Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Di kota kecil di mana nenek saya lahir, banyak nelayan berangkat pagi-pagi dengan perahu dan jaring. - In the small town where my grandmother was born, many fishermen leave early with boats and nets.

Di kota kecil = “In a small town”.
Putting this phrase at the very beginning sets the scene, just like in English: “In the small town where my grandmother was born, …”

Indonesian often starts sentences with a location or time phrase, and that’s completely natural word order:

Di sekolah, saya belajar bahasa Indonesia. = “At school, I study Indonesian.”

Why is there no word for “the” or “a” before kota kecil?

Indonesian has no articles like English “a / an / the”.

kota kecil by itself can mean “a small town” or “the small town”, depending on context.
The sentence relies on the listener’s knowledge to decide whether this is a specific town (the one where grandma was born) or just describing it generally.

If you really need to emphasize that it’s a specific town, you use context or extra words, not an article, for example:

kota kecil itu = “that small town / the small town (already known to both of us)”

How does di mana work here? Does it still mean the question word “where”?

Here di mana is not introducing a question; it’s acting like a relative “where”, linking “small town” and the clause “my grandmother was born”.

di mana literally: “in where / at where”
Function in this sentence: “the small town *where my grandmother was born*”

So di mana can be:

A question word: Kamu tinggal di mana? = “Where do you live?”
Or a linker/relative: rumah di mana saya tinggal = “the house where I live”

Can I replace di mana with something like tempat or yang?

You can replace “di mana” with “tempat”, but not with yang alone in this structure.

Natural alternatives:

Di kota kecil tempat nenek saya lahir, …
= “In the small town where my grandmother was born, …”

Here tempat means “place” and works like “the place where…”.

Using yang directly after di would not be natural:

✗ Di kota kecil di yang nenek saya lahir → ungrammatical.

Yang is used as a relative marker after a noun, not after di in this kind of “where”-clause. For example:

Orang yang saya temui kemarin … = “The person (whom) I met yesterday …”

Why is it nenek saya and not saya nenek or saya punya nenek?

Indonesian usually shows possession by putting the possessor pronoun after the noun:

nenek saya = “my grandmother”
- literally: “grandmother my”

Other patterns:

saya punya nenek = “I have a grandmother.”
- This is a different meaning: it states existence/possession, not “my grandmother” as a specific person in a sentence.

So in this sentence, you need nenek saya because you’re talking about a particular person (“my grandmother”), not stating “I have a grandmother”.

How do you express “was born” with just lahir? Where is the past tense?

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense (past/present/future). Time is shown by context or time words, not by verb endings.

lahir already means “to be born / born”.
nenek saya lahir = “my grandmother was born / is born / will be born”
– but context (talking about grandmother) clearly makes it past here.

If you really want to emphasize the past, you can add a past marker:

nenek saya dulu lahir di kota kecil itu
nenek saya telah lahir di kota kecil itu
Both still translate naturally as “my grandmother was born in that small town.”

In banyak nelayan, how do we know nelayan is plural if there is no -s?

Indonesian usually doesn’t mark plural on the noun. Plurality is shown by words like “banyak” (many), numbers, or context.

nelayan can mean “fisherman” or “fishermen”.
banyak nelayan clearly means “many fishermen” because banyak = “many/a lot of”.

Other examples:

tiga buku = “three book(s)” (buku doesn’t change)
para nelayan = “the fishermen / fishermen (as a group)” – para is a plural marker mainly for people, slightly more formal.

What is the difference between berangkat and pergi for “to go”?

Both can be translated as “to go”, but they’re used a bit differently:

pergi = to go (general movement, leaving one place to go somewhere)
- Saya pergi ke pasar. = “I go to the market.”
berangkat = to depart / set off, often for a planned trip, work, or at a scheduled time
- Kereta berangkat jam tujuh. = “The train departs at seven.”
- Banyak nelayan berangkat pagi-pagi suggests “many fishermen set out early (for work).”

In your sentence, berangkat is more natural because it implies starting a workday/journey, not just casually going somewhere.

Why is pagi-pagi repeated? Is it different from just pagi?

Yes, pagi-pagi is different from pagi:

pagi = “morning / in the morning” (neutral)
pagi-pagi = “early in the morning / very early morning”

The reduplication (repeating the word) often adds a nuance such as “very / early / intensification / emphasis”.

So:

berangkat pagi = they depart in the morning (any time in the morning).
berangkat pagi-pagi = they leave early, maybe before sunrise or at dawn.

What does dengan express in “dengan perahu dan jaring”? Could I use pakai instead?

Here dengan means “with / using / by means of” and introduces the tools or means they use:

dengan perahu dan jaring = “with boats and nets / using boats and nets.”

You can often replace dengan with pakai or menggunakan, which are more explicitly “use”:

berangkat pakai perahu dan jaring (more casual)
berangkat menggunakan perahu dan jaring (more formal)

All are understandable; dengan is neutral and common in both spoken and written Indonesian.

Is perahu the same as kapal, and why is perahu used here?

Both refer to water vehicles, but they’re not the same:

perahu = boat (often smaller: fishing boats, rowing boats, small motorboats)
kapal = ship (larger: cargo ships, ferries, warships, big passenger ships)

For fishermen, especially in a small town, perahu is the natural choice because they typically use small fishing boats, not big ships.

Could the word order be different, for example putting pagi-pagi at the end of the sentence?

Yes, Indonesian word order is quite flexible for time and place phrases. You can move pagi-pagi and still be correct:

Original:
Di kota kecil …, banyak nelayan berangkat pagi-pagi dengan perahu dan jaring.
Also possible:
Di kota kecil …, banyak nelayan berangkat dengan perahu dan jaring pagi-pagi.

Both are grammatical. The original order slightly highlights when they leave (early in the morning) right after the verb. Moving pagi-pagi to the end puts a bit more weight on the tools (perahu dan jaring) before mentioning when. The differences are subtle; both would be understood the same.