Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Petani padi itu bekerja sejak pagi hingga sore. - That rice farmer works from morning until late afternoon.

You could say just petani if you don’t care what they farm, but petani padi tells you their crop, just like dairy farmer, sheep farmer, etc. in English.

What does itu do in petani padi itu?

Itu is a demonstrative that can mean:

that (as in that rice farmer)
or can function like the / that one we already talked about.

Putting it after the noun phrase (petani padi itu) usually means:

that specific rice farmer / the rice farmer (we have in mind or already mentioned)

Compare:

seorang petani padi = a rice farmer (indefinite, just one)
petani padi itu = that/the rice farmer (definite, specific)
petani padi ini = this rice farmer

Why is itu after the noun (petani padi itu) instead of before, like in English?

In Indonesian, demonstratives like ini (this) and itu (that) normally come after the noun:

petani itu = that/the farmer
rumah itu = that/the house
buku ini = this/the book

So petani padi itu is the normal order.

You can have itu before a noun in certain structures, but then it behaves differently, more like:

Itu petani padi. = That’s a rice farmer. (whole sentence, identifying something)

In your sentence, you need a noun phrase as the subject, so petani padi itu (noun + itu) is the correct order.

Can petani padi itu mean those rice farmers (plural), or is it only singular?

On its own, petani padi itu can be singular or plural. Indonesian usually does not mark plural explicitly; context tells you:

petani padi itu bekerja sejak pagi hingga sore
= That rice farmer works… or Those rice farmers work…, depending on context.

To make plural clearer, speakers might say:

para petani padi itu = those rice farmers (clearly plural, more formal)
petani-petani padi itu = also clearly plural, but reduplication sounds a bit clunky here; para petani padi is more natural.

How do we know the tense of bekerja? Does it mean worked, works, or is working?

Indonesian verbs like bekerja do not change form for tense.
Bekerja is just to work / working.

The exact time (past, present, future) comes from context or from time words:

Petani padi itu bekerja sejak pagi hingga sore.
→ could be works, worked, or is working, depending on context.

Add time words to be explicit:

tadi pagi = this morning (earlier today, past)
kemarin = yesterday
besok = tomorrow
setiap hari = every day

Examples:

Kemarin petani padi itu bekerja sejak pagi hingga sore.
= Yesterday the rice farmer worked from morning until afternoon.
Setiap hari petani padi itu bekerja sejak pagi hingga sore.
= Every day the rice farmer works from morning until afternoon.

What’s the difference between sejak and dari? Could we say dari pagi instead of sejak pagi?

Both sejak and dari can translate as from/since in time expressions, but there are nuances:

sejak:
- emphasizes “since (a starting point) and continuing for a period”
- often sounds a bit more formal or written
- very natural for long or continuous durations
dari:
- very general from (for time, place, source, etc.)
- extremely common in speech
- in time phrases, dari … sampai … is very common.

So you can say:

sejak pagi hingga sore
dari pagi sampai sore

Both are grammatical and common. In everyday speech, dari pagi sampai sore is probably more frequent; sejak pagi hingga sore feels a bit more formal/neutral.

What about hingga vs sampai? Are they interchangeable?

In time expressions like this, hingga and sampai are basically synonyms:

hingga = until / up to (slightly more formal or written)
sampai = until / up to (very common in everyday speech)

Typical pairs:

sejak pagi hingga sore
dari pagi sampai sore

Mixed pairs are also heard:

sejak pagi sampai sore
dari pagi hingga sore

So yes, you can usually swap them in time expressions, with only a small formality difference.

Does pagi here mean a specific clock time, like 6 a.m.? How exact is pagi?

Pagi is a general time of day, not a precise hour.

Roughly:

pagi: morning (after dawn until around 10–11 a.m.)
siang: late morning to early afternoon
sore: afternoon to early evening
malam: night

In sejak pagi hingga sore, it means from the morning (in general) until the afternoon (in general), not exact clock times.

If you want precision, you add clocks times:

sejak jam tujuh pagi hingga jam lima sore
= from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Is sore “afternoon” or “evening”? English doesn’t really use evening for working hours this way.

Sore covers both afternoon and part of early evening, roughly:

after siang (midday/early afternoon)
until just before it feels like night (malam)

In practice, for work schedules, sore is often translated as afternoon or late afternoon / early evening, depending on context.

So in this sentence, a natural translation would be:

from morning until (late) afternoon,
or
from morning until early evening, depending on what you want to emphasize.

Why is there no word for he/she/they in the sentence? Shouldn’t it say He works…?

In Indonesian you don’t need a separate pronoun when the subject is already a noun phrase.

Here, the subject is petani padi itu (that rice farmer), so a pronoun like dia (he/she) is not needed.

Possible patterns:

Petani padi itu bekerja…
= The/that rice farmer works…

If you’ve already identified the farmer earlier, later you might switch to a pronoun:

Petani padi itu tinggal di desa. Dia bekerja sejak pagi hingga sore.
= That rice farmer lives in a village. He works from morning until afternoon.

Indonesian often omits pronouns when context is clear; it feels natural, not incomplete.

Does this sentence mean he works those hours every day, or just today?

The sentence by itself is ambiguous about frequency. It can mean:

a general habit:
- The rice farmer (typically) works from morning until afternoon.
a specific situation (today or some other day):
- The rice farmer (today) is working from morning until afternoon.

To make it clearly habitual, you can add something like:

Setiap hari petani padi itu bekerja sejak pagi hingga sore.
= Every day the rice farmer works from morning until afternoon.

To make it clearly about today, you can add:

Hari ini petani padi itu bekerja sejak pagi hingga sore.
= Today the rice farmer is working from morning until afternoon.

Context usually tells you which reading is intended.

Why are pagi and sore used without hari, like pagi hari or sore hari?

Time-of-day words like pagi, siang, sore, malam can stand alone as time expressions:

pagi = in the morning
sore = in the afternoon / early evening

Adding hari can sound a bit more formal or emphatic:

pagi hari = (in) the morning (slightly more formal/literary)
sore hari = (in) the afternoon

So:

sejak pagi hingga sore
sejak pagi hari hingga sore hari

Both are grammatical; the version without hari is shorter and very common in everyday speech.

What’s the difference between bekerja and kerja?

The root is kerja = work (noun or verb, depending on context).

Bekerja is the verb formed with the prefix ber-:

kerja (root) = work (noun) / work (verb in colloquial speech)
bekerja = to work, working (standard verb)

In standard Indonesian:

Saya bekerja di sawah. = I work in the rice field.

In more casual speech, people might also say:

Saya kerja di sawah.

Both are understood, but bekerja is more formal/complete and is the form you’ll see in textbooks and writing.

Can we move the time phrase to the front: Sejak pagi hingga sore, petani padi itu bekerja? Is that still correct?

Yes, that word order is correct and natural.

Indonesian allows time expressions to be:

at the end:
- Petani padi itu bekerja sejak pagi hingga sore.
or at the beginning (often for emphasis on the time):
- Sejak pagi hingga sore, petani padi itu bekerja.

Both mean the same thing; putting the time at the front just highlights the duration more.