Gedung perkantoran di pusat kota itu adalah gedung terbesar di kota kami.

That office building in the city center is the biggest building in our city.

Breakdown of Gedung perkantoran di pusat kota itu adalah gedung terbesar di kota kami.

• adalah: to be
• itu: that
• di: in
• kota: the city
• gedung: the building
• perkantoran: office
• kami: our
• pusat kota: the city center
• terbesar: largest

Questions & Answers about Gedung perkantoran di pusat kota itu adalah gedung terbesar di kota kami.

Why is itu placed after pusat kota instead of right after gedung perkantoran?

In Indonesian, itu (that) can modify the whole noun phrase that comes before it, not just the last noun.

• Gedung perkantoran di pusat kota itu is understood as:
  • that office building in the city center
    not the office building in that city center (though context can blur this).

If you say:

• Gedung perkantoran itu di pusat kota ...

it tends to emphasize that office building (already known from context), and then di pusat kota just adds location information: “That office building, (the one we were talking about), is in the city center…”

Both structures are grammatical; the nuance is just slightly different in focus and rhythm.

What is the exact difference between gedung, kantor, and perkantoran?

• gedung = building (usually a large, permanent building, often multi‑storey)
• kantor = office (the workplace or office rooms; can also mean “office” as an institution)
• perkantoran = office area / office complex / offices in general

So:

• gedung kantor = an office building (literally: office building)
• gedung perkantoran = an office building with multiple offices or used generally for office activities; can feel a bit more “commercial/office-complex”.

In this sentence, gedung perkantoran emphasizes that the building is used for office activities, likely by multiple companies or organizations.

Why do we repeat gedung: ... adalah gedung terbesar ... instead of just saying ... adalah yang terbesar ...?

Both are possible:

1. Gedung perkantoran di pusat kota itu adalah gedung terbesar di kota kami.
   Literally: “That office building in the city center is the biggest building in our city.”

2. Gedung perkantoran di pusat kota itu adalah yang terbesar di kota kami.
   Literally: “That office building in the city center is the biggest one in our city.”

Repeating gedung:

• Sounds very clear and explicit, especially in careful or formal speech.
• Makes the comparison category obvious: we are comparing buildings.

Using yang terbesar:

• Slightly more natural in everyday conversation.
• yang terbesar is understood from context as “the biggest (building)”.

So the original sentence is a bit more explicit and neutral; yang terbesar is shorter and very common.

Is adalah necessary here? Can we just say ... itu gedung terbesar di kota kami?

You can omit adalah in most spoken and informal written Indonesian:

• Gedung perkantoran di pusat kota itu gedung terbesar di kota kami.
  This is natural and common.

About adalah:

• It works like a copula (“is/are”) before a noun phrase:
  • Dia adalah guru. – He/She is a teacher.
• It is more common in:
  • Formal writing
  • Definitions
  • Explanations

So:

• With adalah: slightly more formal or careful.
• Without adalah: very normal in everyday speech and informal writing.

How is the superlative terbesar formed, and can I use paling besar instead?

terbesar is formed with the prefix ter- + besar (big) and means “biggest”.

Indonesian has two common ways to form superlatives:

1. ter- + adjective

   • terbesar = biggest
   • tertinggi = tallest / highest
   • tercantik = most beautiful

2. paling + adjective

   • paling besar = biggest / the most big
   • paling tinggi = tallest / highest
   • paling cantik = most beautiful

In this sentence, you could also say:

• ... adalah gedung paling besar di kota kami.

Differences:

• ter- often sounds a bit more compact and somewhat more formal or written.
• paling is very common in speech and is completely acceptable.

Why do we say kota kami and not kota kita? What is the difference between kami and kita?

Both kami and kita mean “we / us”, but:

• kami = we (excluding the listener)
• kita = we (including the listener)

kota kami = “our city (but not yours)”
kota kita = “our city (yours and mine)”

In practice:

• kota kami is used when the speaker refers to their own group or hometown, and the listener is not part of that group:
  • A person from Bandung talking to someone from Jakarta:
    Di kota kami, gedung ini yang terbesar.

If the speaker and listener share the same city, they may naturally say kota kita instead.

Why is di used twice: di pusat kota and di kota kami? Could we say this with only one di?

Indonesian uses di before each location phrase:

• di pusat kota = in the city center
• di kota kami = in our city

You cannot “share” the di across multiple nouns the way English sometimes can. Each prepositional phrase stands alone, so you need di for each:

• ✔ di pusat kota itu
• ✔ di kota kami
• ✔ di pusat kota itu, di kota kami

There isn’t a natural way to collapse both into a single di while keeping the same structure and meaning.

Does pusat kota need a possessive marker, like pusat kota kami (“the center of our city”)?

It doesn’t need one here.

• pusat kota literally = “city center” (generic phrase)
• pusat kota kami = “the center of our city” (more specific, tied to our city)

In the sentence:

• Gedung perkantoran di pusat kota itu ...

we’re talking about “that office building in the (or a) city center.” From context, it’s naturally understood to be in the center of our city, because later we say di kota kami.

If you say:

• Gedung perkantoran di pusat kota kami itu ...

you specify clearly: the office building in our city center. That’s also grammatical, just more explicit.

Indonesian has no articles like a or the. How do we know if gedung perkantoran means “an office building” or “the office building”?

Indonesian doesn’t use articles; definiteness is understood from context and from words like itu / ini:

• gedung perkantoran (by itself) could be “an office building” or “the office building,” depending on context.
• gedung perkantoran itu is clearly “that office building / the office building (we both know about).”

In the sentence:

• Gedung perkantoran di pusat kota itu ...

the itu makes it definite: “that office building in the city center,” more like the in English.

Is the word order Gedung perkantoran di pusat kota itu fixed, or can we rearrange it?

The standard, natural order is:

• [Head noun] + [modifier(s)] + [itu/ini]
  • Gedung perkantoran di pusat kota itu
    = that office building in the city center

Other variants:

• Gedung perkantoran itu di pusat kota ...
  • Still grammatical.
  • Feels more like: “That office building (you know which one) is in the city center...”
  • itu now clearly attaches to gedung perkantoran, and di pusat kota becomes an extra location phrase.

So you can rearrange slightly, but:

• Keep the head noun (gedung) before its main modifiers.
• Use itu/ini after the phrase it is meant to make definite, unless you intentionally want a different emphasis.

What exactly is the internal structure of the phrase Gedung perkantoran di pusat kota itu?

You can break it down like this:

• Gedung = building (head noun)
• perkantoran = office(-related), office area/use (modifies gedung)
• di pusat kota = in the city center (prepositional phrase modifying gedung perkantoran)
• itu = that (demonstrative, making the whole phrase definite)

So structurally:

• [Gedung perkantoran di pusat kota] itu
  = that [office building in the city center]

Could we shorten this sentence in a natural way while keeping the meaning?

Yes, for everyday conversation you could say, for example:

• Gedung perkantoran di pusat kota itu yang terbesar di kota kami.
• Gedung perkantoran di pusat kota itu gedung paling besar di kota kami.
• Or even, if context is clear:
  Gedung di pusat kota itu yang terbesar di kota kami.

All of these sound natural; they just vary slightly in formality and explicitness.