Sesi belajar malam ini di perpustakaan cukup singkat.

Tonight's study session at the library is quite short.

Breakdown of Sesi belajar malam ini di perpustakaan cukup singkat.

• adalah: to be
• di: at
• singkat: short
• cukup: quite
• perpustakaan: the library
• malam ini: tonight
• sesi belajar: the study session

Questions & Answers about Sesi belajar malam ini di perpustakaan cukup singkat.

In this sentence, where is the verb is / was? Why isn’t there a word like adalah?

Indonesian often uses an adjective directly as the predicate, without a separate verb like is.

• Subject: Sesi belajar malam ini di perpustakaan
• Predicate: cukup singkat

So the structure is essentially:
[The study session tonight at the library] [quite short].

There is no need for adalah here. Adalah is usually used before a noun phrase, not before an adjective:

• Dia adalah guru. → He is a teacher.
• Dia tinggi. (not dia adalah tinggi) → He is tall.

Because singkat is an adjective, you just put it after the subject; Indonesian listeners automatically understand it as is/was short from context.

What exactly does cukup mean here? Is it “enough,” “quite,” or “rather”?

Cukup has several related meanings:

1. enough / sufficient (quantitative)

   • Uangnya cukup. → The money is enough.

2. quite / rather / fairly (degree, like in this sentence)

   • cukup singkat → quite short / rather short / fairly short.

In Sesi belajar malam ini di perpustakaan cukup singkat, cukup is not about sufficiency, but about degree. It softens the adjective:

• singkat → short (more absolute)
• cukup singkat → quite short; shorter than expected, but not extremely short.

How would the meaning change if we removed cukup and just said singkat?

If you remove cukup, the sentence becomes:

• Sesi belajar malam ini di perpustakaan singkat.

The meaning shifts slightly:

• cukup singkat → quite short / rather short (somewhat mild, slightly subjective)
• singkat → short (more direct, sounds more like a plain fact)

So cukup singkat feels a bit softer or more nuanced, while singkat can sound more definite or even a bit blunt, depending on context.

Why is it malam ini, not ini malam? Is ini malam ever correct?

The usual, natural way to say tonight / this evening is:

• malam ini → literally: this night.

Ini malam is generally not used with this meaning. If you say ini malam, it will sound odd or ungrammatical in standard Indonesian.

Pattern to remember:

• pagi ini → this morning
• siang ini → this midday / this noon
• sore ini → this afternoon / early evening
• malam ini → tonight / this evening

So time word + ini is the normal pattern.

Does malam ini mean “tonight” or “this evening”? How do Indonesians feel this difference?

Malam ini covers both tonight and this evening. Indonesian does not strictly separate “evening” and “night” the way English does.

Which English translation you choose depends on context:

• Early evening context: this evening
• Later context: tonight

There are also related expressions:

• nanti malam → tonight / later this evening (from now, looking forward)
• tadi malam → last night (looking back)

Can malam ini be placed at the beginning of the sentence, like Malam ini sesi belajar di perpustakaan cukup singkat? Is that still correct?

Yes, that is correct and natural. Both are fine:

• Sesi belajar malam ini di perpustakaan cukup singkat.
• Malam ini sesi belajar di perpustakaan cukup singkat.

The difference is only in emphasis:

• First version: focuses more on the session, then gives time and place.
• Second version: starts by emphasizing tonight as the time frame.

Grammatically, both are fully acceptable.

What is the function of di in di perpustakaan? Why not ke perpustakaan, or just perpustakaan?

Di is a preposition meaning at / in / on (location, static):

• di perpustakaan → at the library / in the library.

Ke means to (movement or direction):

• ke perpustakaan → to the library.

In this sentence we are talking about where the session takes place (location), not movement toward the library, so di is correct.

You cannot usually drop the preposition and say just perpustakaan for location; that would sound incomplete. You need di perpustakaan to mean at the library.

What does perpustakaan literally mean, and how is it formed?

Perpustakaan means library.

It is built from the root pustaka (book, text, writing) with the affixes per- … -an, which often form nouns meaning places related to the root.

So:

• pustaka → text / book (old/learned word)
• perpustakaan → the place of books → library.

You can see a similar pattern in other words:

• rumah sakit → hospital (not using per- -an, just as a contrast)
• pertanian (from tani, farming) → agriculture / farming (field)
• perkantoran (from kantor, office) → office complex / office area.

What exactly does sesi belajar mean? Could we just say belajar?

Sesi belajar literally means study session:

• sesi → session
• belajar → to study / studying.

You could say:

• Belajar malam ini di perpustakaan cukup singkat.

This is still understandable and can be natural in context, but it shifts the structure slightly:

• Sesi belajar malam ini … → clearly a noun phrase (the study session tonight …).
• Belajar malam ini … → can feel more like the act of studying tonight … (more verbal/gerund-like).

Sesi belajar sounds a bit more formal/organized, suitable for a planned class, group study, or scheduled session. Belajar alone feels more general and can be any studying you do.

Which word in this sentence is the adjective, and how do adjectives normally work with nouns in Indonesian?

The adjective in this sentence is singkat (short, brief).

Typical Indonesian pattern:

• Noun comes first, adjective after it.

Examples:

• buku baru → new book
• rumah besar → big house
• sesi singkat → short session.

In the sentence:

• Sesi belajar malam ini di perpustakaan → subject (noun phrase)
• cukup singkat → predicate (adjective phrase, functioning like “is quite short”).

So singkat is not directly modifying sesi belajar in a noun phrase; instead, it is the predicate adjective describing the subject.

Could we say cukup pendek instead of cukup singkat? What is the difference between pendek and singkat?

Both pendek and singkat can be translated as short, but they’re used a bit differently:

• pendek → usually about physical length / height or sometimes about speech/writing length (more general).

  • orang pendek → short person
  • cerita pendek → short story.

• singkat → about duration / time or about something being brief/concise.

  • waktu yang singkat → a short time
  • penjelasan singkat → a brief explanation.

A study session is about time duration, so singkat is more natural:

• cukup singkat → quite short (in duration).

Cukup pendek would not be wrong in all contexts, but for a session, cukup singkat sounds more idiomatic.

How is tense (past vs present) expressed here? Does this sentence mean “was quite short” or “is quite short”?

Indonesian generally does not mark tense with verb changes like English does. There is no separate past/present form in the sentence.

Sesi belajar malam ini di perpustakaan cukup singkat can mean:

• is quite short (if you are talking while the session is ongoing or planned), or
• was quite short (if you are talking after it has finished).

Which one is correct depends entirely on context and time adverbs around it. To make it clearly past, you might add something like tadi (earlier):

• Sesi belajar tadi malam di perpustakaan cukup singkat. → The study session last night at the library was quite short.