Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Jika terjadi kecelakaan kecil, polisi datang dan menanyakan apa yang terjadi. - If a small accident happens, the police come and ask what happened.

Jika terjadi kecelakaan kecil is more natural and more common. It’s like saying “If there happens (to be) a small accident” – terjadi works almost like an impersonal “there happens”.
Jika kecelakaan kecil terjadi sounds a bit heavier or more formal and is less common in everyday speech. It emphasizes kecelakaan kecil as the subject: “If a small accident happens”.

So the sentence given uses the more idiomatic pattern where terjadi comes first and introduces the event in a neutral, impersonal way.

What exactly does terjadi mean here? How is it different from just saying ada kecelakaan kecil?

Terjadi means “to happen / to occur”.

Jika terjadi kecelakaan kecil
= If a small accident happens / occurs
Jika ada kecelakaan kecil
= If there is a small accident

They are close in meaning and often interchangeable, but:

terjadi focuses on the event of happening (the occurrence).
ada focuses on existence / presence (there is / there exists).

In many contexts (especially for accidents, disasters, incidents), terjadi sounds slightly more natural:

Kemarin terjadi kecelakaan besar di jalan tol.
Yesterday a big accident happened on the toll road.

You could say ada kecelakaan besar, but terjadi is very commonly used with events like kecelakaan (accident), bencana (disaster), kerusuhan (riots), etc.

Why is terjadi used twice: Jika terjadi kecelakaan kecil ... menanyakan apa yang terjadi? Is that repetition normal?

Yes, that repetition is normal and natural.

The first terjadi:
Jika terjadi kecelakaan kecil
= If a small accident happens / occurs
The second terjadi:
menanyakan apa yang terjadi
= (they) ask what happened / what is going on

Even though English might choose different forms (happens vs happened), Indonesian uses the same base verb terjadi in both places, because the language doesn’t change verb forms for tense like English does.

So the second terjadi belongs inside the indirect question apa yang terjadi (“what happened / what is happening”), not just repeating for no reason.

In Jika terjadi kecelakaan kecil, there is no subject like “someone” or “there”. Is that OK in Indonesian?

Yes. Indonesian can leave out an explicit subject in cases like this.

Jika terjadi kecelakaan kecil literally feels like:

If (it) happens a small accident
Or more naturally: If a small accident happens

Indonesian does not need an equivalent of English “there” (as in “there is/there happens”) as a dummy subject. The verb terjadi plus the noun phrase kecelakaan kecil is enough to express the idea.

Is jika here closer to “if” or “when”? Could we use kalau instead?

Jika is generally equivalent to “if” and is a bit more formal or neutral.

In this sentence, Jika terjadi kecelakaan kecil is best read as “If a small accident happens”, describing a condition.

You can also say:

Kalau terjadi kecelakaan kecil, polisi datang dan menanyakan apa yang terjadi.

Kalau is more informal and very common in spoken Indonesian. In many contexts:

jika ≈ kalau = if

Sometimes, depending on context and tone, kalau (and even jika) can lean toward “when(ever)” (something that regularly happens), but the basic idea is conditional “if”.

There’s no word for “will” in polisi datang. How do we know it’s future: “the police will come”?

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense, and the language often doesn’t mark future explicitly if it’s clear from context.

Polisi datang can mean:

The police come
The police will come
The police came (in a narrative with past context)

Here, the jika (“if”) clause sets up a general conditional pattern, so polisi datang is naturally understood as:

the police will come (as a rule/typical result)

If you really want to emphasize future, you can add akan:

Jika terjadi kecelakaan kecil, polisi akan datang...
= If a small accident happens, the police will come...

But akan is optional and often omitted.

In polisi datang, there is no word for “the” or “a”. How do you say “the police” vs “a policeman” in Indonesian?

Indonesian normally has no articles like “a” or “the”, so polisi by itself can mean:

the police (institution / police officers)
a police officer
police (in general)

Context decides the exact nuance. In this sentence, polisi datang is naturally understood as “the police come/arrive” (the police as an institution / officers on duty).

To be more specific:

seorang polisi = a police officer (one person)
para polisi = the police (officers) as a group
pihak kepolisian = the (official) police / the authorities (formal)

But the simple polisi is very common and usually enough.

What is the difference between menanyakan and bertanya / tanya? Why is it menanyakan apa yang terjadi?

All are related to “to ask”, but they’re used differently.

bertanya (kepada) = to ask (someone), to pose a question
- Focus on the act of asking
- Example: Polisi bertanya kepada saksi.
  The police asked the witness.
menanyakan (sesuatu) = to ask about something, to inquire about a specific thing
- Focus on the thing being asked (the object of the question)
- Example: Polisi menanyakan kronologi kejadian.
  The police asked about the chronology of the incident.
tanya (verb, informal) = to ask
- Often used in conversational style
- Example: Polisi tanya apa yang terjadi.

In the sentence:

menanyakan apa yang terjadi
= ask what happened / ask about what happened

The thing being asked is apa yang terjadi (“what happened”), so using menanyakan is a good fit: the police are asking about that specific information.

You could also say in everyday speech:

polisi bertanya apa yang terjadi
polisi tanya apa yang terjadi

These are also acceptable.

How does apa yang terjadi work grammatically? Why do we need yang there?

Apa yang terjadi literally breaks down as:

apa = what
yang = that / which (relative marker)
terjadi = happened / is happening

So apa yang terjadi is like saying “what that happened”, which in natural English becomes “what happened” or “what is happening”.

Yang is used here to link apa with the verb terjadi, turning it into a complete question phrase “the thing that happened” → what happened.

Without yang, apa terjadi is not grammatical.

Some parallel patterns:

apa yang kamu lihat? = what did you see?
apa yang dia katakan? = what did he/she say?
siapa yang datang? = who came?

So, [question word] + yang + [verb/phrase] is a very common structure.

Why is it kecelakaan kecil and not kecil kecelakaan? Does Indonesian always put the adjective after the noun?

Yes, in Indonesian the usual order is:

noun + adjective

So:

kecelakaan kecil = small accident
rumah besar = big house
mobil baru = new car

Putting the adjective before the noun (like kecil kecelakaan) is incorrect in standard Indonesian. There are a few special cases and fixed expressions, but as a rule, remember:

English: adjective + noun
Indonesian: noun + adjective

The sentence has a comma: Jika terjadi kecelakaan kecil, polisi datang.... Is that important in Indonesian? Would it change the meaning if we removed it?

The comma is normal and recommended but not strictly about meaning.

Jika terjadi kecelakaan kecil, polisi datang dan menanyakan apa yang terjadi.

The jika-clause (Jika terjadi kecelakaan kecil) is a conditional clause; the part after the comma (polisi datang dan menanyakan...) is the main clause (the result).

You can write it without a comma in informal contexts and people will still understand it, but standard writing usually uses a comma after a leading jika/kalau clause. It helps readability but doesn’t change the basic meaning.