Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Bukan hanya murid yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini, melainkan guru juga. - Not only students are studying at the library tonight, but the teacher is too.

Bukan hanya murid yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini, melainkan guru juga.

Not only students are studying at the library tonight, but the teacher is too.

Breakdown of Bukan hanya murid yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini, melainkan guru juga.

bukan hanya ... melainkan

not only ... but rather

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Questions & Answers about Bukan hanya murid yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini, melainkan guru juga.

Why is bukan used here instead of tidak?

Bukan is used to negate nouns (and noun phrases), while tidak is mainly used to negate verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

In bukan hanya murid, the thing being negated is the noun phrase hanya murid (“only students”), so bukan is the correct choice.

Compare:

Dia bukan guru. – He is not a teacher. (negating a noun)
Dia tidak belajar. – He is not studying. (negating a verb)

Here, the pattern bukan hanya X … melainkan Y juga is a fixed structure meaning “not only X … but Y as well”, so bukan naturally appears there.

What does the pattern bukan hanya … melainkan … juga mean, and are there simpler alternatives?

The pattern bukan hanya X … melainkan Y juga means “not only X … but Y as well/too.”

In this sentence:

bukan hanya murid yang belajar … – not only the students are studying …
melainkan guru juga – but the teachers as well.

Very common alternatives with almost the same meaning:

tidak hanya X … tetapi juga Y
bukan cuma X … tapi juga Y (more colloquial)

So you could also say:

Tidak hanya murid yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini, tetapi juga guru.
Same idea: not only students, but teachers too.

Could we say Tidak hanya murid yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini instead of Bukan hanya murid …? Does it change the meaning?

You can hear and see Tidak hanya murid … in real-life Indonesian, and people will understand it the same way.

However, from a more “textbook” point of view:

bukan fits better when the thing being negated is a noun phrase (hanya murid)
tidak fits better in front of verbs/adjectives.

So:

Bukan hanya murid yang belajar … is more formally correct.
Tidak hanya murid yang belajar … is common and acceptable in everyday speech, but some teachers will still prefer bukan here.

Why do we need yang after murid? Could we say Bukan hanya murid belajar di perpustakaan …?

Yang introduces a relative clause describing murid:

murid yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini
= “the students who are studying in the library tonight”

Without yang, murid belajar di perpustakaan changes structure: murid becomes the subject directly doing belajar, not a noun being modified.

In this sentence we want “the students who study …” as one noun phrase, so the pattern is:

murid + yang + [clause]

Therefore, Bukan hanya murid yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini … is correct;
Bukan hanya murid belajar di perpustakaan malam ini … is ungrammatical.

Why is belajar only mentioned once? Shouldn’t we repeat it after guru?

In Indonesian it’s very natural to omit repeated parts when the meaning is clear.

The full, “expanded” version would be:

Bukan hanya murid yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini, melainkan guru juga belajar di perpustakaan malam ini.

But this sounds heavy and repetitive. So Indonesian usually shortens the second part:

… melainkan guru juga (belajar di perpustakaan malam ini).

The verb belajar and the rest of the clause are understood from context and do not need to be repeated.

What exactly does yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini do in the sentence?

Yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini is a relative clause describing murid:

murid – students
yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini – who are studying at the library tonight

Together they form one noun phrase:

murid yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini
→ “the students who are studying in the library tonight”

So the sentence structure is:

Bukan hanya [murid yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini], melainkan guru juga.
Not only [the students who are studying in the library tonight], but the teachers as well.

Is murid singular or plural here? How do we know?

Indonesian nouns normally don’t mark singular vs plural, so murid by itself can mean “student” or “students”, depending on context.

From the English meaning you were given (which uses “students”), we interpret it as plural.

To make the plural more explicit, Indonesian can say:

murid-murid – students (reduplication, common in everyday speech)
para murid – the students (more formal/literary)

So you could also say:

Bukan hanya para murid yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini, melainkan guru juga.

Why do we say di perpustakaan and not just perpustakaan?

Di is a preposition meaning “at / in / on” (location).

perpustakaan – library
di perpustakaan – at/in the library

In Indonesian you generally need di before a place when it functions as a location in a sentence:

Dia belajar di perpustakaan. – He studies at the library.
Kami menunggu di rumah. – We are waiting at home.

Without di, perpustakaan would just be a bare noun (“library”) and not clearly marked as a location.

Can we replace melainkan with tetapi in this sentence?

Yes, you can say:

Bukan hanya murid yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini, tetapi guru juga.

This is natural and common.

Nuance:

melainkan often has a “but rather/instead” feeling and is especially common after bukan.
tetapi is a more general “but / however”.

In the fixed pattern bukan hanya … melainkan … juga, melainkan is very typical, but tetapi juga works fine as a near-equivalent.

Is juga at the end necessary? Could we say just melainkan guru?

You can say:

Bukan hanya murid yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini, melainkan guru.

It would still be understood as a contrast: not only students, but teachers.

However, juga explicitly adds the meaning “also / too”, and the full pattern bukan hanya … melainkan … juga strongly matches the English “not only … but also …”.

So:

With juga: emphasizes addition – “teachers also.”
Without juga: focus is more on contrast – “not only students, but (also) teachers.”

Both are acceptable; including juga is more typical for the “not only but also” structure.

Can malam ini be placed somewhere else, like malam ini di perpustakaan?

Yes, Indonesian word order is fairly flexible. All of these are possible, with slightly different emphasis:

murid yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini
– neutral; “who are studying at the library tonight.”
murid yang malam ini belajar di perpustakaan
– emphasizes malam ini a bit more (tonight is the important time).
malam ini, bukan hanya murid yang belajar di perpustakaan, melainkan guru juga.
– puts strong focus on “tonight” at the start of the sentence.

di perpustakaan malam ini is very natural because Indonesian often has:

verb + di [place]
- [time], or
verb + di [place] where the time comes shortly after.

So the original order is one of the most common and neutral choices.

What is the difference between murid, siswa, and pelajar? Could they all be used here?

All three refer to learners, but with slightly different common uses:

murid
Often for students in schools, especially when talking about them in relation to a guru (teacher). Very natural in this sentence.
siswa
Common for school students (primary to high school), especially in official/administrative or educational contexts: siswa dan siswi (male and female students).
You could say:
Bukan hanya siswa yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini, melainkan guru juga.
pelajar
Literally “learner”; can refer to students (often secondary/high school, sometimes more general).
Also works:
Bukan hanya para pelajar yang belajar di perpustakaan malam ini, melainkan guru juga.

In this particular sentence, murid and siswa are probably the most natural choices.