Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Guru berkata, “Perubahan iklim ini nyata,” dan kami semua diam sebentar. - The teacher said, “This climate change is real,” and we all stayed silent for a moment.

Indonesian does not use articles like a/an or the, so guru by itself can mean either a teacher or the teacher, depending on context.

If the context has already identified which teacher you’re talking about (for example, the teacher of that class), guru will usually be understood as the teacher.
If it’s the first time you mention this person and there’s no specific teacher in mind, guru can be understood as a teacher.

If you want to make it clearly indefinite (more like a teacher), you can say:

Seorang guru berkata … = A teacher said …

If you want to be very specific, you can add extra info:

Guru itu berkata … = That teacher / the teacher said …

What is the nuance of berkata? Could we use bilang or mengatakan instead?

All three are related to saying, but they differ in register and structure:

berkata
- More formal or neutral.
- Often used in writing, news, narration, and more careful speech.
- Pattern: [subject] berkata, “...”
- Example: Guru berkata, “...”
bilang
- Informal, conversational.
- Common in everyday speech.
- Pattern: [subject] bilang, “...”
- Colloquial rewrite: Guru bilang, “Perubahan iklim ini nyata,” dan kami semua diam sebentar.
mengatakan
- Formal, especially in written or official language.
- Often followed by bahwa (that) rather than direct quotes.
- Pattern: [subject] mengatakan bahwa [clause]
- Example variant: Guru mengatakan bahwa perubahan iklim ini nyata, dan kami semua diam sebentar.

In your sentence, berkata fits well because it introduces a direct quote in a neutral, standard way.

Why is there a comma before the quote and another comma after nyata inside the quotes?

Indonesian punctuation for direct speech is similar to English, but not identical. In your sentence:

Guru berkata, “Perubahan iklim ini nyata,” dan kami semua diam sebentar.

Notes:

Comma before the opening quotation marks (berkata, “…):
- This separates the reporting clause (Guru berkata) from the quoted speech.
- This is standard and expected.
Comma after the quoted sentence, before closing the quote (nyata,”):
- This comma marks the end of the quoted clause before the sentence continues with dan kami semua diam sebentar.
- It’s a stylistic choice that mirrors English (“…,” and we all …).
- Some Indonesian style guides place punctuation inside the quotes only if it belongs to the quoted material, but many texts accept this pattern, especially when modeling English-like style.

You might also see a slightly different version that some editors prefer:

Guru berkata, “Perubahan iklim ini nyata,” lalu kami semua diam sebentar.
Or where the comma is outside the quote in more traditional Indonesian punctuation.

In everyday writing, the version you have is very understandable and common.

What exactly does perubahan iklim mean? Literally it looks like change climate.

Perubahan iklim is the standard Indonesian term for climate change.

ubah = to change
per- -an is a noun-forming prefix–suffix pair
perubahan = change (as a noun)
iklim = climate

So literally: perubahan iklim = change of climate / climate change.

It behaves as a noun phrase:

Perubahan iklim ini = this climate change
Masalah perubahan iklim = the problem of climate change

Why is ini after perubahan iklim and not before it? What’s the difference between ini perubahan iklim and perubahan iklim ini?

In Indonesian, demonstratives like ini (this) and itu (that) normally come after the noun:

buku ini = this book
rumah itu = that house

So:

perubahan iklim ini = this climate change

Compare:

Perubahan iklim ini nyata.
- Natural, standard noun phrase: this climate change is real.
- Focus: this specific climate change (the one being discussed).
Ini perubahan iklim.
- Literally: This is climate change.
- Here ini acts like this is, introducing or identifying something:
  - e.g. Ini perubahan iklim, bukan cuaca biasa. = This is climate change, not normal weather.

So in your sentence, Perubahan iklim ini nyata is the normal way to say This climate change is real (with ini attached to the noun phrase).

Why is there no word like is in Perubahan iklim ini nyata? Where did is go?

Indonesian usually does not use a separate verb for to be (like English is/are/am) when linking:

a noun or pronoun
- an adjective
or a noun
- a noun (in many contexts)

So:

Perubahan iklim ini nyata.
Literally: This climate change real.
Natural English: This climate change is real.

Other examples:

Dia pintar. = He/She is smart.
Makanannya enak. = The food is delicious.

