Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Setelah konser band selesai, kami cukup berjalan kaki pulang ke kos, tanpa harus memesan taksi. - After the band concert is over, we just walk back to the boarding house, without having to order a taxi.

cukup berjalan kaki ≈ “(we) just had to walk” / “it was enough to just walk”
It suggests that walking was enough; we didn’t need anything more (like a taxi).

Comparison:

hanya berjalan kaki / cuma berjalan kaki: “only / just walked” (more neutral, focusing on “only”, not on sufficiency).
berjalan kaki saja: also “just walked (and nothing else)”, often with a slightly casual tone.

You could say:

kami hanya berjalan kaki pulang ke kos
kami cuma berjalan kaki pulang ke kos
kami berjalan kaki saja pulang ke kos

All are understandable, but cukup subtly highlights that walking was enough and you didn’t need a taxi.

Why do we need both berjalan kaki and pulang? Aren’t they both about movement?

They express different ideas:

berjalan kaki = “to walk (on foot)”
pulang = “to go home / to return (home)”

Together:

berjalan kaki pulang = “to walk home”

So:

kami berjalan kaki just says “we walked” (no destination).
kami pulang just says “we went home” (no mode of transport).
kami berjalan kaki pulang tells you both where (home) and how (on foot).

The order berjalan kaki pulang is natural and common in Indonesian.

Could I say setelah konser band selesai in a different way, like dropping selesai or moving setelah?

Yes, there are natural variations:

Drop selesai (often understood from context):
- Setelah konser band, kami cukup berjalan kaki…
  This is fine; “after the band concert” already implies it ended.
Use sesudah instead of setelah (same meaning, slightly more formal/neutral):
- Sesudah konser band selesai, …
Change the order:
- Konser band sudah selesai, lalu kami cukup berjalan kaki pulang ke kos.
  (“The band concert had finished, then we just walked home to the boarding house.”)

In the original, setelah … selesai is a very typical “after [event] finished” pattern:

Setelah kelas selesai…
Setelah rapat selesai…
Setelah filmnya selesai…

What exactly is kos, and how formal is this word?

Kos (often written kost) is a common Indonesian word for:

a rented room in a boarding house, usually used by students or workers
the place where you live temporarily, paying monthly

So pulang ke kos ≈ “go back to (my/our) boarding house / rented room”.

Formality and variants:

kos/kost: everyday informal/neutral word, extremely common.
indekos / indekost: more formal, dictionary-style.
- Example: Saya tinggal di indekos dekat kampus.

In spoken Indonesian, kos/kost is almost always used.

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

Both mean “we”, but:

kami = “we (but not you, the listener)”
kita = “we (including you, the listener)”

In this sentence:

kami cukup berjalan kaki pulang ke kos
implies “we” refers to some group that does not include the person being spoken to (for example: “my friends and I”).

If you were talking to someone who was also part of that group, you’d naturally say:

Setelah konser band selesai, kita cukup berjalan kaki pulang ke kos…
(“After the concert, we just walked back to the boarding house…”, and “you” were one of the walkers.)

Why is there tanpa harus memesan taksi instead of just tanpa memesan taksi?

Both are possible, but they have slightly different nuances.

tanpa memesan taksi = “without ordering a taxi”
- Simple, factual.
tanpa harus memesan taksi ≈ “without having to order a taxi”
- Adds the feeling that we didn’t need to order one.
- Implies convenience or relief: walking was enough; we weren’t forced to get a taxi.

So the original:

…tanpa harus memesan taksi
sounds a bit more expressive, like “(we) could just walk; no need for a taxi.”

Why is it memesan taksi and not just pesan taksi?

memesan is the standard verb form with the me- prefix:
- memesan = “to order / to book”
In everyday casual speech, Indonesians often drop the me- prefix:
- pesan taksi instead of memesan taksi
- beli tiket instead of membeli tiket

So:

More standard / neutral:
tanpa harus memesan taksi
More casual / colloquial:
tanpa harus pesan taksi

Both are understandable. Written Indonesian (especially formal) tends to prefer the me- form.

How do we know this sentence is in the past tense? There are no tense markers.

Indonesian usually doesn’t mark tense with verb changes like English does. Instead, tense is understood from:

Time expressions or context:
- Setelah konser band selesai (“after the concert finished”) clearly places the action in the past.
Optional adverbs like:
- tadi (earlier today)
- kemarin (yesterday)
- tadi malam (last night) etc.

If you want to make the past time even clearer, you can add one:

Tadi malam setelah konser band selesai, kami cukup berjalan kaki pulang ke kos…

But even without it, native speakers automatically understand this as past because of setelah … selesai.

Is the comma placement natural in Indonesian? Why is there a comma before tanpa?

Yes, the comma placement is natural.

The structure is:

Main clause:
Setelah konser band selesai, kami cukup berjalan kaki pulang ke kos,
Followed by an adverbial phrase:
tanpa harus memesan taksi.

The comma before tanpa separates the main action (kami cukup berjalan kaki pulang ke kos) from the additional circumstance (tanpa harus memesan taksi – “without having to order a taxi”).

In Indonesian writing, it’s common to separate such phrases with a comma, especially when they come at the end and add extra information.

Could I say kami cukup pulang ke kos dengan berjalan kaki instead? Is that natural?

You can say it, and it’s grammatically correct:

kami cukup pulang ke kos dengan berjalan kaki
= “we just went back to the boarding house by walking”

However, it sounds a bit more formal or written, because of dengan berjalan kaki.

The original:

kami cukup berjalan kaki pulang ke kos

is more natural, direct, and typical in casual spoken Indonesian. The pattern “[mode of transport] + pulang ke …” (e.g., naik bus pulang ke rumah, jalan kaki pulang ke rumah) is very common.

Does konser band sound natural, or is there a better way to say “band concert”?

Konser band is natural and commonly used in Indonesian.

It literally means “band concert”:

konser = concert
band = band (loanword from English)

Alternatives (depending on context):

konser musik = music concert (more general)
konser rock / konser jazz = rock/jazz concert (genre-focused)
konser band kampus = campus band concert
konser band favorit kami = our favorite band’s concert

But for a typical situation, konser band is perfectly fine and idiomatic.