Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Kami berhenti sejenak di halte karena lampu lalu lintas rusak. - We stop for a moment at the bus stop because the traffic light is broken.

So kami berhenti… means we stopped… but you (the listener) were not part of that group.
If the speaker wants to include the listener (e.g. We stopped just now, remember?), they would say kita berhenti sejenak… instead.

Can kami be omitted? Could I just say Berhenti sejenak di halte karena lampu lalu lintas rusak?

You can omit kami in casual speech, especially if context already makes it clear who is meant. Indonesians often drop the subject when it’s obvious.

However, the full sentence with kami is:

more complete and clear
more natural in formal or written Indonesian

So:

Kami berhenti sejenak di halte karena… (neutral, complete)
Berhenti sejenak di halte karena… (casual, context-dependent)

What exactly does sejenak mean, and how is it different from sebentar?

Both mean for a short time, but the nuance is slightly different:

sejenak
- literally: for a brief moment
- slightly more literary / neutral
- often used in writing or more careful speech
sebentar
- very common in spoken Indonesian
- often used when asking someone to wait: Tunggu sebentar (Wait a moment)

In this sentence, you can say either:

Kami berhenti sejenak di halte… (perfectly natural)
Kami berhenti sebentar di halte… (also very natural, maybe a bit more everyday/colloquial)

What is the se- in sejenak? Is it a prefix?

Yes. Se- in words like sejenak, sebentar, sekali, sehari often means:

one, a, a single, for one unit of time

Here:

jenak = a short pause / moment
se- + jenak → sejenak = for a brief moment

Similarly:

bentar (colloquial) → sebentar (for a moment)
hari (day) → sehari (for a day)

What does halte mean exactly? Is it always a bus stop?

Halte means stop / stopping place for public transport. In practice, it usually refers to:

halte bus = bus stop
halte TransJakarta = specific BRT bus stop
halte for trams in some contexts

In everyday usage, if people say halte alone, they almost always mean a bus stop. You can say:

di halte (at the stop)
di halte bus (at the bus stop, more explicit)

Why is the preposition di used before halte? Can I use ke instead?

di = at / in / on (location, no movement)
ke = to (direction / movement toward a place)

In this sentence, you are describing where you stopped, not where you were going:

Kami berhenti sejenak di halte = We stopped briefly at the bus stop.

If you want to describe movement, you’d use ke:

Kami pergi ke halte = We went to the bus stop.
Then you could continue: … dan berhenti sejenak di sana (and stopped briefly there).

How is lampu lalu lintas structured? Why not a plural form like in English (lights)?

lampu lalu lintas is a compound phrase:

lampu = lamp / light
lalu lintas = traffic
→ lampu lalu lintas = traffic light(s)

Indonesian usually does not mark plural with an ending like English. Context tells you whether it’s singular or plural. So:

lampu lalu lintas rusak
can mean the traffic light was broken or the traffic lights were broken, depending on the situation.

If you really want to emphasize plurality, you can say:

lampu-lampu lalu lintas (sounds a bit heavier, used when you really want to stress “many lights”).

Why is there no “the” in lampu lalu lintas? How do we know it’s the traffic light, not a traffic light?

Indonesian doesn’t have articles like a/an/the. The definiteness is understood from context.

lampu lalu lintas rusak
typically means the traffic light is broken (the one both speaker and listener know about: at that intersection).

If you want to make it even more clearly “the/that one”, you can add itu or -nya:

lampu lalu lintas itu rusak = that traffic light was broken
lampu lalu lintasnya rusak = the traffic light was broken (the one we have in mind)

Why is it lampu lalu lintas rusak and not lampu lalu lintas yang rusak?

Both can be correct, but they’re used differently:

lampu lalu lintas rusak
- simple subject + adjective
- the traffic light is/was broken (a statement)
lampu lalu lintas yang rusak
- the traffic light that is broken (a relative clause modifying something else)
- often needs a noun before or after it, for example:
  - Kami memperbaiki lampu lalu lintas yang rusak.
    We repaired the traffic light that was broken.

In your sentence, we just need “because the traffic light was broken”, so lampu lalu lintas rusak is the natural form.

How do we know this happened in the past? There’s no past tense marker.

Indonesian usually doesn’t mark tense with verb changes. berhenti can mean stop, stopped, or will stop depending on context.

We infer it’s past because:

English translation context suggests it
Often there’s surrounding narrative (earlier / later events)

If you want to make the past time explicit, you can add time markers:

Tadi kami berhenti sejenak di halte… = Earlier, we stopped briefly at the bus stop…
Kemarin kami berhenti sejenak di halte… = Yesterday we stopped briefly at the bus stop…

Can I move the karena clause to the beginning? Is punctuation important?

Yes, very natural:

Karena lampu lalu lintas rusak, kami berhenti sejenak di halte.

When the karena clause comes first, you normally add a comma after it.
When it comes second, a comma is usually optional:

Kami berhenti sejenak di halte karena lampu lalu lintas rusak. (no comma, common)
Kami berhenti sejenak di halte, karena lampu lalu lintas rusak. (comma, more written style)

What’s the nuance of rusak here? Is it the usual word for a broken traffic light?

rusak is a general word meaning broken / damaged / not functioning properly.

For devices/lights you may also hear:

lampu lalu lintasnya mati = the traffic light is dead / off
lampu lalu lintasnya error (casual) = the traffic light is malfunctioning

In this sentence:

lampu lalu lintas rusak = the traffic light was out of order / broken in some way (could be off, stuck on red, flickering, etc.).

In everyday speech, do Indonesians say lampu lalu lintas, or something shorter?

In everyday, especially informal speech, people often say:

lampu merah = literally red light, but commonly used for traffic light

For example:

Kami berhenti sejenak di halte karena lampu merah rusak.

Both lampu lalu lintas and lampu merah are correct.

lampu lalu lintas = more formal/neutral
lampu merah = very common in daily conversation.