Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Kita menutup tirai untuk menjaga privasi, karena orang di luar bisa saja memotret tanpa izin. - We close the curtains to protect privacy, because people outside might easily take photos without permission.

Kita menutup tirai…
→ implies “you and I (and maybe others) close the curtain …”
→ includes the listener in the action or decision.
Kami menutup tirai…
→ would mean “we (but not you) close the curtain …”
→ excludes the listener; might sound like you’re describing what your group does to an outsider.

In many real situations (like explaining a shared habit or rule inside a house, office, classroom, etc.), kita is preferred because the speaker usually includes the listener in that group and in the “rule.”

What exactly does menutup tirai mean, and why is it not menutupi tirai?

tutup = close, shut
menutup = to close (something)
tirai = curtain

So menutup tirai literally means “to close the curtain(s)”, i.e. to pull them shut.

Why not menutupi tirai?

menutupi = to cover something with something else
Example: menutupi meja dengan taplak = cover the table with a tablecloth.

If you said menutupi tirai, it would mean “cover the curtain”, which is odd: you’d be putting something on top of the curtain, not closing it.

So:

menutup tirai = correct: close the curtain.
menutupi tirai = incorrect or strange in this context.

Could I say menutup gorden instead of menutup tirai? What’s the difference between tirai and gorden?

Yes, in everyday speech you will also hear:

menutup gorden = close the curtains

Differences:

tirai
- Slightly more general; can mean curtain, drape, blind, even metaphoric “curtain” (like tirai besi = Iron Curtain).
- Sounds a bit more “standard” or neutral.
gorden (from Dutch gordijn)
- Very common in everyday spoken Indonesian for window curtains.
- A bit more colloquial, but fully acceptable.

In this sentence, tirai and gorden are both fine. The nuance difference is small in normal conversation.

What does untuk menjaga privasi literally mean, and is untuk necessary?

Breakdown:

untuk = for, in order to, to
menjaga = to guard, to protect, to maintain
privasi = privacy

So untuk menjaga privasi = “(in order) to protect/maintain privacy.”

Is untuk necessary?
In this structure, yes. Without untuk, you’d get something like:

Kita menutup tirai menjaga privasi…
→ ungrammatical or very unnatural.

Common alternate ways to express purpose:

Kita menutup tirai supaya privasi terjaga.
(We close the curtain so that our privacy is maintained.)
Kita menutup tirai demi privasi.
(We close the curtain for the sake of privacy.)

But if you keep the verb (menjaga) after it, you normally use untuk:
untuk + verb = “in order to + verb”.

How does karena work here? Can I move the karena clause to the front?

karena = because

The sentence has two clauses:

Kita menutup tirai untuk menjaga privasi,
karena orang di luar bisa saja memotret tanpa izin.

This is literally:

We close the curtain to protect privacy, because people outside could just take photos without permission.

You can absolutely move the karena-clause to the front:

Karena orang di luar bisa saja memotret tanpa izin, kita menutup tirai untuk menjaga privasi.

Both orders are natural.
Punctuation:

With karena in the middle, a comma before it is optional but common in writing:
… menjaga privasi, karena …
With karena at the start, it's normal to put a comma after the first clause:
Karena …, kita menutup …

Why is it orang di luar and not something like orang-orang di luar for “people outside”?

orang = person
orang-orang = people (explicit plural)
di luar = outside

In Indonesian, a singular form like orang is very often used to mean “people (in general)” when the context is generic:

Orang di luar bisa saja memotret…
→ “People outside could take photos…” (general).

You could say orang-orang di luar, but that puts a bit more emphasis on there being multiple individuals, and can sound slightly more specific or visual (“those many people outside”).

In general statements like this, orang di luar (singular form, general meaning) is very natural and common.

What is the nuance of bisa saja memotret? How is it different from just bisa memotret?

bisa memotret = can/are able to take photos.
bisa saja memotret adds a nuance: they might just go ahead and take photos; it could easily happen, almost casually or unexpectedly.

The particle saja here doesn’t mean “only.” Instead, it adds an idea like:

“might well”
“just might”
“could easily (end up doing that)”

So:

orang di luar bisa memotret tanpa izin
→ People outside can (are able to) take photos without permission. (neutral)
orang di luar bisa saja memotret tanpa izin
→ People outside might (very well) just take photos without permission. (suggests a real, maybe worrying possibility)

Saja is very flexible in Indonesian; in this pattern (bisa saja + verb), it often softens the statement but also makes it feel more like a realistic possibility.

What does memotret exactly mean, and how is it different from mengambil foto or memfoto?

All of these are about taking photos, but there are nuances:

memotret
- From potret (portrait).
- Means to take a photograph, usually with a camera/phone.
- Sounds standard and is widely used.
mengambil foto
- Literally “to take a photo.”
- Also correct and common.
- Slightly more neutral and descriptive.
memfoto / memfoto-foto (colloquial)
- From the English/Indonesian foto.
- Very common in everyday speech, informal.
- memfoto = to take a picture
  foto-foto (verb) = to take lots of photos (reduplication for repetition/multiplicity).

In this sentence, memotret is a good, standard choice:

… bisa saja memotret tanpa izin.
→ “…might just take photos without permission.”

What does tanpa izin mean exactly, and is there another way to say this?

tanpa = without
izin = permission (also seen as ijin in informal spelling)

So tanpa izin = without permission.

Other possible expressions:

tanpa persetujuan = without consent/approval (a bit more formal)
tidak minta izin dulu = not asking permission first (more colloquial, longer)
diam-diam memotret = secretly taking photos (focuses more on secrecy than permission)

In this sentence, tanpa izin is concise and natural.

Can I change the word order of memotret tanpa izin to tanpa izin memotret?

You can say tanpa izin memotret, but it sounds less natural in this particular sentence.

Common patterns:

[verb] tanpa izin (most common):
- memotret tanpa izin = take photos without permission
- masuk tanpa izin = enter without permission
tanpa izin [verb] is usually used when the clause is longer or more complex, e.g.:
- Tanpa izin orang tua, dia tidak boleh pergi.
  (Without his/her parents’ permission, he/she may not go.)

In your sentence, memotret tanpa izin is the smooth, default word order.

Is the overall style of this sentence formal or informal? Would it sound natural in daily conversation?

The sentence is neutral and works well in both spoken and written Indonesian:

Vocabulary like kita, menutup, tirai, privasi, orang di luar, bisa saja, memotret, tanpa izin is all standard.
Nothing is too formal or too slangy.

You could easily say this at home, in the office, or in a classroom.
In very casual speech, people might shorten or tweak it, for example:

Kita tutup gordennya biar privasi terjaga, soalnya orang luar bisa aja motret-motret tanpa izin.

But your original sentence is already natural and correct in everyday use.