Dokter memeriksa sampel darah saya di laboratorium.

The doctor examines my blood sample in the laboratory.

Breakdown of Dokter memeriksa sampel darah saya di laboratorium.

• di: in
• saya: my
• dokter: the doctor
• laboratorium: the laboratory
• memeriksa: to examine
• sampel darah: the blood sample

Questions & Answers about Dokter memeriksa sampel darah saya di laboratorium.

Why is there no word for “the” or “a” in Dokter memeriksa sampel darah saya di laboratorium?

Indonesian does not use articles like a/an or the.
Nouns like dokter and laboratorium stand alone, and whether you mean a doctor, the doctor, or my doctor is understood from context.

So:

• dokter can mean a doctor or the doctor
• laboratorium can mean a laboratory or the laboratory

If you really need to be specific, you add more information, e.g. dokter saya (my doctor), laboratorium rumah sakit (the hospital laboratory), etc., but there is still no article word.

Does dokter here mean “my doctor” or just “a doctor”?

By itself, dokter is neutral: it just means doctor (a/the doctor). Whether it’s my doctor, the hospital doctor, or a random doctor depends on context.

• Dokter memeriksa sampel darah saya di laboratorium.
  → could be A / The doctor examined my blood sample in the lab.

• If you want to clearly say my doctor, you can say:
  Dokter saya memeriksa sampel darah saya di laboratorium.

So the given sentence does not explicitly say my doctor; it only marks my for the blood sample (saya).

What is the basic structure of this sentence? Is the word order similar to English?

Yes, the core word order is very similar to English: Subject – Verb – Object – Place.

• Dokter → subject (the doctor)
• memeriksa → verb (examines / examined)
• sampel darah saya → object (my blood sample)
• di laboratorium → place (in the laboratory)

So you can map it roughly as:

Dokter (Doctor) memeriksa (examines) sampel darah saya (my blood sample) di laboratorium (in the laboratory).

What is the role of the me- prefix in memeriksa?

The root word is periksa, which means to check, to examine.
The prefix meN- (here realized as me- → memeriksa) turns it into an active transitive verb, something like “to do the action of checking/examining”.

So:

• periksa – base form, often used in commands or as a noun:
  
  • Periksa darah Anda! – Check your blood!
• memeriksa – active verb:
  
  • Dokter memeriksa sampel darah saya. – The doctor examines / examined my blood sample.

You don’t need to conjugate memeriksa for tense; the form stays the same.

How can memeriksa mean “examines”, “is examining”, and “examined” if the form never changes?

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense (past, present, future). Memeriksa can cover all of these:

• Dokter memeriksa sampel darah saya di laboratorium.
  → The doctor examines / is examining / examined my blood sample in the lab.

Tense and aspect are usually shown with time words or particles:

• tadi – earlier, just now → past
• kemarin – yesterday → past
• sedang – in the middle of doing → progressive
• akan – will → future
• sudah / telah – already → completed

Examples:

• Tadi dokter memeriksa sampel darah saya di laboratorium.
  → The doctor examined my blood sample in the lab earlier.
• Dokter sedang memeriksa sampel darah saya di laboratorium.
  → The doctor is examining my blood sample in the lab.
• Besok dokter akan memeriksa sampel darah saya di laboratorium.
  → Tomorrow the doctor will examine my blood sample in the lab.

Why is it sampel darah saya and not saya sampel darah, like “my blood sample”?

In Indonesian, possessive structures usually follow this pattern:

[thing owned] + [possessor]

So:

• buku saya – my book (literally: book my)
• rumah mereka – their house (house their)
• nama kamu – your name (name your)

In your sentence:

• sampel – sample
• darah – blood
• saya – I / me (as a possessive: my)

sampel darah saya is literally sample [of] my blood, which in normal English is my blood sample.

Could I say sampel darahku instead of sampel darah saya? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say sampel darahku, but the tone changes a bit.

• saya → neutral/formal I / me, used in most polite and formal situations.

  • sampel darah saya – my blood sample (neutral, polite)

• -ku → a suffix meaning my, usually corresponding to aku (the informal I).

  • sampel darahku – my blood sample (more informal, personal, often spoken or in writing to friends / in songs, etc.)

So:

• Hospital / formal context: sampel darah saya is more appropriate.
• Casual conversation with friends: sampel darahku is possible and natural.

Why is it di laboratorium and not ke laboratorium? What is the difference between di and ke?

di and ke are different prepositions:

• di = at / in / on (location, where something is)

  • di laboratorium – in/at the laboratory
  • di rumah – at home

• ke = to (movement toward a place)

  • ke laboratorium – to the laboratory (going there)
  • ke rumah – to (someone’s) house / home

In your sentence, the action is happening in the lab, not going to the lab, so you use di:

• Dokter memeriksa sampel darah saya di laboratorium.
  → The doctor examines my blood sample in the laboratory.

Can I move di laboratorium to another position in the sentence?

Yes, Indonesian allows some flexibility with place/time phrases. All of these are grammatical:

1. Dokter memeriksa sampel darah saya di laboratorium.
2. Di laboratorium, dokter memeriksa sampel darah saya.
3. Dokter di laboratorium memeriksa sampel darah saya. (more like “the doctor in the lab examines my blood sample”)

The default, most neutral order is the original one (place at the end), but starting with Di laboratorium, … is also very natural, especially in storytelling or written text.

What is the difference between dokter and doktor in Indonesian?

They are different words:

• dokter (with e) – a medical doctor, like a physician or dentist.

  • dokter gigi – dentist
  • dokter anak – pediatrician

• doktor (with o) – someone with a doctoral degree (PhD), not necessarily a medical doctor.

  • doktor ilmu komputer – Doctor of Computer Science

In your sentence, Dokter memeriksa… clearly refers to a medical doctor, so dokter is correct.

How do I show plural meaning like “doctors” or “blood samples” in this sentence?

Indonesian usually does not mark plural forms unless you need to emphasize it. Context often tells you whether it’s singular or plural.

To make it clearly plural, you can use:

For “doctors”:

• para dokter – (a group of) doctors
• dokter-dokter – doctors (reduplicated form)
  
  • Para dokter memeriksa sampel darah saya di laboratorium.
    → The doctors examined my blood sample in the lab.

For “blood samples”:

• beberapa sampel darah – several blood samples
• banyak sampel darah – many blood samples
  
  • Dokter memeriksa beberapa sampel darah saya di laboratorium.
    → The doctor examined several of my blood samples in the lab.

Without those markers, dokter and sampel darah are number-neutral.

Can I say this sentence in a passive form in Indonesian, and would that sound natural?

Yes, the passive form is very natural in Indonesian and is used a lot. A common passive version would be:

• Sampel darah saya diperiksa dokter di laboratorium.
  (My blood sample was examined by the doctor in the lab.)

Here:

• diperiksa = passive form of memeriksa
• The focus is now on sampel darah saya (my blood sample), not on the doctor.

You can optionally add oleh:

• Sampel darah saya diperiksa oleh dokter di laboratorium.

Both are correct, but oleh is often dropped in everyday Indonesian.