Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Kotak donasi juga dikirim ke sekolah-sekolah di daerah perkotaan terdekat. - Donation boxes are also sent to schools in nearby urban areas.

Putting it as donasi kotak would sound wrong, like saying donation box in English as donation of box or donation box-thing. The normal pattern is Noun + Noun: kotak makan (lunch box), mobil polisi (police car), kartu kredit (credit card).

What does juga do here, and where can it go in the sentence?

juga means also / too / in addition. In this sentence it emphasizes that in addition to somewhere else, donation boxes are *also sent to these schools*.

Usual positions for juga:

After the subject: Kotak donasi juga dikirim... (very natural)
After the topic of the sentence: Ke sekolah-sekolah di daerah perkotaan terdekat juga dikirim kotak donasi. (more formal, different emphasis)

You normally don’t put juga at the very end:
✗ Kotak donasi dikirim ke sekolah-sekolah di daerah perkotaan terdekat juga. (understandable but sounds clumsy in many contexts).

Why is the verb dikirim (passive) instead of an active form like mengirim?

Indonesian has a strong preference for passive when the receiver of the action is the topic.

Passive: Kotak donasi juga dikirim ke sekolah-sekolah...
- Focus: the kotak donasi (the things being sent).
- The sender is not mentioned (unknown/not important).

The active version would be:

(Mereka) juga mengirim kotak donasi ke sekolah-sekolah di daerah perkotaan terdekat.
- Now the focus is on mereka (they, the people doing the sending).

When the agent is unimportant or obvious from context, Indonesian often uses di- passive like dikirim.

What is the difference between dikirim and dikirimkan?

Both can translate as is/are sent and are often interchangeable in everyday speech.

dikirim: simple passive of mengirim (to send).
dikirimkan: passive of mengirimkan, which can highlight the transfer to a particular recipient or destination.

In this sentence, either is acceptable:

Kotak donasi juga dikirim ke sekolah-sekolah...
Kotak donasi juga dikirimkan ke sekolah-sekolah...

dikirim sounds slightly simpler and is very natural here.

Why is it sekolah-sekolah and not just sekolah?

Reduplication (sekolah-sekolah) is one common way to show plural in Indonesian.

sekolah = school (could be singular or plural, depending on context)
sekolah-sekolah = clearly schools (more than one)

So ke sekolah-sekolah makes it explicit that the boxes go to multiple schools. Without reduplication, ke sekolah would be ambiguous: it could mean to a school or to schools depending on context.

If sekolah-sekolah is plural, do we also need kotak-kotak donasi to show there are many donation boxes?

Not necessarily. Indonesian often leaves number implicit:

Kotak donasi juga dikirim ke sekolah-sekolah...
- Could mean one box per school, or several, or just “boxes in general”.

If you really want to emphasize many boxes, you can say:

Kotak-kotak donasi juga dikirim ke sekolah-sekolah...

But even then, Indonesians typically rely on context, numbers, or quantifiers (like banyak kotak donasi) rather than always reduplicating.

What’s the function of -sekolah reduplication? Is it always about plural?

Simple full reduplication of nouns (like sekolah-sekolah) most commonly indicates plural:

buku → buku-buku (books)
anak → anak-anak (children)

There are other types of reduplication with special meanings (e.g. sayur-mayur = various kinds of vegetables), but in this sentence sekolah-sekolah is the straightforward plural “schools”.

What does daerah perkotaan literally mean, and how is it different from just kota?

daerah = area, region
kota = city, town
perkotaaan (often written perkotaAn, but spelled perkotaaan with three *a*s) = urban area / things related to cities

So daerah perkotaan is like urban area(s) or city area(s).

kota terdekat = the nearest city (one specific city)
daerah perkotaan terdekat = the nearest urban region / urban districts, a bit more general and descriptive.

What exactly does terdekat mean, and how does ter- work here?

terdekat is from dekat (near). The prefix ter- often forms the superlative:

dekat = near
terdekat = nearest / closest

Similar patterns:

besar → terbesar (big → biggest)
penting → terpenting (important → most important)

So daerah perkotaan terdekat = the nearest urban area(s).
You can often replace ter- with paling: daerah perkotaan yang paling dekat (a bit longer but similar meaning).

Does di daerah perkotaan terdekat describe the schools or where the sending happens?

In ke sekolah-sekolah di daerah perkotaan terdekat, the most natural reading is:

sekolah-sekolah [yang ada] di daerah perkotaan terdekat
(schools that are in the nearest urban area)

So di daerah perkotaan terdekat attaches to sekolah-sekolah, not to dikirim. Therefore, the sentence means the boxes are sent to schools which are in the nearest urban areas, not that the sending activity happens in that area.

Could we add yang and say sekolah-sekolah yang di daerah perkotaan terdekat?

You could, but it’s more natural to add a verb with yang:

Very natural: sekolah-sekolah yang ada di daerah perkotaan terdekat
Or: sekolah-sekolah yang berada di daerah perkotaan terdekat

Just yang di daerah... is understandable but sounds a bit incomplete or written/formal. The version in the original sentence, sekolah-sekolah di daerah perkotaan terdekat, is already smooth and idiomatic.

Why is it ke sekolah-sekolah and di daerah? What’s the difference between ke and di?

ke means to / toward, used for destination or direction.
di means in / at / on, used for location.

So:

dikirim ke sekolah-sekolah = sent to the schools (destination)
sekolah-sekolah di daerah perkotaan = schools in the urban area (location)

Using ke daerah here would change the structure and meaning to sent to the area, rather than schools in the area.

Can we say kepada sekolah-sekolah instead of ke sekolah-sekolah?

In this context, ke sekolah-sekolah is more natural.

kepada is usually used for recipients that are people or person-like groups, especially in writing:
- kepada Bapak/Ibu Guru
- kepada para siswa

Because sekolah is a place/institution, ke sekolah-sekolah is the usual choice when talking about sending objects there.

What is the grammatical subject of this sentence?

The grammatical subject is kotak donasi. The structure is:

Kotak donasi (subject)
juga dikirim (passive verb phrase)
ke sekolah-sekolah di daerah perkotaan terdekat (prepositional phrase of destination)

Even though the subject is the thing receiving the action (the boxes), that’s normal in Indonesian passive sentences with di-.

Is the sentence formal, informal, or neutral? Are there more casual alternatives?

The sentence is quite neutral and standard. It’s fine in news articles, reports, or everyday explanation.

A more casual spoken variant might be:

Kotak donasi juga dikirimin ke sekolah-sekolah di daerah kota yang paling dekat.

Here dikirimin is colloquial (from dikirimkan), and kota yang paling dekat is slightly simpler and more conversational than daerah perkotaan terdekat.