Breakdown of Jurnalis itu wawancarai dokter di rumah sakit.
Questions & Answers about Jurnalis itu wawancarai dokter di rumah sakit.
Indonesian doesn’t have separate words for “a/an” or “the” like English does.
- dokter can mean “a doctor” or “the doctor” depending on context.
- rumah sakit can be “a hospital” or “the hospital.”
Specificity is usually understood from the situation or added information (like itu “that” / “the … (already mentioned)”).
itu literally means “that”, but when it comes after a noun, it often behaves like “the” / “that (specific)”:
- jurnalis itu ≈ “that journalist” / “the journalist (we’ve been talking about).”
So itu makes the noun more specific, referring to someone already known in the context, not just any journalist.
wawancara is a noun: “an interview.”
To turn it into a verb (“to interview”), Indonesian typically adds affixes:
- mewawancarai = “to interview (someone)”
- me- (verb prefix) + wawancara (root) + -i (verb suffix)
In this sentence you see wawancarai without me-. This is a shortened, more headline / journalistic style form, common in news writing or captions:
- Jurnalis itu mewawancarai dokter di rumah sakit. (full, standard form)
- Jurnalis itu wawancarai dokter di rumah sakit. (shortened, newsy style)
Both are understandable; the full form is safer for learners, especially in formal writing.
wawancarai here is active, and it takes a direct object:
- Jurnalis itu = subject (the doer)
- wawancarai = active verb “interviewed”
- dokter = object (the one being interviewed)
So the meaning is “The journalist interviewed the doctor.”
Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense. wawancarai can mean:
- “interviews”
- “is interviewing”
- “interviewed”
- “was interviewing”
The time is understood from context or from time words like:
- tadi (earlier, a short while ago)
- kemarin (yesterday)
- besok (tomorrow)
- sedang (in the middle of doing)
Examples:
- Tadi jurnalis itu wawancarai dokter di rumah sakit.
“Earlier, the journalist interviewed the doctor at the hospital.”
Without a time word, native speakers infer the tense from the situation or the surrounding text.
To explicitly show “a (person)”, Indonesian often uses seorang:
- seorang dokter = “a doctor” (one doctor, some doctor, not specified)
So you could say:
- Jurnalis itu mewawancarai seorang dokter di rumah sakit.
“The journalist interviewed a doctor at the hospital.”
You can also say seorang jurnalis = “a journalist.” These words (seorang, sebuah) are optional and used when you want to emphasize “one (unspecified)”.
di is a preposition of location, usually translated as “in / at / on” depending on context:
- di rumah = at home / in the house
- di meja = on the table
- di rumah sakit = at the hospital / in the hospital
So di rumah sakit means “at the hospital” (or “in the hospital” if you picture the interior).
Yes, literally:
- rumah = house
- sakit = sick, ill
Together rumah sakit is a fixed phrase meaning “hospital.” It’s written as two separate words, but functions as one concept.
Learners sometimes want to write rumahsakit as one word, but the correct spelling is rumah sakit.
Yes, and for learners it’s usually better:
- Jurnalis itu mewawancarai dokter di rumah sakit.
This uses the full verb form with me-, which is:
- more standard
- appropriate in most formal and informal contexts
- what you’ll see in textbooks and grammar explanations
The version without me- is still common, but especially:
- in headlines
- in short notes / captions
- in more casual written Indonesian (like messaging)
So you can safely treat mewawancarai as the “normal” form, and see wawancarai as a common shorthand.
yang is mainly used to introduce relative clauses or to mark something as “the one that …” For example:
- Jurnalis yang tadi datang itu wawancarai dokter.
“The journalist who came earlier interviewed the doctor.”
In Jurnalis itu wawancarai dokter di rumah sakit, there is no relative clause, just:
- Jurnalis itu = that/the journalist (subject)
- wawancarai = interviewed
- dokter = doctor
- di rumah sakit = at the hospital
So yang isn’t needed; it would change the structure and add unnecessary complexity.
Use the passive form with di- on the verb:
- Dokter itu diwawancarai jurnalis di rumah sakit.
= “The doctor was interviewed by a/the journalist at the hospital.”
Structure:
- Dokter itu = subject (the one affected)
- di-wawancara-i → diwawancarai (passive “was interviewed”)
- jurnalis = the agent/doer (the one who did the interviewing)
In Indonesian, both active (Jurnalis itu mewawancarai dokter…) and passive (Dokter itu diwawancarai jurnalis…) are common; each just emphasizes a different participant.
Both are used:
- jurnalis = “journalist” (general, neutral, often used in modern/media contexts)
- wartawan = also “journalist / reporter,” slightly older/common word, sometimes with a nuance of “news reporter” in practical field work
You could say:
- Jurnalis itu wawancarai dokter di rumah sakit.
- Wartawan itu wawancarai dokter di rumah sakit.
In most everyday contexts, they’re interchangeable.