Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Paman saya bertemu petani padi di desa. - My uncle meets rice farmers in the village.

So paman saya is the normal way to say “my uncle.”
Saya paman would be interpreted as “I am an uncle” (and even that sounds incomplete; normally you’d say saya seorang paman).

There is no word for “the” or “a” in the sentence. How do Indonesians know if it’s “a rice farmer” or “the rice farmer”?

Indonesian has no regular articles like a/an or the. The noun phrase petani padi can mean:

“a rice farmer”
“the rice farmer”
“rice farmers” (in general)

Context decides which one is meant.
If you really want to emphasize a single unspecified person, you can add seorang:

Paman saya bertemu seorang petani padi di desa.
→ “My uncle met a rice farmer in the village.”

To emphasize that it’s specific/known, you might clarify it with extra information:

Paman saya bertemu petani padi yang biasanya menjual beras ke rumah kami.
→ “…the rice farmer who usually sells rice to our house.”

How do we know if petani padi is singular or plural?

We don’t know just from the words themselves. Indonesian nouns normally do not change form for plural. Petani padi can mean:

one rice farmer
several rice farmers

You can make plurality clearer by:

Reduplication: para petani padi, petani-petani padi → “(the) rice farmers”
Adding a number: tiga petani padi → “three rice farmers”
Using beberapa: beberapa petani padi → “some rice farmers”

Without those, you rely on context.

What is the difference between padi and beras? Why is it petani padi, not petani beras?

Indonesian distinguishes different stages of “rice”:

padi = rice as a plant in the field, or unharvested / unmilled grain
gabah = harvested but unhusked rice grain
beras = uncooked, hulled rice (what you buy and cook)
nasi = cooked rice

A farmer grows rice as a plant, so the natural phrase is petani padi (paddy rice farmer).
Petani beras would sound odd, like “uncooked-rice farmer,” and is not the usual expression.

Should it be bertemu petani padi or bertemu dengan petani padi? What’s the difference?

Both are used and both are understood:

Paman saya bertemu petani padi di desa.
Paman saya bertemu dengan petani padi di desa.

Bertemu dengan is a bit more explicit/standard and slightly more formal in some styles.
In everyday modern Indonesian, dropping dengan (just bertemu + object) is very common and not wrong.

There is also menemui, which is more like “to go to see / to visit” someone:

Paman saya menemui petani padi di desa.
→ “My uncle went to see / visited the rice farmer in the village.”

The English meaning is past (“met”), but there is no past tense marker in Paman saya bertemu…. How is tense shown in Indonesian?

Indonesian verbs generally do not change form for tense. Bertemu can mean:

meet / is meeting / met / will meet

Time is shown by:

Time words: kemarin (yesterday), tadi pagi (earlier this morning), besok (tomorrow), etc.
Aspect words: sudah (already), akan (will), sedang (currently), etc.
Context.

For example:

Kemarin paman saya bertemu petani padi di desa.
→ “Yesterday my uncle met a rice farmer in the village.”
Besok paman saya akan bertemu petani padi di desa.
→ “Tomorrow my uncle will meet a rice farmer in the village.”

What does di in di desa do, and how is it different from ke?

Di is a preposition that marks a location (in/at/on):

di desa → “in the village” / “at the village”
di rumah → “at home”

Ke marks movement toward a place (“to”):

ke desa → “to the village”
ke rumah → “to the house”

So:

Paman saya bertemu petani padi di desa.
→ The meeting happened in the village.
Paman saya pergi ke desa.
→ My uncle went to the village.

Could we move di desa earlier in the sentence, like Paman saya di desa bertemu petani padi? Does that change the meaning?

Word order is flexible, but it affects what di desa seems to modify:

Paman saya bertemu petani padi di desa.
- Default reading: the meeting took place in the village.
Paman saya di desa bertemu petani padi.
- More likely read as: “My uncle who is in the village met a rice farmer.”
- Here di desa tends to attach to paman saya.
Di desa, paman saya bertemu petani padi.
- Fronts the place for emphasis: “In the village, my uncle met a rice farmer.”

All are grammatical; the original order is the most neutral/basic for “met in the village.”

Can I use om instead of paman? What is the difference?

Yes, om (also spelled oom) is used in Indonesian, but with a different flavor:

paman: standard/formal word for “uncle” (your parents’ brother, etc.).
om: informal, from Dutch “oom,” often used in families or to address older men, not always a literal uncle.

In a neutral written sentence like this, paman saya is more standard.
In casual speech, someone might say:

Om saya bertemu petani padi di desa.

Does desa just mean “village”, or is it different from kampung?

Both are often translated as “village,” but they have nuances:

desa: an official/administrative term for a village-level area, common in more formal or neutral Indonesian.
kampung: more informal/colloquial; can mean village, hometown area, or even a neighborhood.

In this sentence, di desa is a good, neutral way to say “in the village.”
You could hear di kampung in speech, but it may carry a slightly different, more colloquial or emotional tone (“back in the village / home area”).

How would I say “My uncles met the rice farmers in the village”? How do I make paman and petani clearly plural?

You can make both nouns clearly plural with reduplication or plural markers:

Paman-paman saya bertemu para petani padi di desa.
→ “My uncles met the rice farmers in the village.”

Breakdown:

paman-paman saya = my uncles
para petani padi = the (group of) rice farmers

Other possibilities:

Beberapa paman saya bertemu beberapa petani padi di desa.
→ “Several of my uncles met several rice farmers in the village.”

If I want to emphasize “a rice farmer,” how do I say that more explicitly?

You can use seorang, a classifier for people, to mark a single, non-specific person:

Paman saya bertemu seorang petani padi di desa.
→ clearly “My uncle met a rice farmer in the village.”

Seorang literally means “one person,” but it functions like “a/an” for people when you want to highlight singularity.

Can saya ever come before paman to mean “my uncle,” like saya paman?

No, not for possession. The normal pattern is:

[possessed noun] + [possessor]
→ paman saya (my uncle), guru saya (my teacher)

Putting saya first usually makes it the subject pronoun, not a possessor:

Saya paman. → “I am an uncle.” (and even that sounds incomplete without seorang)

So for “my uncle,” always use paman saya (or the more literary pamanku, which is less common in everyday speech).