Penonton muda mendapat kejutan ketika penyanyi mengajak mereka naik ke panggung.

The young audience members get a surprise when the singer invites them onto the stage.

Breakdown of Penonton muda mendapat kejutan ketika penyanyi mengajak mereka naik ke panggung.

• mereka: them
• ke: to
• ketika: when
• panggung: the stage
• penonton: the audience
• penyanyi: the singer
• mendapat: to get
• naik: to go up
• muda: young
• kejutan: the surprise
• mengajak: to invite

Questions & Answers about Penonton muda mendapat kejutan ketika penyanyi mengajak mereka naik ke panggung.

In the phrase penonton muda, is penonton singular or plural? Does it mean “a young audience” or “young audiences”?

Penonton can be either singular or plural; Indonesian normally doesn’t mark number on the noun.

• penonton = audience member(s), viewer(s)
• penonton muda = young audience member(s) / the young audience

Context usually tells you whether it’s one person or many. In this sentence, because we later have mereka (they), penonton muda is clearly plural: young audience members / the young audience.

Why is muda after penonton, not before it like in English “young audience”?

In Indonesian, most adjectives come after the noun:

• penonton muda = young audience (literally: audience young)
• rumah besar = big house
• buku baru = new book

So penonton muda is the normal order: noun + adjective. Putting muda before penonton would be ungrammatical in standard Indonesian.

How would I clearly say “the young audience” versus “a young audience”? There is no the or a in the sentence.

Indonesian doesn’t have dedicated words for the or a/an. The same phrase can mean either, depending on context:

• penonton muda
  – “the young audience” (when both speaker and listener know which audience)
  – “a young audience” (introducing it for the first time)

If you really want to emphasize “a certain singer / one singer”, you could say:

• seorang penyanyi = a singer / one singer
• sang penyanyi = the singer (specific, a bit literary or dramatic)

Similarly, you might say para penonton muda to highlight a specific group of young audience members (more on para below).

What’s the difference between penonton muda, penonton-penonton muda, and para penonton muda?

All three can be plural, but with different nuances:

1. penonton muda

   • Basic form; can mean “young audience member(s)”.
   • Plural is usually understood from context; this is the most natural and common.

2. penonton-penonton muda

   • Reduplication (penonton-penonton) explicitly marks plural.
   • Often used when you want to stress “many individual viewers”.
   • In everyday speech, people don’t always bother to double the noun.

3. para penonton muda

   • para is a plural marker mainly used for people in more formal or respectful contexts.
   • Roughly “the young audience members” / “all the young audience members”.
   • Common in announcements, news, or formal writing.

In this sentence, simple penonton muda is perfectly natural.

What does mendapat mean in mendapat kejutan, and why not just dapat?

Base word: dapat.
With the prefix meN-, it becomes mendapat, a transitive verb meaning to get / receive something.

• mendapat kejutan = to get a surprise / to receive a surprise

dapat by itself has several uses:

1. As a main verb: “to get, obtain”

   • Dia dapat hadiah. = He/she got a present.

2. As a modal: “can, be able to”

   • Saya dapat melihatnya. = I can see it.

Using mendapat here makes the “get/receive” meaning very clear and avoids confusion with the “can” meaning of dapat.

Is mendapat kejutan an idiom? Could I just say terkejut or kaget instead?

mendapat kejutan is not a strange idiom; it’s very literal:

• mendapat = to get/receive
• kejutan = a surprise

So it’s like saying “receive a surprise.”

You could rephrase the idea with:

• Penonton muda terkejut ketika … = The young audience was surprised when …
• Penonton muda kaget ketika … = The young audience was shocked/surprised when … (more casual/colloquial)

Differences:

• mendapat kejutan focuses on the event of receiving a surprise (someone surprised them).
• terkejut / kaget focus on their emotional reaction (they felt surprised/shocked).

There's no past tense marker, but the English is “got a surprise”. How is past tense shown in Indonesian here?

