Guru menjelaskan bahwa kampanye yang baik harus praktis dan mudah dipahami.

The teacher explains that a good campaign must be practical and easy to understand.

Breakdown of Guru menjelaskan bahwa kampanye yang baik harus praktis dan mudah dipahami.

• guru: the teacher
• dan: and
• mudah: easily
• baik: good
• yang: that
• harus: must
• bahwa: that
• menjelaskan: to explain
• kampanye: the campaign
• praktis: practical
• dipahami: to be understood

Questions & Answers about Guru menjelaskan bahwa kampanye yang baik harus praktis dan mudah dipahami.

What does bahwa do in this sentence? Is it necessary?

Bahwa is a conjunction that introduces a "that-clause", like “that” in English:

• Guru menjelaskan bahwa … = The teacher explained that …

In spoken Indonesian, bahwa is often omitted:

• Guru menjelaskan (bahwa) kampanye yang baik harus praktis dan mudah dipahami.

Both versions are correct. Using bahwa sounds a bit more formal and clear, especially in writing.

Why is there no word for “the” or “a” before guru and kampanye?

Indonesian does not have articles like “a/an” or “the”. The nouns:

• guru can mean “a teacher” or “the teacher”
• kampanye can mean “a campaign” or “the campaign”

Context decides whether it’s specific or general.
If you really want to show “a teacher”, you can say seorang guru (one person, a teacher), but it’s not required here.

What is the role of yang in kampanye yang baik? Could we just say kampanye baik?

Yang introduces a descriptive (relative) clause. Literally:

• kampanye yang baik = a campaign *that is good*

You can say kampanye baik, and it’s still correct. The nuance:

• kampanye baik – simple noun + adjective, “good campaigns” in general.
• kampanye yang baik – slightly more emphatic/defining: “campaigns that are good (as opposed to bad ones)”.

In many contexts they are interchangeable; yang is very common when you want to define or highlight the quality.

Why is the adjective after the noun (kampanye yang baik) and not like English “good campaign”?

In Indonesian, adjectives normally come after the noun:

• kampanye baik = good campaign
• guru pintar = smart teacher
• rumah besar = big house

So kampanye yang baik follows the usual pattern: noun + (yang) + adjective.
Putting the adjective before the noun, like baik kampanye, is not standard.

What exactly does menjelaskan mean, and how is it formed?

The root word is jelas = “clear”.
menjelaskan is built as:

• jelas (clear)
• meN- + jelas + -kan → menjelaskan = “to explain (to make something clear)”

So menjelaskan means “to explain something”.
There is no verb menjelas; you need the full form menjelaskan.

Compared with other verbs:

• mengatakan = to say, to state
• menerangkan = to explain (similar to menjelaskan, but menjelaskan is more common in standard/formal contexts)

Does harus here mean “must” or “should”? How strong is it?

Harus literally corresponds to “must” / “have to” and expresses strong obligation or necessity:

• kampanye yang baik harus praktis
  ≈ a good campaign must be practical / has to be practical

In real usage, people sometimes use harus a bit more softly, closer to “should”, but grammatically it is stronger than words like:

• sebaiknya = should / it would be better if
• perlu = need to / necessary to (often more neutral)

What does praktis mean, and is it just a borrowing from English?

Yes, praktis is a loanword, related to English “practical”. Here it means:

• praktis = “practical, efficient, convenient, easy to apply in real life”

It can also mean “simple / not complicated” in everyday talk.
There is also praktikal, but praktis is far more common in sentences like this.

What does mudah dipahami literally mean, and why use a passive form?

Breakdown:

• mudah = easy
• paham = to understand / to grasp
• memahami = to understand (something) – active
• dipahami = to be understood – passive

So mudah dipahami literally means “easy to be understood”, i.e. “easy to understand”.

Indonesian often uses a passive structure with mudah:

• mudah dimengerti / mudah dipahami = easy to understand
• mudah dilakukan = easy to do
• mudah diingat = easy to remember

An alternative is mudah dimengerti (from mengerti, also “to understand”), which is very common and very natural.

Why isn’t there a word like “is” or “are” before praktis and mudah dipahami?

Indonesian usually does not use a separate “to be” verb (like is/are) before adjectives or many predicates. It just uses:

• subject + (modal) + adjective/predicate

Here:

• kampanye yang baik = subject
• harus = modal (“must”)
• praktis dan mudah dipahami = predicate

So:

• kampanye yang baik harus praktis
  ≈ “a good campaign must be practical”

You do not say kampanye harus adalah praktis – adalah is generally used before nouns, not adjectives.

Is this sentence formal, or can it be used in casual conversation? How would it sound more casual?

The sentence is in neutral-to-formal standard Indonesian, suitable for:

• school / textbooks
• presentations
• writing

In casual spoken Indonesian, people might say something like:

• Guru bilang kalau kampanye yang bagus harus praktis dan gampang dimengerti.

Changes:

• menjelaskan → bilang (say/tell, informal)
• bahwa → kalau (often used as “that” in speech)
• baik → bagus (more everyday “good”)
• mudah dipahami → gampang dimengerti (more colloquial “easy to understand”)

The original sentence is perfectly natural; it just leans a bit more towards standard/formal Indonesian.