Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Para tukang memakai bor di rumah saya pagi ini. - The workers are using a drill at my house this morning.

pakai: colloquial, very common in speech.
memakai: more formal/literary than pakai ; also widely used for “wear” (clothes).
menggunakan: formal and a bit more technical; often preferred for tools/devices in careful writing. In this sentence, memakai bor is fine; in casual speech pakai bor is very natural; menggunakan bor is also correct.

Para marks a group of people (plural, human-only) and sounds a bit formal or written. It often implies a specific/known set (roughly like English “the …” as a group). In everyday speech, you can usually drop it and still mean “the workers” from context. Alternatives to show plurality include tukang-tukang (reduplication), but don’t combine that with para.

Is para tukang natural in casual conversation?

It’s grammatical but a bit formal. In daily speech people more often say:

tukang (plural understood from context)
tukang-tukang (if you want to emphasize plurality)
More specific terms like tukang bangunan, pekerja (workers), or pekerja bangunan.

Can I say para tukang-tukang?

No. Don’t combine para with reduplication. Use either para tukang or tukang-tukang, or just tukang.

What exactly does tukang mean? Any connotations?