Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Komentar kasar di internet belum tentu jujur; kejujuran lebih jelas terlihat dalam dialog langsung. - Harsh comments on the internet are not necessarily honest; honesty is more clearly seen in direct dialogue.

That’s much stronger. Belum tentu jujur leaves room for possibility: some may be honest, but there is no guarantee that they are. It matches English not necessarily honest better than not honest.

Why is there no “to be” verb like “adalah” before jujur or kejujuran?

Indonesian usually does not use a separate “to be” verb (like English is/are) between a subject and:

an adjective, or
a noun used as a description.

So the pattern is:

Subject + adjective
- Komentar itu kasar. = “That comment is rude.”
Subject + noun (as a label)
- Dia dokter. = “She is a doctor.”

In your sentence:

Komentar kasar di internet belum tentu jujur.
Literally: “Harsh comments on the internet not-yet-certain honest.”

No adalah is needed.

Adalah is more typical:

before a noun phrase, especially in written/formal style
to sound slightly more formal or emphatic

For example:

Internet adalah tempat bertemunya berbagai pendapat.
“The internet is a place where various opinions meet.”

But with adjectives like jujur, most of the time you simply don’t use adalah.

What’s the difference between komentar kasar and komentar yang kasar?

Both are grammatically correct:

komentar kasar = “harsh/rude comments” (neutral description)
komentar yang kasar = “the comments that are harsh/rude” (more specific/emphatic)

Details:

komentar kasar
- Simple noun + adjective structure
- Used when you’re just describing the type of comment in general.
komentar yang kasar
- Adds yang, which works like “that/which/who” in English relative clauses
- Often used when you’re singling out or contrasting those comments with others
- Example: Hanya komentar yang kasar akan dihapus.
  “Only comments that are rude will be deleted.”

In your sentence, komentar kasar is natural because we’re talking about harsh comments as a category, not contrasting them with other comments inside a group.

Why is it di internet and not something like pada internet or dalam internet?

In Indonesian, di is the normal preposition for location, including:

physical places: di rumah (at home), di sekolah (at school)
abstract/virtual places: di internet, di online forum itu, di media sosial

So:

di internet ≈ “on the internet / on the web”

The other options:

pada internet
- Grammatically possible, but sounds stiff or odd in everyday language. Pada is more often used with abstract things like pada saat itu (at that time), pada umumnya (in general).
dalam internet
- Literally “inside the internet”; rarely used this way in natural Indonesian.

So di internet is the standard, idiomatic choice.

What is the difference between jujur and kejujuran, and why does the sentence use kejujuran in the second part?

jujur = honest (adjective)
kejujuran = honesty (abstract noun: “the quality of being honest”)

Kejujuran is formed with the affixes ke- … -an, which often turn adjectives into abstract nouns:

jujur → kejujuran (honest → honesty)
adil → keadilan (fair → fairness/justice)
baik → kebaikan (good → goodness/kindness)

In your sentence:

First clause: … belum tentu jujur — describing whether the comments are honest or not (adjective).
Second clause: Kejujuran lebih jelas terlihat… — now we are talking about honesty as a concept, as something that can be “seen more clearly” in direct dialogue.

Using kejujuran fits because we are not talking about one specific honest act, but honesty in general.

What does lebih jelas terlihat mean grammatically? Could it also be lebih terlihat jelas?

Breakdown:

lebih = more
jelas = clear
terlihat = visible / can be seen / appears (literally “is-seen”)

So:

kejujuran lebih jelas terlihat
≈ “honesty is seen more clearly” / “honesty is more clearly visible”

Structure:

lebih + adjective (jelas) + verb (terlihat)
→ emphasizes how it is seen: more clearly.

You can say:

Kejujuran lebih terlihat jelas dalam dialog langsung.

This shifts the nuance slightly:

lebih jelas terlihat = the clarity is being compared.
lebih terlihat jelas = the degree to which it is visible is being compared.

In everyday usage, both sound natural; most speakers won’t feel a strong difference. The original order lebih jelas terlihat is a bit more formal/“written” in tone.

