Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Saya mengirim email kepada asisten dosen untuk menanyakan judul skripsi yang tepat. - I send an email to the teaching assistant to ask about the right thesis title.

kirim – base form; often used in commands or informal speech.
- Kirim email ke saya, ya. = Send me an email, okay.
mengirim – active verb with an explicit object; neutral and standard.
- Saya mengirim email. = I send/sent an email.
mengirimkan – also active, but often emphasizes the recipient or the act of sending something to someone.
- Saya mengirimkan email kepada asisten dosen.
  This feels slightly more “complete” or a bit more formal/polished, but very close in meaning.

In your sentence, mengirim is perfectly natural and standard.
You can say mengirimkan email instead; it would still be correct and common.
Using plain kirim in the same sentence (Saya kirim email…) sounds more informal/conversational.

What exactly does kepada do here, and how is it different from pada or omitting it?

kepada marks the recipient (usually a person or organization) of an action like sending, giving, saying:

Saya mengirim email kepada asisten dosen.
= I sent an email to the teaching assistant.

Differences:

kepada vs pada
- kepada → typically used with people (or personified entities) as recipients:
  - kepada guru saya, kepada perusahaan itu, kepada Tuhan
- pada → more general “on/at/to”, often for places, times, or abstract objects:
  - pada hari Senin (on Monday)
  - pada meja itu (on that table)
In many modern contexts, pada can also appear with people, but kepada usually feels more natural/formal when talking about recipients of sending/giving/asking.
Omitting kepada
- Saya mengirim email asisten dosen is not natural; it sounds like “I email the teaching assistant” but breaks normal Indonesian grammar.
- You usually need kepada (or a verb form that already encodes the recipient, like mengirimi):
  - Saya mengirimi asisten dosen email.

So in this sentence, kepada is the normal, correct preposition to show who receives the email.

Does asisten dosen mean one teaching assistant or several? Do I need to add seorang?

asisten dosen literally means “teaching assistant”. By itself, it is number-neutral in Indonesian; it can be interpreted as:

one assistant
assistants in general (depending on context)

If you specifically want to say one teaching assistant, you can add seorang:

Saya mengirim email kepada seorang asisten dosen.
= I sent an email to a teaching assistant.

If you mean a particular assistant that both speaker and listener already know about, people often say:

kepada asisten dosen saya (my teaching assistant)
kepada asisten dosen itu (that teaching assistant)

In your sentence, asisten dosen without a classifier is still natural and will usually be interpreted as “the TA” relevant in that context.

How does untuk menanyakan work here? Could I say the sentence without untuk, or use something like bertanya tentang instead?

untuk menanyakan literally means “in order to ask (about)”.

untuk = to / in order to (introduces purpose)
menanyakan = to ask about something (transitive verb; takes an object)

So:
Saya mengirim email kepada asisten dosen untuk menanyakan…
= I sent an email to the TA to ask about…

Alternatives:

Without untuk
- Saya mengirim email kepada asisten dosen menanyakan judul skripsi…
  This is not natural; you need a connector like untuk here.
With bertanya tentang
- …untuk bertanya tentang judul skripsi yang tepat.
  This is also correct and common.
- nuance:
  - menanyakan judul skripsi = “to ask (someone) about the thesis title”, quite direct and compact
  - bertanya tentang judul skripsi = “to ask about the thesis title”; slightly more descriptive but very similar in meaning

Your original untuk menanyakan is idiomatic and typical when expressing purpose.

What’s the difference between menanyakan and bertanya in this context?

Both relate to “asking”, but their grammar is different:

bertanya = to ask (intransitive – no direct object)
- You usually say:
  - bertanya kepada seseorang (ask someone)
  - bertanya tentang sesuatu (ask about something)
- Example:
  - Saya akan bertanya kepada asisten dosen tentang judul skripsi.
menanyakan = to ask about (transitive – takes a direct object)
- Pattern: menanyakan + object
- Example:
  - Saya akan menanyakan judul skripsi kepada asisten dosen.

In your sentence:

menanyakan judul skripsi yang tepat
= to ask about the right thesis title (here, judul skripsi yang tepat is the direct object).

You could rephrase with bertanya:

Saya mengirim email kepada asisten dosen untuk bertanya tentang judul skripsi yang tepat.

Both are correct. menanyakan is slightly more compact and feels a bit more formal/structured.

Why is it judul skripsi, not something like judul dari skripsi?

In Indonesian, possession or “of”-relationships are often shown simply by putting two nouns together, with the “owned” noun first and the “owner” or main noun second:

judul skripsi = title of the thesis
buku sejarah = history book (book of history)
nama dosen = lecturer’s name (name of the lecturer)

So judul skripsi already means “the title of (my/that/the) thesis”.

You can say judul dari skripsi (literally “title from thesis”), but:

it sounds more wordy and is less common in simple, direct phrases
judul skripsi is the most natural, idiomatic form here

Context usually makes it clear whose thesis you are talking about, so no extra marker is necessary.

How does yang tepat work here? Why does it come after judul skripsi, and what nuance does tepat add?

yang tepat forms a relative clause / descriptor modifying judul skripsi:

judul skripsi yang tepat
= the thesis title that is appropriate/right/suitable

In Indonesian, adjectives and many modifiers normally come after the noun:

judul baru = new title
judul skripsi yang tepat = title of thesis that is appropriate

tepat means “exact / appropriate / suitable / right (choice)”. Here it implies:

a thesis title that fits your research
a proper/appropriate title in an academic sense

Compare:

judul skripsi yang benar – more like “correct” in a factual sense
judul skripsi yang bagus – “good / nice” title (more qualitative, less about suitability)
judul skripsi yang sesuai – “suitable / in accordance (with something)”

So yang tepat focuses on choosing a suitable/appropriate title.

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral? Could I replace saya with aku?

The sentence is in a neutral-to-formal register:

saya – polite, neutral first-person pronoun, common in academic and professional contexts
vocabulary like asisten dosen, skripsi, menanyakan also fits academic/formal contexts

You could say aku instead of saya:

Aku mengirim email kepada asisten dosen…

But:

aku is more informal/intimate, typically used with friends, peers, or people you’re close to
when talking about academic matters (especially to/from lecturers, TAs, admin), saya is usually safer and more appropriate

So for emails to a teaching assistant or talking about that situation, saya is the better default.

Can I change the word order, for example: Saya mengirim email untuk menanyakan judul skripsi yang tepat kepada asisten dosen?

Yes, that alternative word order is also correct and natural:

Saya mengirim email kepada asisten dosen untuk menanyakan judul skripsi yang tepat.
Saya mengirim email untuk menanyakan judul skripsi yang tepat kepada asisten dosen.

Both mean the same thing. The slight nuance:

First version highlights the recipient earlier (the TA).
Second version highlights the purpose earlier (asking about the title).

Indonesian word order is fairly flexible, especially with prepositional phrases like kepada asisten dosen and purpose clauses like untuk menanyakan…. As long as the grouping is clear and you don’t break a phrase (e.g., don’t split judul skripsi yang tepat), it will usually be fine.

How do we know this sentence is past (I sent an email) if there’s no tense marker?

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense (past/present/future). mengirim can mean:

I send
I am sending
I sent
I will send

The actual time is understood from:

context
optional time expressions:
- tadi pagi (this morning)
- kemarin (yesterday)
- besok (tomorrow)
- etc.

If you really want to make it clearly past, you can add an adverb:

Tadi saya mengirim email kepada asisten dosen…
Kemarin saya mengirim email kepada asisten dosen…

Without any time word, native speakers will interpret the tense based on the broader conversation, not from the verb form itself.