Petugas memberi stempel pada surat izin saya di kantor fakultas.

Petugas means staff member, officer, or official, depending on context.

In this sentence, it most likely means a staff member/official at the faculty office.

A few useful things to know:

• It is gender-neutral.
• It can refer to one person or more than one person, depending on context.
• Indonesian often does not mark singular vs. plural unless it needs to.

So petugas memberi... can mean the staff member gives... or, in some contexts, the staff gave..., though here singular is the most natural reading.

Both memberi and memberikan can mean to give, but they are used a little differently.

In this sentence:

• memberi stempel pada surat izin saya = to give/apply a stamp to my permit letter

A common pattern is:

• memberi + thing + kepada/pada + recipient/target

So here:

• memberi = gives/applies
• stempel = the thing being given/applied
• pada surat izin saya = to/on my permit letter

You could also hear other natural expressions, such as:

• memberikan stempel pada surat izin saya
• menstempel surat izin saya
• membubuhi surat izin saya dengan stempel

But memberi stempel is perfectly understandable and natural.

It usually means to stamp or to put/apply a stamp on something, not necessarily to hand someone a stamp object.

So in this sentence, petugas memberi stempel pada surat izin saya means:

• the staff member stamped my permit letter
• or put a stamp on my permit letter

This is a good example of how Indonesian sometimes uses a more literal-looking phrase where English prefers a single verb.

Here, pada marks the target of the action: the place/object that receives the stamp.

So:

• memberi stempel pada surat izin saya = put a stamp on my permit letter

Why not just use di?

• di usually marks a location: in, at, on
• pada often marks a target, point, or recipient, especially in slightly more formal language

So pada surat izin saya sounds natural and a bit formal. In everyday speech, some people might also say:

• di surat izin saya

But pada works well here because the stamp is being applied to that document.

Surat izin literally means permission letter or permit letter.

Depending on context, it could refer to:

• a permit
• an authorization letter
• an excuse letter
• an official permission document

Indonesian often uses noun + noun combinations like this:

• surat izin = permission letter
• kantor fakultas = faculty office
• kartu mahasiswa = student card

So surat izin saya means my permit letter.

In Indonesian, possessives usually come after the noun.

So:

• surat izin saya = my permit letter
• literally: permit letter my

This is very normal in Indonesian:

• buku saya = my book
• rumah mereka = their house
• nama Anda = your name

So if you are an English speaker, the main thing to remember is:

• English: my letter
• Indonesian: letter my

Di kantor fakultas means at the faculty office or in the faculty office.

Breakdown:

• di = at / in
• kantor = office
• fakultas = faculty

So kantor fakultas is a noun phrase meaning faculty office.

A helpful point:

• di is a preposition here, so it is written separately: di kantor
• this is different from di- as a passive prefix, which is attached to a verb, for example diberi

Yes, Indonesian word order is fairly flexible, especially for adverbial phrases like location.

The sentence:

• Petugas memberi stempel pada surat izin saya di kantor fakultas.

most naturally means:

• The staff member stamped my permit letter at the faculty office.

Putting di kantor fakultas at the end is very normal because location information often comes after the main action.

You could also move it for emphasis, for example:

• Di kantor fakultas, petugas memberi stempel pada surat izin saya.

This still means basically the same thing, but it highlights the location first.

Yes, in theory Indonesian can sometimes be ambiguous about which phrase modifies what.

So di kantor fakultas could be understood as:

• the stamping happened at the faculty office

and less likely:

• my permit letter at the faculty office got stamped

However, the most natural interpretation is that the action happened there. In ordinary usage, listeners would usually understand it as the place where the staff member stamped the document.

If someone wanted to make the meaning extra clear, they might rephrase it.

Stempel is a loanword, and it is very common in Indonesian. It means stamp.

You may also come across related words and expressions such as:

• cap = stamp, seal
• menstempel = to stamp
• cap resmi = official seal
• membubuhkan stempel = to affix/apply a stamp

In everyday administrative contexts, stempel is very common and natural.

Indonesian does not normally use articles like English a/an and the.

So:

• petugas can mean a staff member or the staff member
• stempel can mean a stamp or the stamp
• kantor fakultas can mean the faculty office or a faculty office, depending on context

The listener figures this out from context rather than from articles.

That is why one Indonesian sentence can often be translated into English in slightly different ways.

It sounds neutral to slightly formal, which fits an administrative or university context well.

Why it feels a bit formal:

• petugas is a formal-ish word for staff/official
• pada is often a little more formal than everyday alternatives
• the whole sentence describes an official process

In casual speech, people might say something a bit simpler, such as:

• Petugas menstempel surat izin saya di kantor fakultas.

But the original sentence is completely natural, especially in institutional settings.

Yes, very often. Indonesian uses the passive voice a lot, especially when the important thing is the object or result rather than the doer.

For example:

• Surat izin saya diberi stempel oleh petugas di kantor fakultas.

This means:

• My permit letter was stamped by the staff member at the faculty office.

Comparison:

• Petugas memberi stempel... = active, focuses on the staff member
• Surat izin saya diberi stempel... = passive, focuses on the permit letter

Both are natural. Indonesian uses passive much more freely than English does.