What exactly does terlihat mean here, and how is it different from kelihatan or tampak?

All three — terlihat, kelihatan, tampak — often mean “to be visible / to appear / to seem”.

In this sentence:

terlihat = “is seen / is visible / appears”

Nuances:

terlihat
- Slightly more formal/neutral
- Common in writing and careful speech
- Fits well in abstract usages like terlihat jelas, terlihat dari data, etc.
kelihatan
- More informal/colloquial
- Very common in spoken Indonesian:
  - Kejujuran lebih kelihatan dalam dialog langsung. (sounds more casual)
tampak
- Slightly literary / formal / descriptive
- Often used in descriptions: Dia tampak lelah. (He looks tired.)

You could swap in kelihatan or tampak and the meaning would stay similar, but terlihat matches the more neutral-written tone of the whole sentence.

What does dialog langsung mean exactly? How is it different from other options like percakapan langsung or tatap muka?

dialog = dialogue (two-way conversation, like the English word)
langsung = direct / live / in real time / without intermediaries

So dialog langsung is “direct dialogue,” contrasting with indirect, anonymous, or text-based online interactions.

Other options:

percakapan langsung
- percakapan = conversation
- Also understandable as “direct conversation”; slightly more generic and everyday.
tatap muka
- Literally “face-to-face”
- Used often: bertemu tatap muka, diskusi tatap muka
- Stronger emphasis on physical presence, being in the same room.

In your sentence, dialog langsung focuses on direct, two-way interaction (whether in person or possibly via video/voice), as opposed to impersonal online comments.

The sentence uses komentar without any plural marker. Does it mean one comment or many comments?

Indonesian usually does not mark plural unless it really needs to. A bare noun can mean:

komentar = “a comment” or “comments” (in general)

So:

Komentar kasar di internet…
can be understood as:
- “Harsh comments on the internet…” (generic plural), which matches the English meaning here.

If you really want to stress plurality, you have options:

komentar-komentar kasar (reduplication)
banyak komentar kasar (many harsh comments)

But for general statements like this, the unmarked komentar is normal and naturally read as plural.

How is the semicolon ( ; ) used in Indonesian here? Is it the same as in English?

Yes, the semicolon is used in essentially the same way as in English:

To join two closely related independent clauses
Stronger break than a comma, weaker than a period

In your sentence:

Komentar kasar di internet belum tentu jujur;
kejujuran lebih jelas terlihat dalam dialog langsung.

Each part could stand alone as its own sentence, but the semicolon shows they are tightly connected ideas: contrasting honesty online vs in direct dialogue.

In everyday Indonesian writing, many people would just use a period:

… belum tentu jujur. Kejujuran lebih jelas terlihat …

But the version with a semicolon is correct and a bit more formal.

There’s no explicit subject like “people” or “we.” Is it normal in Indonesian to have a sentence like this without any pronoun?

Yes. Indonesian often omits a subject when the meaning is generic or obvious from context.

Here:

Komentar kasar di internet belum tentu jujur
→ talking about comments in general
kejujuran lebih jelas terlihat dalam dialog langsung
→ stating a general truth, not tied to “I/you/we.”

This is similar to English using generic “you” or impersonal “one,” but Indonesian simply doesn’t mention any pronoun at all.

If you wanted to make it explicitly about people’s behavior, you could add a subject, e.g.:

Kejujuran kita lebih jelas terlihat dalam dialog langsung.
“Our honesty is more clearly seen in direct dialogue.”

But for a proverb-like general statement, the subjectless form is very natural.

What is the overall level of formality of this sentence, and would it sound natural in spoken conversation?

The sentence is neutral to slightly formal:

Uses abstract noun kejujuran
Uses dialog, terlihat, and a semicolon
Feels like something from an article, essay, or a thoughtful social media post.

In spoken Indonesian, a more casual version might be:

Komentar kasar di internet belum tentu jujur. Kejujuran itu lebih kelihatan kalau ngobrol langsung.

The original sentence is still fine in speech, especially in a formal talk, classroom, or discussion, but in very casual conversation people might simplify the vocabulary and structure.