Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Menurutku aktor dan aktris muda itu berbakat, tetapi sutradara perlu memperbaiki akhir naskahnya. - In my opinion, those young actors and actresses are talented, but the director needs to improve the ending of the script.

menurutku
- Informal, friendly, often spoken with friends, peers.
- Feels quite personal and casual.
menurut saya
- More neutral and polite.
- Suitable for talking to strangers, older people, in class, at work, etc.
aku pikir / saya pikir
- Literally “I think (that) …”
- Grammatically a verb phrase, while menurutku / menurut saya is a prepositional phrase.
- Often interchangeable in meaning with menurutku / menurut saya, but aku pikir sounds a bit more like “I think that X is true,” whereas menurutku emphasizes “in my opinion.”

In this sentence, changing menurutku to menurut saya would keep the same meaning but make it more polite/neutral.

Why does muda come after aktor dan aktris, instead of before like in English (“young actors and actresses”)?

In Indonesian, most adjectives come after the noun they describe:

aktor muda = young actor
film bagus = good movie
sutradara terkenal = famous director

So:

aktor dan aktris muda itu
literally: actor and actress young that
meaning: those young actors and actresses.

Putting muda before the noun (muda aktor) would be incorrect in standard Indonesian.

Does muda describe both the actor and the actress, or just the actress?

In aktor dan aktris muda itu, muda describes both:

aktor (muda) dan aktris muda itu

Indonesian usually lets one adjective at the end apply to a whole list before it. So the phrase is understood as:

“the young actor and (the) young actress”
or more naturally:
“those young actors and actresses.”

What does itu add in aktor dan aktris muda itu? Is it like “that” or “those”?

Itu is a demonstrative that usually corresponds to that / those.

Here it has two functions:

Pointing to specific people
- aktor dan aktris muda itu = those young actors and actresses (that we’re talking about / that we saw)
  It refers to a known, specific group, not just any young actors and actresses.
Making the noun phrase more definite
Sometimes itu works almost like “the”, especially for things already known in the context.

Number-wise, Indonesian doesn’t change itu for plural. Itu can mean that (singular) or those (plural), depending on context. Here, because there is aktor dan aktris (two people), you naturally understand it as plural → those.

Is aktor dan aktris muda itu grammatically singular or plural? There’s no plural ending.

Indonesian usually does not mark plural on the noun:

aktor can mean actor or actors, depending on context.

In aktor dan aktris muda itu:

There are clearly two roles mentioned: aktor and aktris.
So it is understood as plural: the young actor and actress / those young actors and actresses.

There is no verb agreement change in Indonesian (no “is/are” difference), so berbakat stays the same regardless of singular or plural.

Why is there no word like “is/are” (a copula) between aktor dan aktris muda itu and berbakat?

Indonesian usually does not use a verb like “to be” before adjectives.

English: They *are talented.*
Indonesian: Mereka berbakat. (literally “They talented.”)

In this sentence:

aktor dan aktris muda itu berbakat
= those young actors and actresses are talented.

You would not say aktor dan aktris muda itu adalah berbakat.
Adalah is mainly used before nouns (and sometimes noun-like phrases), not before adjectives:

Dia adalah sutradara. = He/She is a director.
Dia berbakat. = He/She is talented. (no adalah)

What is the nuance difference between tetapi and tapi here?

Both mean “but / however.”

tetapi
- More formal or neutral.
- Common in writing, news, presentations, etc.
tapi
- Informal, everyday speech.
- Very common in conversation.

In your sentence:

… berbakat, tetapi sutradara perlu …

You could replace tetapi with tapi:

… berbakat, tapi sutradara perlu …

The meaning stays the same; only the formality level drops slightly with tapi.

How does perlu work here? Why is it sutradara perlu memperbaiki, not sutradara harus memperbaiki or perlu untuk memperbaiki?

