Kami membatalkan rapat itu karena dosen pembimbing pergi ke luar kota.

In Indonesian, kami and kita both can mean we, but they are not interchangeable.

• kami = we, excluding the listener
• kita = we, including the listener

So Kami membatalkan rapat itu means We canceled the meeting, but the person being spoken to is probably not part of that we.

If the speaker meant that the listener was also part of the group that canceled it, kita would be more natural.

Batal by itself usually means cancelled, invalid, or to be canceled depending on context.

Membatalkan is a verb formed from the root batal with the affixes meN- and -kan. It means to cancel something.

So:

• batal = canceled / not happening
• membatalkan = to cancel

Compare:

• Rapat itu batal. = The meeting was canceled / The meeting is off.
• Kami membatalkan rapat itu. = We canceled the meeting.

The version with membatalkan is used because the subject kami is actively doing the canceling.

In many Indonesian verbs, -kan helps make the verb transitive, meaning it takes a direct object.

Here:

• batal is the basic idea: cancelled / invalid
• membatalkan means to cause something to become canceled or simply to cancel something

That is why it can take an object:

• membatalkan rapat = to cancel the meeting

You do not need to translate -kan literally every time, but it often helps create a verb meaning do something to/for something.

In Indonesian, demonstratives like ini and itu usually come after the noun.

So:

• rapat itu = that meeting / the meeting
• buku ini = this book

This is the normal Indonesian order.

In many contexts, itu can also make the noun sound definite, so rapat itu may be understood as the meeting even if English would not always say that meeting.

Karena means because.

In this sentence:

• Kami membatalkan rapat itu karena dosen pembimbing pergi ke luar kota.
• We canceled the meeting because the advisor/supervisor went out of town.

You can also put the because clause first:

• Karena dosen pembimbing pergi ke luar kota, kami membatalkan rapat itu.

Both are natural. The meaning stays the same.

Literally:

• dosen = lecturer, university teacher
• pembimbing = advisor, supervisor, guide

Together, dosen pembimbing means something like:

• supervising lecturer
• academic advisor
• thesis supervisor

The exact English translation depends on context. In university settings, it often refers to the lecturer who supervises a student’s research, thesis, or academic progress.

This is a noun + noun combination, which is very common in Indonesian.

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

So dosen pembimbing can mean:

• a supervisor
• the supervisor
• our supervisor
• the academic advisor

The exact meaning depends on context.

In this sentence, it is probably understood as the advisor/supervisor because the speaker and listener already know which person is meant.

Pergi means to go, and ke luar kota means out of town or more literally to outside the city.

So:

• pergi ke luar kota = to go out of town

It does not necessarily mean leaving the country or going very far. It usually just means going to another city or being away from the local area.

This is a very common learner question.

• ke luar kota = to outside the city / out of town
• keluar kota can sometimes look similar, but keluar is a verb meaning to exit / go out

So in this sentence, ke luar kota is the correct form because:

• ke = preposition to
• luar kota = outside the city

So the phrase means movement to a place outside the city.

This is different from keluar, which is a single word meaning go out.

Compare:

• Saya keluar dari rumah. = I went out of the house.
• Saya pergi ke luar kota. = I went out of town.

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense the way English verbs do.

So:

• membatalkan can mean cancel, canceled, will cancel
• pergi can mean go, went, will go

Time is usually understood from context, or from time words such as:

• kemarin = yesterday
• tadi = earlier
• besok = tomorrow
• sudah = already
• akan = will

In your sentence, the intended meaning is clearly past from context: the meeting was canceled because the advisor went out of town.

Yes. A very natural passive version would be:

• Rapat itu dibatalkan karena dosen pembimbing pergi ke luar kota.

This means:

• The meeting was canceled because the advisor went out of town.

Difference in focus:

• Kami membatalkan rapat itu focuses on who did it: we
• Rapat itu dibatalkan focuses on what happened to the meeting

Both are common in Indonesian.

Yes, often it can.

• Kami membatalkan rapat. = We canceled a meeting / the meeting
• Kami membatalkan rapat itu. = We canceled that meeting / the meeting

Adding itu makes the meeting more specific and identifiable. It suggests both speaker and listener know which meeting is being discussed.

Without itu, the sentence is still grammatical, but it may sound a little less specific.

Yes. The structure is very typical:

• Kami = subject
• membatalkan = verb
• rapat itu = object
• karena... = reason clause

So the pattern is basically:

Subject + Verb + Object + Reason

This is one of the most common and natural patterns in Indonesian.