Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Pemandangan laut itu sangat indah.

that sea view (a specific one the speaker and listener both know), or
sometimes it just functions like the, as in the sea view, especially when context already makes it clear which one.

So:

pemandangan laut = sea view / view of the sea (general)
pemandangan laut itu = that (specific) sea view / the sea view we’re talking about

Indonesian doesn’t have separate words for the and a, so itu often carries that sense of specificity that English the or that would give.

Why is there no word for is in this sentence?

Indonesian doesn’t usually use a linking verb like is / am / are when connecting a subject to an adjective.

So:

Pemandangan laut itu = the sea view (subject)
sangat indah = very beautiful (predicate, headed by an adjective)

In English we need is:
That sea view is very beautiful.

In Indonesian you just put them side by side:

Pemandangan laut itu sangat indah.
Literally: That sea view very beautiful.

You would not normally say:

Pemandangan laut itu adalah sangat indah.
This sounds unnatural, because adalah is not used before adjectives; it’s mainly used between two nouns or noun phrases (e.g. Dia adalah dokter – He is a doctor).

What is the structure of pemandangan laut? Which word is the main noun?

The main noun is pemandangan.

pemandangan = view / scenery
(from root pandang = to look, see; the pe- ... -an pattern often makes nouns)
laut = sea, ocean

In Indonesian noun phrases, a noun followed by another noun often means [first noun] of [second noun] or [second noun]’s [first noun]. So:

pemandangan laut ≈ view of the sea / sea view

pemandangan is the head, laut modifies it.

Could the words be in a different order, like Laut itu pemandangan sangat indah?

No, that word order would be ungrammatical.

Correct structure:

Subject (noun phrase): Pemandangan laut itu
Predicate (adjective phrase): sangat indah

So:

✅ Pemandangan laut itu sangat indah.

If you change the order, you must also adjust the structure. For example, you can say:

Laut itu pemandangannya sangat indah.
= That sea, its view is very beautiful.
Here pemandangannya (its view) is a different construction.

But keeping exactly the same words and just shuffling them, like:

❌ Laut itu pemandangan sangat indah.

does not work in Indonesian.

What is the difference between sangat indah and indah sekali?

Both mean very beautiful, but the structure and nuance differ slightly:

sangat indah
- sangat comes before the adjective.
- Sounds neutral to slightly formal.
- Common in spoken and written Indonesian.
indah sekali
- sekali comes after the adjective.
- Literally beautiful once/one time, but idiomatically very beautiful.
- Also very common; can feel a bit more expressive in everyday speech.

You can think of them as stylistic variants:

Pemandangan laut itu sangat indah.
Pemandangan laut itu indah sekali.

Both are natural and mean effectively the same thing.

Can I use both sangat and sekali together, like sangat indah sekali?

Normally, no. That sounds redundant and unnatural, similar to saying very extremely beautiful in English.

You usually choose just one intensifier:

sangat indah
indah sekali

If you want even stronger emphasis, Indonesians tend to use:

repetition: indah, indah sekali (in speech, with a pause)
or add context, exclamations, or tone, rather than stacking multiple intensifiers in one phrase.

What is the difference between indah, cantik, and bagus? Could I say sangat cantik here?

All three can be translated as beautiful / good, but their usage is different:

indah
- Often for scenery, nature, sounds, artistic beauty.
- pemandangan yang indah = beautiful scenery.
- Very natural in the sentence given.
cantik
- Typically for people’s faces, appearance, objects that look pretty.
- perempuan cantik = a pretty woman.
- You can use cantik for scenery, but indah is more typical and a bit more elevated.
bagus
- More like good, fine, nice, sometimes great.
- filmnya bagus = the movie is good.
- For a view, bagus is more casual: Pemandangan laut itu bagus banget (very colloquial).

So:

Pemandangan laut itu sangat indah. = very natural, standard.
Pemandangan laut itu sangat cantik. = understandable, but less typical.
Pemandangan laut itu bagus sekali. = more casual/neutral, less poetic.

Can I leave out sangat and just say Pemandangan laut itu indah?

Yes.

Pemandangan laut itu indah. = That sea view is beautiful.
Pemandangan laut itu sangat indah. = That sea view is very beautiful.

Leaving out sangat just removes the very; grammatically, the sentence is perfectly fine.

Can I leave out itu and just say Pemandangan laut sangat indah? How does the meaning change?

Yes, you can.

Pemandangan laut itu sangat indah.
- Refers to a specific sea view that is known in context.
- Closer to That sea view is very beautiful or The sea view (we’re talking about) is very beautiful.
Pemandangan laut sangat indah.
- More general; like saying Sea views are very beautiful or The view of the sea is (generally) very beautiful.
- Could also describe a situation without pointing to a specific, already-identified sea view.

So itu adds specificity or reference to something identifiable.

Does Pemandangan laut itu mean one sea view, or can it mean many sea views?

Indonesian nouns usually don’t show plural by form; pemandangan can be view or views, depending on context.

Pemandangan laut itu sangat indah.
- Most naturally understood as That sea view is very beautiful, or
- That sea scenery is very beautiful (which can be visually plural, but grammatically treated as one thing).

If you really want to emphasize plurality, you might say:

Pemandangan-pemandangan laut itu sangat indah.
(The sea views are very beautiful.)

But in everyday speech, people usually just say pemandangan laut itu, and context tells you whether it’s one or many.

How would I say These sea views are very beautiful instead?

You would change itu (that/those) to ini (this/these) and, if you want to be explicit, you could pluralize:

More natural, everyday version (plural understood from context):
- Pemandangan laut ini sangat indah.
  = These sea views / this sea scenery is very beautiful.
More explicitly plural (less common in speech, more explanatory):
- Pemandangan-pemandangan laut ini sangat indah.
  = These sea views are very beautiful.

In practice, speakers usually rely on context and just say pemandangan laut ini.

Why is the adjective indah placed after sangat, not before it?

In Indonesian, adverbs like sangat normally come before the adjective they modify:

sangat indah = very beautiful
sangat besar = very big
sangat penting = very important

So the pattern is:

[subject] + [intensifier sangat] + [adjective]

In the sentence:

Pemandangan laut itu (subject)
sangat (intensifier)
indah (adjective)

You would not say:

❌ indah sangat
(except in some dialects or very colloquial speech, where it would usually be indah banget, not indah sangat).

How is pemandangan pronounced and where is the stress?

Pemandangan is divided as:

pe-man-dang-an

Approximate pronunciation:

pe like pe in pen
man like man
dang like dung but with a as in father: dahng
an like un in sun, but shorter: an

Stress in Indonesian is fairly even, but for learners it’s helpful to slightly stress the second-to-last syllable:

pe-man-dang-an or pe-man-dang-an (both are acceptable, but many learners find stressing dang natural).

So you can say it smoothly as:
pe-man-DANG-an (with no very strong contrast in stress, just a bit more weight on dang).