Indonesian generally does not change the verb form for tense. mendapat can mean:

• get / receive (present)
• got / received (past)
• will get (future), depending on context

Past time is usually understood from context or made explicit with time words like:

• tadi = earlier
• kemarin = yesterday
• tadi malam = last night

In Penonton muda mendapat kejutan ketika…, the context (telling a story) normally makes it clear this is a past event, so no extra marker is needed.

What’s the difference between ketika, saat, and waktu for “when”? Could I replace ketika here?

All three can mean when in the sense of “at the time that,” but there are nuances:

• ketika

  • Very common in written and spoken Indonesian.
  • Neutral and clear: “when (at the time that)”.

• saat

  • Literally “moment,” but widely used as “when.”
  • Slightly more formal or stylistic but very common:
    
    • Penonton muda mendapat kejutan saat penyanyi mengajak mereka naik ke panggung.

• waktu

  • Literally “time,” also used as “when.”
  • Often a bit more casual/conversational in this use:
    
    • … waktu penyanyi mengajak mereka naik ke panggung.

In this sentence, ketika, saat, and waktu are all acceptable, with only slight stylistic differences.

In ketika penyanyi mengajak mereka, why is there no word for “the” before penyanyi? How do I say “the singer” versus “a singer”?

Indonesian doesn’t use articles like the and a/an. The bare noun penyanyi can mean:

• a singer
• the singer

Context decides which is natural in English.

If you want to emphasize “one singer” (indefinite):

• seorang penyanyi = a singer / one singer

If you want a more marked “the singer” (known/important person), especially in narratives:

• sang penyanyi = the singer (has a slightly literary, “the said singer” feel)

In everyday speech, plain penyanyi usually works fine; English readers just supply a or the depending on context.

How does the structure mengajak mereka naik ke panggung work? Are there two verbs in a row?

Yes, there’s a verb-complement structure here:

• mengajak = to invite / to ask someone to join in doing something
• mereka = them
• naik = to go up / to ascend
• ke panggung = to the stage

Pattern: mengajak [object] [verb / activity]

So:

• mengajak mereka naik ke panggung
  = invite them to go up to the stage
  (literally: invite them go-up to stage)

Other examples:

• Dia mengajak saya makan. = He/She invited me to eat.
• Mereka mengajak kami menonton film. = They invited us to watch a movie.

So naik here is a bare verb functioning as the activity they are invited to do.

Do I need untuk before naik, as in mengajak mereka untuk naik ke panggung?

Both forms are correct:

• mengajak mereka naik ke panggung
• mengajak mereka untuk naik ke panggung

Adding untuk is optional and can feel slightly more formal or explicit. In many everyday sentences, untuk is dropped when you have a verb-complement pattern like this.

So the sentence as given, without untuk, is completely natural.

Why is it ke panggung and not di panggung? What’s the difference?

The key is the preposition:

• ke = to (direction or movement toward a place)
• di = at / in / on (location, no movement implied)

Here the action is “go up to the stage,” so ke is correct:

• naik ke panggung = go up to the stage (movement toward)

If you wanted to say they are already on/at the stage:

• di panggung = on the stage / at the stage
  
  • Mereka berdiri di panggung. = They are standing on the stage.

Could this sentence be made passive, like “when they were invited up to the stage by the singer”? How would that look in Indonesian?

Yes, you can make a passive version. For example:

• Penonton muda mendapat kejutan ketika mereka diajak naik ke panggung oleh penyanyi.

Breakdown:

• diajak = passive form of mengajak (be invited)
• oleh penyanyi = by the singer

You can also drop oleh in many informal contexts:

• … ketika mereka diajak naik ke panggung penyanyi. (more colloquial, though this version can be slightly ambiguous)

The original active sentence:

• ketika penyanyi mengajak mereka naik ke panggung

and the passive version:

• ketika mereka diajak naik ke panggung oleh penyanyi

both are natural; the passive shifts the focus onto them instead of the singer.