you normally just drop it.

Could the word order of the whole sentence be changed without changing the meaning?

The main natural word order is:

Pelatih perempuan kami selalu mengingatkan bahwa kesehatan lebih penting daripada menang.

Some tweaks are possible, but they change emphasis:

Pelatih kami yang perempuan selalu mengingatkan bahwa…
- Emphasis: the coach of ours who is female (maybe contrasting her with another coach).
Kami selalu diingatkan (oleh pelatih perempuan kami) bahwa…
- Passive, more literal: We are always reminded (by our female coach) that…

But you generally wouldn’t move selalu to the end or split kesehatan lebih penting daripada menang in strange ways. The given sentence is already the most natural and neutral form.