Mereka melaporkan kebakaran itu.

Mereka means they or them, depending on its role in the sentence.

In Mereka melaporkan kebakaran itu, it is the subject, so it means they.

Indonesian pronouns do not show gender, so mereka can refer to any group of people:

• men
• women
• a mixed group

It also does not change form the way English pronouns do.

Because melaporkan is the standard active transitive form meaning to report something.

It is built from:

• lapor = report
• meN- = active verb prefix
• -kan = suffix often used when the verb takes a direct object

So:

• lapor = report / give a report
• melapor = to report
• melaporkan = to report something

In this sentence, there is a direct object, kebakaran itu, so melaporkan fits very naturally.

The prefix here is part of the meN- active-verb system, one of the most important patterns in Indonesian.

Its main job is to mark the verb as an active verb, usually with the subject as the doer of the action.

So in:

• Mereka melaporkan kebakaran itu

  mereka are doing the action of reporting.

With the root lapor, the prefix appears as me-, giving melapor-.

In this sentence, -kan helps make the verb work naturally with a direct object.

So:

• melapor often means to report
• melaporkan sesuatu means to report something

Here, the thing being reported is:

• kebakaran itu = the fire / that fire

So melaporkan is the form you would expect when the sentence explicitly says what was reported.

Here, kebakaran is a noun, meaning fire or conflagration.

It comes from the root:

• bakar = burn

With the circumfix:

• ke-...-an

This pattern often creates nouns relating to an event, condition, or occurrence.

So:

• bakar = burn
• kebakaran = a fire / a burning incident

In this sentence, kebakaran is the object of the verb melaporkan.

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

So:

• kebakaran itu = that fire / the fire

This is normal Indonesian word order:

• rumah itu = that house
• orang itu = that person
• kebakaran itu = that fire

This is different from English, where that comes before the noun.

It can feel like either one in English, depending on context.

Literally, itu means that. But in many real sentences, it also works a bit like the, pointing to something already known or identifiable.

So kebakaran itu could be understood as:

• that fire
• the fire

If the fire has already been mentioned, English will often prefer the fire even though Indonesian uses itu.

Yes. This sentence uses the basic Indonesian pattern:

• Subject + Verb + Object

So:

• Mereka = subject
• melaporkan = verb
• kebakaran itu = object

This is very similar to normal English word order:

• They reported the fire.

That makes this sentence structurally quite straightforward for English speakers.

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

So melaporkan by itself does not tell you whether the action is:

• present
• past
• future

The time is usually understood from:

• context
• time words
• other markers

For example:

• Kemarin mereka melaporkan kebakaran itu. = Yesterday they reported the fire.
• Sekarang mereka melaporkan kebakaran itu. = They are reporting the fire now.
• Besok mereka akan melaporkan kebakaran itu. = They will report the fire tomorrow.

So without more context, the sentence is tense-neutral.

Yes, you could, but it is slightly different in structure.

Compare:

• Mereka melaporkan kebakaran itu
  = They reported the fire.

• Mereka melapor tentang kebakaran itu
  = They reported about the fire / They made a report about the fire.

The first version treats kebakaran itu as a direct object.
The second version uses tentang to mean about/concerning.

In many situations, melaporkan kebakaran itu is the more direct and natural way to say report the fire.

It sounds standard and neutral, and it would fit well in writing, news, official speech, or careful everyday language.

In very casual speech, people may use less formal alternatives, but melaporkan is a good standard form to learn.

So if you are learning textbook or general Indonesian, this sentence is perfectly natural and useful.

Sometimes yes, if the subject is already clear from context.

For example, in conversation, Indonesian often drops subjects when they are understood. But when the speaker wants to be clear, or when the sentence stands alone, keeping mereka is normal.

So:

• Mereka melaporkan kebakaran itu. = clear standalone sentence
• Melaporkan kebakaran itu. = possible only in certain contexts, but incomplete by itself in many situations

For learners, it is safest to include the subject unless context clearly allows omission.