Sebelum pamit, dia berkata bahwa keterlambatannya bisa dimaklumi karena busnya mogok.

Sebelum means before. It introduces a time clause.

So sebelum pamit means something like:

• before saying goodbye
• before taking his/her leave
• before leaving

Putting it at the beginning sets the time frame for the main action:

• Sebelum pamit, dia berkata ...
• Before leaving, he/she said ...

This kind of time phrase is very common at the start of Indonesian sentences.

Pamit means to say goodbye before leaving, to excuse oneself, or to take one’s leave.

It is a very common Indonesian word and often carries a polite social nuance. It is not just physically leaving; it is leaving in a socially acknowledged way.

Examples:

• Saya pamit dulu. = I’ll take my leave now.
• Dia pamit kepada ibunya. = He/She said goodbye to his/her mother.

So in this sentence, sebelum pamit suggests that the person said this just before leaving.

Indonesian often omits subjects when they are already clear from context.

In this sentence, the person who pamit is understood to be the same person as dia in the main clause:

• Sebelum pamit, dia berkata ...

This is very natural in Indonesian. You could also say:

• Sebelum dia pamit, dia berkata ...

but that sounds a bit more explicit and slightly heavier. The shorter version is more natural when the subject is obvious.

Yes, mengatakan could be used, but there is a nuance.

• berkata = to say / to speak
• mengatakan = to say / to state / to express something

A useful rule:

• berkata focuses more on the act of speaking
• mengatakan more often takes a direct object or content

So:

• Dia berkata bahwa ... = natural
• Dia mengatakan bahwa ... = also natural

Both work here. Berkata can sound slightly more literary or narrative in some contexts, while mengatakan is often a bit more straightforward.

Bahwa means that and introduces a content clause.

• Dia berkata bahwa keterlambatannya bisa dimaklumi ...
• He/She said that his/her lateness could be understood/excused ...

It links the verb of speaking to what was said.

In Indonesian, bahwa is often optional in casual speech, especially after verbs like bilang, katakan, or berkata. So you may also hear:

• Dia berkata keterlambatannya bisa dimaklumi ...

But with bahwa, the sentence sounds clearer and often a bit more formal or written.

Keterlambatannya comes from:

• terlambat = late
• ke- -an → forms a noun: keterlambatan = lateness / delay
• -nya = his/her/the

So:

• terlambat = late
• keterlambatan = lateness
• keterlambatannya = his/her lateness, or the lateness

This is a very common Indonesian pattern:
ke- -an often turns an adjective or stative word into an abstract noun.

Other examples:

• cantik = beautiful → kecantikan = beauty
• baik = good → kebaikan = goodness/kindness

Here -nya most naturally means his/her.

So:

• keterlambatannya = his/her lateness

Because the sentence already has dia, we understand that the lateness belongs to that person.

However, -nya in Indonesian can also sometimes act like the, depending on context. So in some situations, keterlambatannya might feel like the delay or the lateness. But here, his/her lateness is the most natural interpretation.

Bisa dimaklumi means something like:

• can be understood
• can be excused
• is understandable
• can be forgiven/accepted given the circumstances

Breakdown:

• bisa = can
• dimaklumi = understood, excused, regarded with understanding

So the idea is not just that the lateness is logically understandable, but also that people should be lenient about it.

It has a slightly sympathetic tone.

Because dimaklumi is passive.

• memaklumi = to understand/excuse something
• dimaklumi = to be understood/excused

In the sentence:

• keterlambatannya bisa dimaklumi
• his/her lateness can be excused

The focus is on the lateness, not on who excuses it. That is why the passive form fits well.

If you made it active, you would need an agent, for example:

• Orang-orang bisa memaklumi keterlambatannya.
• People can excuse his/her lateness.

Both are grammatical, but the original sounds more natural because the lateness is the topic.

The base is maklum.

Maklum has to do with understanding something and not being too harsh about it. In everyday use, it often carries the sense of it’s understandable, please understand, or let’s be reasonable about this.

Examples:

• Harap maklum. = Please understand.
• Dia memaklumi kesalahan itu. = He/She understood/excused that mistake.
• Kesalahan itu dimaklumi. = That mistake was excused/understood.

So dimaklumi is the passive form built from maklum.

Yes. Karena is the normal, very common word for because.

Here:

• ... karena busnya mogok
• ... because his/her bus broke down

It introduces the reason.

There are other words for because, such as sebab, but karena is the most common and natural choice in everyday Indonesian.

Busnya is:

• bus = bus
• -nya = his/her/the

So it can mean:

• his/her bus
• the bus
• sometimes the bus he/she was taking, depending on context

In this sentence, the most natural meaning is probably:

• the bus he/she was on or
• his/her bus

Indonesian -nya is often broader than English his/her. It can mark possession, but it can also simply point to something already understood from context.

So busnya mogok does not necessarily mean the person owns the bus.

Here mogok means to break down or to stop working, especially for a vehicle or machine.

So:

• busnya mogok = the bus broke down

This is a very common word for transportation and machinery.

Examples:

• Mobil saya mogok. = My car broke down.
• Motornya mogok di jalan. = His/Her motorcycle broke down on the road.

Be careful: mogok can also mean to go on strike in other contexts.

Example:

• Para pekerja mogok. = The workers went on strike.

So the meaning depends on what is doing the mogok.

Both can relate to something not working, but they are not exactly the same.

• mogok = broke down, stopped functioning unexpectedly, often temporarily
• rusak = damaged, broken, defective

For vehicles, mogok is often the best word when the vehicle fails and cannot continue.

Compare:

• Busnya mogok. = The bus broke down.
• Busnya rusak. = The bus is damaged/broken.

The second one is possible, but mogok is more natural if you mean the bus stopped working during the trip.

Dia can mean either he or she.

Indonesian third-person singular pronouns do not normally show gender. So you need context to know whether the person is male or female.

That is why translations often have to choose:

• he or
• she

but the Indonesian original stays neutral.

Yes. Even if the meaning is already known, it helps to see that Indonesian often allows several good English translations.

Possible natural translations include:

• Before leaving, he/she said that the delay was understandable because the bus had broken down.
• Before saying goodbye, he/she said that his/her lateness could be excused because the bus broke down.
• Before taking leave, he/she said that being late was understandable since the bus had broken down.

The exact English choice depends on how you interpret:

• pamit = leaving / saying goodbye / taking leave
• keterlambatannya = his/her lateness / the delay
• dimaklumi = understandable / excusable

It sounds mostly neutral to fairly formal, especially because of words like:

• berkata
• bahwa
• keterlambatannya
• dimaklumi

A more casual version might be something like:

• Sebelum pamit, dia bilang kalau telatnya bisa dimaklumi karena busnya mogok.

Changes:

• berkata → bilang
• bahwa → kalau
• keterlambatannya → telatnya

The original sentence is perfectly natural, but it leans more toward written or polished spoken Indonesian than very casual everyday chat.

The sentence can be divided like this:

• Sebelum pamit = time clause
• dia berkata = main clause
• bahwa keterlambatannya bisa dimaklumi = content clause
• karena busnya mogok = reason clause

So the full pattern is:

[Time] + [main statement] + [what was said] + [reason]

That makes it a good example of how Indonesian can stack clauses smoothly without changing word order very much.

A rough structure map:

• Sebelum pamit,
• dia berkata
• bahwa keterlambatannya bisa dimaklumi
• karena busnya mogok.

This kind of clause chaining is very common in Indonesian.