Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Pengacara dan jurnalis sering berlatih berbicara jelas, karena apa yang mereka katakan didengar banyak orang. - Lawyers and journalists often practice speaking clearly, because what they say is heard by many people.

For jurnalis, another very common word is wartawan (reporter / journalist), especially in everyday speech and in the media.
For pengacara, a more formal/technical term is advokat, but pengacara is very widely used and understood.

In this sentence, pengacara and jurnalis are perfectly natural choices and sound neutral and standard.

How do we know pengacara and jurnalis are plural (lawyers, journalists) if there is no -s or word like “many”?

Indonesian nouns usually do not change form for singular vs plural. Context tells you whether it’s one or more.

In this sentence:

Pengacara dan jurnalis sering berlatih...

Because we have two professions joined by dan (and), and
Because the statement is clearly general (talking about a group in general, not one specific lawyer and one specific journalist),

the most natural English translation is “Lawyers and journalists often...”.

If you really need to emphasize plurality in Indonesian, you can use:

para pengacara dan jurnalis → “(all) the lawyers and journalists” / “the lawyers and journalists as a group”
banyak pengacara dan jurnalis → “many lawyers and journalists”

But in a generic statement about professions, the bare nouns are normal and already understood as general/plural.

Why is sering placed before berlatih? Could it go somewhere else?

Sering means often. The basic word order is:

subject + sering + verb

So:

Pengacara dan jurnalis sering berlatih...
Lawyers and journalists often practice...

This is the most natural placement.

Other possibilities and how they sound:

Pengacara dan jurnalis berlatih sering – grammatically possible, but sounds odd and unnatural; you almost never say it this way.
Sering, pengacara dan jurnalis berlatih... – also possible, but now sering is more like a sentence adverb at the beginning, used in writing for stylistic variation or emphasis: “Often, lawyers and journalists practice...”

So in normal speech and writing, put sering right before the verb it modifies: sering berlatih.

What is the structure berlatih berbicara? Why do we have two verbs, and is berlatih untuk berbicara also possible?

Berlatih berbicara literally is “to practice speaking.”

berlatih = to practice (to train)
berbicara = to speak

In Indonesian it’s very common to use a verb like berlatih directly followed by another verb:

berlatih menulis – practice writing
berlatih menyanyi – practice singing
berlatih berenang – practice swimming

So berlatih berbicara is completely natural.

You can say berlatih untuk berbicara, and it’s grammatically correct, but:

berlatih berbicara is more concise and more natural in this context.
berlatih untuk berbicara might sound a bit more “purposive” or formal, as if the focus is on the goal (“practice in order to speak”), rather than simply naming the activity (“practice speaking”).

In everyday Indonesian, berlatih + [verb] without untuk is the usual pattern.

Why is it berbicara jelas and not berbicara dengan jelas? Is one of them wrong?

Both are grammatically correct:

berbicara jelas
berbicara dengan jelas

The difference is subtle:

berbicara jelas
- Very common and natural.
- jelas here functions like an adverb meaning clearly.
- Feels slightly more direct/colloquial.
berbicara dengan jelas
- Also correct and common.
- Literally “to speak with clarity”, where dengan is like “with / in a ... way”.
- Can feel a bit more explicit or slightly more formal, depending on context.

In this sentence, berbicara jelas is short, smooth, and fully natural. You could replace it with berbicara dengan jelas without changing the core meaning.

What does karena mean here, and how does it connect the two parts of the sentence?

Karena means because. It introduces the reason for the first clause.

Sentence structure:

Clause 1: Pengacara dan jurnalis sering berlatih berbicara jelas,
Clause 2: karena apa yang mereka katakan didengar banyak orang.

So it corresponds to:

Lawyers and journalists often practice speaking clearly, *because what they say is heard by many people.*

You can also put karena at the beginning:

Karena apa yang mereka katakan didengar banyak orang, pengacara dan jurnalis sering berlatih berbicara jelas.

That just changes the order (reason first, result second) but keeps the same meaning.

What exactly does apa yang mereka katakan mean? How is apa used here?

Apa yang mereka katakan means what they say.