Indonesian can use adalah in certain linking structures, especially:

before a noun phrase definition:
- Dia adalah guru. = He/She is a teacher.
in more formal / written explanations.

But in Perubahan iklim ini nyata, adalah would sound forced or unnatural; Indonesians simply say Perubahan iklim ini nyata.

What does nyata mean here? Is it real, obvious, or something else?

Nyata basically means:

real, actual, existing, or
evident, visible, clear (depending on context)

In Perubahan iklim ini nyata, the best English equivalents are:

This climate change is real.
This climate change is real / actual (not imaginary).

Other uses:

Bukti itu sangat nyata. = That evidence is very clear / obvious.
Masalahnya sudah nyata. = The problem is already obvious / clearly visible.

So in your sentence, nyata strongly conveys that climate change truly exists and can be seen / is undeniable.

What’s the difference between kami and kita? Why is kami used here?

Both kami and kita mean we / us, but they differ in inclusiveness:

kami = we (not including you)
kita = we (including you)

In your sentence:

dan kami semua diam sebentar.
= and we all were silent for a moment.

Using kami implies:

The speaker and their group are different from the listener (or from someone outside the group).
For example, a student telling someone else: Our class (we, not you) were all silent.

If you used kita:

dan kita semua diam sebentar would mean and all of us (including you) were silent for a moment, which doesn’t fit if the listener wasn’t actually there.

So kami is correct if the teacher and students (or just the students) are one group, and the listener is outside that group.

Why is semua placed after kami? Can we say semua kami diam sebentar instead?

Both word orders are possible, but they have slightly different feels:

kami semua diam sebentar
- Very common, neutral structure.
- Literally: we all were-silent for-a-while.
- Pattern: [pronoun] + semua
- Means all of us in a straightforward way.
semua kami diam sebentar
- Grammatically okay, but feels more marked or slightly more formal / emphatic.
- It can sound like emphasizing all of us as a group, sometimes in contrast to others.

In normal narration, kami semua is by far the more frequent and natural choice. So:

dan kami semua diam sebentar is the standard way to say and we were all silent for a moment.

What does diam mean here? Is it an adjective (quiet) or a verb (to be silent)?

Diam in Indonesian can function both as:

a verb: to be silent, to stay quiet, to not speak, to stay still
an adjective: silent, quiet

In kami semua diam sebentar, it works like a verb meaning:

we were silent / we fell silent / we kept quiet

Other examples:

Dia diam saja. = He/She just stays quiet.
Anaknya sangat diam. = The child is very quiet (here more adjectival).

You also see related forms:

berdiam diri = to remain silent, to stay passive
- Mereka hanya berdiam diri. = They just remained silent.

So here, think of diam as the action to stay silent.

What exactly does sebentar mean? Is it for a moment, soon, or a short while?

Sebentar usually means a short while / for a moment / briefly.

In your sentence:

kami semua diam sebentar
= we were all silent for a moment / for a short while.

Common uses:

Tunggu sebentar. = Wait a moment.
Dia pergi sebentar. = He/She went away for a little while.

Be careful with related phrases:

sebentar lagi = soon / in a little while (future)
- Sebentar lagi hujan. = It will rain soon.
sebentar saja = just for a moment (often with a limiting sense)
- Saya mampir sebentar saja. = I’ll just drop by for a moment.

In your sentence, sebentar clearly refers to the duration of their silence.

How do we know this sentence is in the past tense? There’s no past marker like -ed.

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense (past / present / future). Time is usually understood from:

context
adverbs of time (tadi, kemarin, besok, sekarang, nanti, etc.)
the narrative frame

In your sentence:

Guru berkata, “Perubahan iklim ini nyata,” dan kami semua diam sebentar.

Even though berkata and diam look like present-tense forms, the whole thing is understood as a completed event (past) because:

it describes something that happened (the teacher spoke, then they went quiet).
in English narration, we naturally translate it as said and were silent.

If you wanted to make the past time very explicit, you could add a time expression:

Tadi guru berkata, “Perubahan iklim ini nyata,” dan kami semua diam sebentar.
= Earlier the teacher said … and we were all silent for a moment.
Kemarin guru berkata … = Yesterday the teacher said …

But in many stories or reports, Indonesian just uses the base verb form and relies on context to signal past tense.