Perlu means “need to / needs to” or “necessary.”

sutradara perlu memperbaiki …
= the director needs to fix/improve …

Differences:

perlu = need to, should (fairly strong, but still like a recommendation)
harus = must, have to (strong obligation, no real choice)

So:

sutradara perlu memperbaiki akhir naskahnya
→ The director needs to improve the ending. (a strong suggestion / requirement)
sutradara harus memperbaiki akhir naskahnya
→ The director must improve the ending. (stronger, more forceful)

About untuk:

perlu memperbaiki is the most natural form.
perlu untuk memperbaiki is possible, but sounds more formal/bookish and is less common in everyday speech in this structure.

What exactly does memperbaiki mean here? Is it “fix,” “correct,” or “improve”?

Memperbaiki comes from:

baik = good
memperbaiki = to make something good / better → to fix, repair, improve, correct

In this context:

memperbaiki akhir naskahnya
means the director should make the ending better – maybe by rewriting, adjusting, or polishing it.

It doesn’t necessarily mean the ending is broken in a technical sense; it’s more like artistically it could be improved.

Alternatives (with slightly different nuances):

mengubah akhir naskahnya = change the ending
menyempurnakan akhir naskahnya = perfect/refine the ending
menulis ulang akhir naskahnya = rewrite the ending

How should I understand akhir naskahnya? Is it literally “the ending of the script”?

Yes. The structure is:

akhir = ending / end
naskahnya = the script (with -nya, see next question)

So akhir naskahnya = “the ending of the script” or “the script’s ending.”

Word order:

Indonesian: akhir naskahnya (literally “ending [of] the script”)
English: the ending of the script / the script’s ending

You could also say:

akhir dari naskahnya = the ending of the script

That is a bit more explicit (using dari = “of/from”), but akhir naskahnya is already clear and more natural.

What does the -nya on naskahnya mean? Is it “his script,” “her script,” or just “the script”?

The suffix -nya is very flexible. It can mean:

his / her / its / their
- bukunya = his/her book
the (definite thing already known)
- filmnya bagus = the movie is good / that movie is good
that (referring back to something known in context)

In naskahnya, context decides the exact nuance:

Here it is most naturally “the script (they’re working on / of that movie)”.
It doesn’t have to mean the script personally owned by the director; it’s the script already known in the situation (the one we’re talking about).

So akhir naskahnya can be understood as:

the ending of the script (of that movie/play)
rather than “the ending of his script” in a personal-ownership sense.

Where is the tense in this sentence? How do we know if it’s talking about the past, present, or future?

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense (no -ed, -s, etc.). Tense is understood from context or from time words.

In:

Menurutku aktor dan aktris muda itu berbakat, tetapi sutradara perlu memperbaiki akhir naskahnya.

There is no explicit time word, so it could be:

Present/general:
In my opinion those young actors and actresses are talented, but the director needs to fix the ending of the script (now / in general).
Future:
With a suitable context, it could also mean will need to.

To make time clearer, you’d add adverbs:

tadi malam (last night)
kemarin (yesterday)
akan (will)
sedang (currently)

Example:

Kemarin aku menonton film itu. Menurutku aktor dan aktris muda itu berbakat, tetapi sutradara perlu memperbaiki akhir naskahnya.
→ Clearly talking about a film you already watched.

Could this sentence be made more formal or more casual? What would that look like?

Yes. Here are versions with different levels of formality.

More formal / polite:

Menurut saya, para aktor dan aktris muda itu sangat berbakat, tetapi sutradara perlu memperbaiki bagian akhir naskah tersebut.

Notes:

menurut saya instead of menurutku
para aktor dan aktris muda itu emphasizes a group of actors
sangat berbakat = very talented
bagian akhir = the final part
naskah tersebut = that script (very definite, formal)

More casual / colloquial:

Menurutku, aktor dan aktris muda itu berbakat banget, tapi sutradaranya masih perlu benerin ending naskahnya.

Notes:

banget = very (slangy)
tapi instead of tetapi
benerin (from membenarkan) = fix (colloquial)
ending borrowed from English
sutradaranya can mean “the director” (the one we all know in this context)

The original sentence is neutral and natural in many contexts, slightly leaning informal because of menurutku.