Breakdown:

apa – what
yang – a linker used to form relative / noun clauses
mereka – they
katakan – say (from mengatakan / kata)

Together, apa yang mereka katakan functions as a noun phrase, not a question:

apa – “the thing(s) that”
yang mereka katakan – “they say”

So you can think of it as: “the thing(s) that they say” → what they say.

Important: apa here does not make the sentence a question; it’s introducing a relative clause-like structure that turns the whole chunk into a “something” (a subject or object).

What is the role of yang in apa yang mereka katakan? Could we remove it?

Yang is a very important word in Indonesian. Here, it links apa with the clause mereka katakan, forming a unit.

apa (what)
yang mereka katakan (that they say)

If you remove yang, the result apa mereka katakan is not grammatical in standard Indonesian in this position.

So:

✅ apa yang mereka katakan – correct: what they say
❌ apa mereka katakan – incorrect in this context

More generally, yang is used to connect a noun / pronoun / apa / siapa etc. with a descriptive or relative clause. Here it’s doing exactly that.

Why is it didengar and not mendengar or mendengarkan? What kind of verb form is this?

Didengar is the passive form of the verb dengar (to hear).

mendengar – active: to hear
- Banyak orang mendengar apa yang mereka katakan.
  – Many people hear what they say.
didengar – passive: is heard
- Apa yang mereka katakan didengar banyak orang.
  – What they say is heard by many people.

So in the original sentence, the structure is:

Apa yang mereka katakan (subject)
didengar (passive verb)
banyak orang (agent = many people)

Indonesian uses the di- prefix to mark a passive verb, often corresponding to English “is/are [past participle]” (is heard, is seen, is made, etc.).

Mendengarkan is a related verb meaning “to listen to,” often with more intention:

Mereka mendengarkan musik. – They listen to music.

But for “is heard,” the correct form is didengar.

Why is there no oleh before banyak orang? Would didengar oleh banyak orang also be correct?

In passive sentences, oleh (by) is often optional, especially when the agent is a simple noun phrase and there is no ambiguity.

Apa yang mereka katakan didengar banyak orang.
– What they say is heard by many people. (natural, concise)
Apa yang mereka katakan didengar oleh banyak orang.
– Also correct; a bit more explicit, slightly more formal or written in feel.

Both are grammatical. The version without oleh is very common in everyday Indonesian and sounds perfectly natural here. Oleh tends to be used when:

You want to emphasize the agent, or
The sentence might otherwise be ambiguous or hard to parse.

Could we say karena yang mereka katakan didengar banyak orang without apa? What would change?

Yes, you can say:

karena yang mereka katakan didengar banyak orang

This would be understood as:

“because what they say is heard by many people”

The difference:

apa yang mereka katakan
- More explicit: “the thing(s) that they say”
- Very clear that it’s a noun phrase meaning what they say.
yang mereka katakan
- Grammatically, yang mereka katakan modifies some understood noun (like hal = “thing”) that is not explicitly mentioned:
  - (hal) yang mereka katakan
- In context, people will still understand it as what they say.

In many cases, apa yang... is a bit more straightforward for learners and feels a touch more complete. Native speakers use both patterns, depending on style and context.

What is the difference between berbicara, bicara, berkata, and mengatakan? Could we replace berbicara here?

All are related to “speaking” but with different typical uses:

berbicara
- To speak, to talk.
- Neutral, slightly more formal than bicara.
- Used for the general act of speaking.
- In our sentence, berbicara jelas = “to speak clearly.”
bicara
- Colloquial/short form of berbicara.
- Very common in speech, e.g. nggak usah bicara (no need to talk).
- You could say berlatih bicara jelas, and it would be understood, but berbicara sounds a bit more standard/formal, fitting the context of professionals (lawyers, journalists).
berkata
- To say (more like quoting someone’s words).
- Common in narration: Dia berkata bahwa... = “He/She said that...”
mengatakan
- To say / to state (transitive; usually followed by what is said).
- Dia mengatakan sesuatu. – He/She said something.

In this sentence, berbicara is best because the focus is on the manner of speaking (speaking clearly). Berkata or mengatakan would sound wrong here, because they are about uttering specific words rather than the skill of speaking.