Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Kami sampai di kebun binatang sekitar pukul delapan. - We arrived at the zoo at around eight o'clock.

So Kami sampai di kebun binatang… implies the speaker and some other people arrived, but not the listener. If the listener was also part of the group that went to the zoo, you would normally say:

Kita sampai di kebun binatang sekitar pukul delapan.
“We (you and I) arrived at the zoo at around eight o’clock.”

What does sampai mean here, and could I use tiba instead?

In this sentence:

sampai = to arrive (reach a place)

You can usually replace it with tiba, which is a bit more formal or neutral:

Kami sampai di kebun binatang sekitar pukul delapan.
Kami tiba di kebun binatang sekitar pukul delapan.

Both are correct and common. Sampai can also mean until in other contexts, but here it clearly means arrive because it’s followed by a place (di kebun binatang).

Why is the preposition di used with sampai? Could I say sampai ke kebun binatang?

In everyday speech you will see both:

sampai di kebun binatang
sampai ke kebun binatang

They are both understood as “arrive at the zoo.” Some nuances:

sampai di … is very common and often feels a bit more standard and direct for “arrived at (a place).”
sampai ke … emphasizes more the movement toward the destination, but in practice the difference is small in casual use.

You can’t say *kami sampai kebun binatang (without a preposition) in standard Indonesian; you need di or ke after sampai when it’s followed by a place.

What does kebun binatang literally mean, and can I just say kebun?

Literally:

kebun = garden, plantation, yard, orchard
binatang = animal

So kebun binatang literally = “animal garden”, which is the Indonesian term for zoo.

You cannot shorten it to just kebun if you mean “zoo,” because kebun alone doesn’t imply animals; it just means a garden/plantation. You need both words together: kebun binatang.

Is kebun binatang treated as one unit, like a compound noun? Where does the stress go?

Yes, kebun binatang functions like a compound noun (“zoo”). There’s a natural phrase break between the two words, but they go together as one idea.

Pronunciation and stress (roughly):

kebun → /kə-BOON/ (stress on -bun)
binatang → /bee-NAH-tang/ (stress on -na)

Spoken normally: kebun binatang → kə-BOON bee-NAH-tang.

What does sekitar mean here, and where can it go in the sentence?

Here sekitar means “around / about / approximately.” It’s modifying the time expression pukul delapan:

sekitar pukul delapan = “around eight o’clock.”

Usual placements:

Kami sampai di kebun binatang sekitar pukul delapan.
Kami sampai di kebun binatang pukul sekitar delapan. (less common, a bit awkward)

The most natural place is before the whole time phrase:

… sekitar pukul delapan.

You can also use kira-kira or kurang lebih with a similar meaning:

Kami sampai … kira-kira pukul delapan.
Kami sampai … kurang lebih pukul delapan.

What is the difference between pukul and jam for telling time? Could I say jam delapan instead?

Both are used in talking about clock time:

pukul = “o’clock” (a bit more formal, common in announcements, writing, or more careful speech)
jam = “o’clock / hour,” very common in everyday speech

In this sentence, you can say either:

sekitar pukul delapan (more formal/neutral)
sekitar jam delapan (very common colloquial speech)

Both mean “around eight o’clock.”

Does pukul delapan mean 8 a.m. or 8 p.m.? How do Indonesian speakers disambiguate?

By itself, pukul delapan is ambiguous; it could be 8 a.m. or 8 p.m. The context usually makes it clear (here, a zoo, so morning is more likely).

To be explicit, Indonesians add part-of-day expressions:

pukul delapan pagi = 8 in the morning
pukul delapan malam = 8 at night
pukul delapan sore = 8 in the early evening (depends on local usage, often before full dark)

With the 24‑hour style you can also say:

pukul delapan (08.00)
pukul dua puluh (20.00, 8 p.m.), usually in more formal contexts like announcements or schedules.

Why is the word order Kami sampai di kebun binatang sekitar pukul delapan and not something like “Sekitar pukul delapan kami sampai…”?

Indonesian word order is flexible, especially with time expressions. Both are correct:

Kami sampai di kebun binatang sekitar pukul delapan.
Sekitar pukul delapan kami sampai di kebun binatang.

Difference:

Putting the time at the end (the original sentence) is very common and neutral.
Putting the time at the beginning highlights the time: “At around eight o’clock, we arrived at the zoo.”

Both are natural; the original just states who → what they did → where → when in a straightforward way.

Can I drop the subject kami and just say Sampai di kebun binatang sekitar pukul delapan?

In Indonesian, dropping the subject is possible if it’s very clear from context, but:

Sampai di kebun binatang sekitar pukul delapan.
sounds incomplete or like a fragment on its own.

If you’re answering a direct question such as:

Jam berapa kalian sampai di kebun binatang?
“What time did you (all) arrive at the zoo?”

You might answer more briefly:

Sekitar pukul delapan.
“Around eight o’clock.”

But as a full standalone sentence, it’s better to keep Kami:

Kami sampai di kebun binatang sekitar pukul delapan.

How do you pronounce sampai and pukul? Any tricky sounds for English speakers?

Pronunciation (approximate):

sampai → /SAM-pai/
- sam like “sum” (short a sound between “uh” and “ah”)
- pai like “pie”
pukul → /POO-kool/
- pu like “poo” but shorter
- kul like “kool” with a short “oo”

Indonesian vowels are generally pure (no diphthongs like in English), and stress is usually regular, often on the second-to-last syllable: SAM-pai, PU-kul.