Sebelum berangkat ke kantor, saya memeriksa tali sepatu saya lagi.

Sebelum means before. It introduces a time clause:

• Sebelum berangkat ke kantor = Before leaving for the office

It works a lot like English before + doing something.

In Indonesian, this kind of clause can come before or after the main clause:

• Sebelum berangkat ke kantor, saya memeriksa tali sepatu saya lagi.
• Saya memeriksa tali sepatu saya lagi sebelum berangkat ke kantor.

Both are natural.

Indonesian often omits a subject when it is already clear from context.

So:

• Sebelum berangkat ke kantor = Before leaving for the office
• Sebelum saya berangkat ke kantor = Before I leave/left for the office

Both are correct. The version without saya sounds a little more streamlined and natural when the subject is obviously the same as in the main clause.

Berangkat means to depart / to leave (for a destination).

In this sentence:

• berangkat ke kantor = leave for the office

Compared with pergi:

• pergi = go
• berangkat = set off / depart

So berangkat emphasizes the act of leaving, while pergi is a more general word for going somewhere.

Examples:

• Saya pergi ke kantor. = I go to the office.
• Saya berangkat ke kantor jam 7. = I leave for the office at 7.

Ke is a preposition meaning to (for movement toward a place).

So:

• ke kantor = to the office

Other examples:

• ke sekolah = to school
• ke rumah = home / to the house
• ke pasar = to the market

Indonesian uses ke before destinations.

Periksa is the base form, and memeriksa is the active verb form with the meN- prefix.

• periksa = examine / inspect / check (base)
• memeriksa = to check / to inspect

In full sentences, Indonesian often uses the meN- form for active verbs, especially in standard or careful language.

So:

• Saya memeriksa tali sepatu saya. = I checked my shoelaces.

You may hear cek or mengecek in everyday speech too, but memeriksa sounds more standard and slightly more formal.

The first saya is the subject:

• saya memeriksa = I checked

The second saya shows possession:

• tali sepatu saya = my shoelaces

This is normal in Indonesian. Possession is often shown by putting the possessor after the noun:

• buku saya = my book
• rumah saya = my house
• sepatu saya = my shoes

So the repetition is not strange; the two saya have different jobs.

Indonesian noun phrases usually go from the main noun to the more specific information after it.

Here:

• tali = lace/string
• sepatu = shoe
• tali sepatu = shoelace
• tali sepatu saya = my shoelace(s)

So the order is:

1. main noun: tali
2. specifying noun: sepatu
3. possessor: saya

This is very typical Indonesian word order.

It can mean either shoelace or shoelaces, depending on context.

Indonesian nouns do not have to change form for singular or plural. So:

• tali sepatu saya could mean my shoelace
• or my shoelaces

In this sentence, English would usually translate it as my shoelaces, because people normally check both laces.

If you really wanted to make the plural explicit, you could say:

• tali-tali sepatu saya

But that often sounds unnecessary here.

Here lagi means again or once more.

So:

• saya memeriksa tali sepatu saya lagi = I checked my shoelaces again / once more

It suggests the speaker had already checked them before, or wanted to make sure one more time.

Be careful: lagi can also mean currently in the middle of doing something in other contexts, especially after a verb:

• Saya lagi makan. = I’m eating right now.

But in this sentence, at the end, it clearly means again.

The comma separates the introductory time clause from the main clause:

• Sebelum berangkat ke kantor, = introductory clause
• saya memeriksa tali sepatu saya lagi. = main clause

This is similar to English:

• Before leaving for the office, I checked my shoelaces again.

In Indonesian, punctuation is often a bit flexible in casual writing, but the comma is perfectly correct here.

Yes, absolutely.

• Sebelum berangkat ke kantor, saya memeriksa tali sepatu saya lagi.
• Sebelum saya berangkat ke kantor, saya memeriksa tali sepatu saya lagi.

The second version is slightly more explicit because it states the subject inside the before clause. The first version is a little more concise.

Both are natural.

Yes, it is natural. It means checking the shoelaces, usually to make sure they are:

• tied properly
• not loose
• not undone
• in good condition

Depending on context, English might also say:

• I checked my shoelaces again
• I checked that my shoelaces were tied again
• I checked my shoelaces once more

Indonesian often leaves that extra detail unstated if it is obvious.

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

So:

• ke kantor can mean to the office
• tali sepatu saya can mean my shoelaces

The meaning is understood from context.

That is why Indonesian sentences can look shorter than English ones, even when they express the same idea.