Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Dia memakai toga hitam dan tersenyum saat namanya dipanggil. - He/She wears a black gown and smiles when his/her name is called.

From this sentence alone, you cannot know the gender. Context (earlier sentences, names, or pictures) is what normally tells you if dia refers to a man or a woman. Indonesian pronouns in general don’t mark gender the way English does.

Why is it memakai and not just pakai? Are they different?

Memakai and pakai come from the same root pakai (to use, to wear):

memakai = more formal/complete form, often used in writing and neutral speech
pakai = more informal/colloquial, very common in everyday conversation

Grammatically, memakai is meN- + pakai, the standard active verb form. In neutral written Indonesian (like news, essays, narration), memakai is preferred, but you’ll also hear:

Dia pakai toga hitam… (more casual)
Dia sedang memakai toga hitam… (emphasizing “is wearing right now”)

What does toga mean here? Is it the same as the Roman/Greek “toga”?

In Indonesian, toga usually means a graduation gown (the black robe students wear at a graduation ceremony), not the ancient Roman garment.

So in this sentence, toga hitam = black graduation gown/robe.
If Indonesians mean the Roman kind of toga, they normally have to clarify it with context.

Why is it toga hitam and not hitam toga? How does adjective order work?

In Indonesian, adjectives usually come after the noun:

toga hitam = black gown
buku baru = new book
rumah besar = big house

Hitam toga is wrong/unnatural in standard Indonesian.

If you have more than one adjective, they all still follow the noun:

toga hitam panjang = long black gown
toga hitam yang panjang = the gown that is black and long (a bit more specific/clear)

What is the nuance of tersenyum? Why not just use senyum?

Tersenyum is the standard verb form meaning to smile:

Dia tersenyum. = He/She smiles / smiled.

You’ll also hear senyum used as a verb in casual speech:

Dia senyum. (colloquial)

Nuance:

tersenyum = neutral, standard, good in writing and formal/neutral speech
senyum (as a verb) = more casual, conversational

So the sentence is written in a neutral/standard style with tersenyum.
A casual version could be: Dia pakai toga hitam dan senyum…

Why isn’t dia repeated before tersenyum? In English we say “He was wearing… and (he) smiled”.

In Indonesian, if two verbs share the same subject and are connected by dan (“and”), you usually don’t repeat the subject:

Dia memakai toga hitam dan tersenyum.
= He/She was wearing a black gown and smiled.

Repeating dia is possible but sounds heavier or more emphatic:

Dia memakai toga hitam dan dia tersenyum…
(emphasis that he/she smiled, maybe contrasting with others)

So the sentence is natural and typical as written.

What does saat mean here? Could I replace it with ketika or waktu?

Here, saat means when / at the moment (that).

… saat namanya dipanggil.
= … when his/her name was called.

You can usually replace saat with:

ketika – very common, neutral
- … ketika namanya dipanggil.
waktu – a bit more informal in this “when” sense
- … waktu namanya dipanggil.

All three are acceptable in many contexts. Rough nuance:

saat = slightly more formal/literary feel
ketika = very common, fully neutral
waktu = everyday, slightly more casual in this usage

How does namanya work? Does -nya mean “his/her”?

Yes, -nya is a clitic that often means his/her/its/their when attached to a noun:

nama = name
namanya = his/her name

So:

namanya dipanggil = his/her name was called.

Note: -nya can also mean “the” or mark something as definite (like “the name”), depending on context, but here it is naturally understood as possessive (“his/her name”).

What does dipanggil mean exactly, and why is it in this form?

Dipanggil is the passive form of memanggil (to call, to summon):

memanggil = to call (someone)
- Panitia memanggil namanya. = The committee called his/her name.
dipanggil = to be called
- Namanya dipanggil. = His/her name was called.

Indonesian uses passive a lot, especially when:

the doer is unknown, unimportant, or obvious
the focus is on what is affected (here: the name being called, and the person reacting)

So saat namanya dipanggil naturally focuses on the moment of being called, not on who called the name.

Could we say saat namanya disebut instead of dipanggil? Is there a difference?

You can say it, but there’s a nuance difference:

dipanggil comes from panggil = to call (usually to come forward / come over)
- Often used in contexts like roll calls, queues, interviews, graduation ceremonies, etc.
disebut comes from sebut = to mention (to say the name)
- Focus is more on the act of mentioning/saying the name.

In a graduation context:

namanya dipanggil suggests “her/his name was called to come up (on stage)”.
namanya disebut suggests “her/his name was mentioned/said”.

Both can be understood, but dipanggil fits the typical graduation scene better.

Why is there no word like “was” or “is” in dia memakai toga hitam? How do we know the tense?

Indonesian verbs don’t change form for tense (past/present/future).
Memakai by itself can mean:

is wearing (present)
was wearing (past)
will wear (future; usually needs extra time words)

Tense is understood from context and sometimes time expressions:

kemarin dia memakai toga hitam = yesterday he/she wore a black gown
sekarang dia memakai toga hitam = now he/she is wearing a black gown

In your sentence, a graduation scene is usually a past event being narrated, so we translate it as “He/She was wearing a black gown and smiled when…”

How formal or informal is this whole sentence? How might a more casual version look?

The sentence is in a neutral to slightly formal style:

dia memakai (not dia pakai)
tersenyum (standard)
saat (slightly formal/neutral)
dipanggil (standard passive)

A more casual, spoken version could be:

Dia pakai toga hitam dan senyum waktu namanya dipanggil.

Even more relaxed, people might shorten and drop some parts in everyday conversation, but the original sentence is perfect for writing, narration, and neutral speech.