Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Kereta sampai di stasiun lama pukul delapan. - The train arrives at the old station at eight o'clock.

In English I have to say "the train" or "a train", but the sentence just has kereta. How do I know if it means “the train” or “a train”?

Indonesian normally does not use articles like “a / an / the”.

The bare noun kereta can mean:

“a train” – introducing a train for the first time
“the train” – a specific train that both speakers know about
“trains” in general, depending on context

So Kereta sampai di stasiun lama pukul delapan can be translated as:

“The train arrived at the old station at eight o’clock.”
or
“A train arrived at the old station at eight o’clock.”

Context decides which English article fits best. Indonesian simply doesn’t mark that grammatically in this sentence.

Does kereta by itself already mean “train”, or do I have to say kereta api?

Literally:

kereta = vehicle / carriage (traditional/older sense)
kereta api = train (literally “fire vehicle”, originally for steam trains)

In modern everyday Indonesian:

kereta on its own almost always means “train”, especially in sentences about stations, tracks, schedules, etc.
kereta api is also correct and sounds slightly more complete or neutral-formal.

So you could also say:

Kereta api sampai di stasiun lama pukul delapan.

and it would mean the same thing.

In some regions (especially in Malaysia), kereta more commonly means “car”, but in Indonesian (Indonesia), mobil is “car” and kereta strongly suggests “train” in this kind of context.

Is kereta singular or plural here? Does it mean “train” or “trains”?

On its own, kereta does not mark number. It can be:

one train: The train arrived…
several trains: The trains arrived…

Again, the context decides.

If you really need to show plural clearly, Indonesian has several options:

banyak kereta – many trains
beberapa kereta – several trains
kereta-kereta – trains (reduplication to mark plurality, more written/formal or emphatic)

But in normal conversation, kereta by itself is usually enough, just like “fish” in English can be singular or plural depending on context.

What exactly does sampai mean here? I thought sampai also meant “until”.

Sampai has two main uses:

As a verb: sampai = to arrive / to reach
- Kereta sampai di stasiun. – The train arrives / arrived at the station.
- Dia sudah sampai rumah. – He/She has already arrived home.
As a preposition / conjunction: sampai = until / up to
- Saya belajar sampai malam. – I study until night.
- Dari pagi sampai siang. – From morning until noon.

In Kereta sampai di stasiun lama pukul delapan, sampai is clearly a verb: “to arrive (at)”. The di that follows (sampai di stasiun…) is what tells you it’s “arrive at [a place]”, not “until”.

Could I use tiba or datang instead of sampai? Are they the same?

All three can be used when talking about arriving, but there are nuances:

sampai
- Very common and neutral, used in speech and writing.
- Literally “to reach”.
- Often followed by di or ke: sampai di rumah, sampai ke Jakarta.
tiba
- More formal/literary, often in announcements, news, or written narratives.
- Frequently used with di: tiba di stasiun, tiba di Jakarta.
- Sounds a bit more “official” than sampai.
datang
- Literally “to come”.
- Focuses more on coming rather than reaching a destination after a journey.
- Often used for people coming to an event/house: Dia datang ke rumah saya.

In your sentence you could say:

Kereta tiba di stasiun lama pukul delapan. (slightly more formal)
Kereta datang di stasiun lama pukul delapan. (grammatically okay, but datang ke is more natural: datang ke stasiun)

Sampai di or tiba di are the most idiomatic for a train reaching a station.

Why is it di stasiun lama and not ke stasiun lama? What’s the difference between di and ke here?

di = at / in / on (location, where something is)
ke = to / towards (direction, where something is going)

With sampai:

sampai di [place] emphasizes being at that place (end point reached).
sampai ke [place] is also heard, but sampai di is more standard and common.

In your sentence, the train has already reached the station, so di (location) fits perfectly:

Kereta sampai di stasiun lama pukul delapan.
→ The train arrived at the old station at eight.

If you were talking about going (towards) the station, you’d normally use ke without sampai:

Kereta menuju ke stasiun lama. – The train is heading to the old station.

Why is the word order stasiun lama and not lama stasiun? Does lama mean “old” here?

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

stasiun lama – old station
rumah besar – big house
baju baru – new clothes

So:

stasiun = station
lama = old (in the sense “not new / has been there for a long time”)

Putting them together as stasiun lama naturally means “old station”.

Lama can also mean “for a long time” (as an adverb or noun), but in this position (directly after a noun) it acts as an adjective meaning “old / long-standing”.

You cannot say lama stasiun to mean “old station” – that’s ungrammatical in standard Indonesian.

What’s the difference between lama and tua for “old”? Why not stasiun tua?

Both lama and tua can translate as “old”, but they’re used a bit differently:

tua – usually for living things (people, animals) or age in a biological sense
- orang tua – old person / parent (idiomatic)
- anjing tua – old dog
lama – often for objects, buildings, habits, periods of time
- rumah lama – old house
- kebiasaan lama – old habit
- film lama – old movie

With stasiun, stasiun lama sounds more natural to describe a station that has been there for a long time or is older than another station (like an “old/original” station).

Stasiun tua might be understood, but it sounds unusual and is not the standard way to say it.

Could stasiun lama be a proper name like “Old Station”? If so, how would it be written?

Yes, stasiun lama can be:

Just a description:
- stasiun lama = an old station (not new), any old station.
A proper name, similar to “Old Station” as the official or common name of a place.

If it’s a proper name, you would usually capitalize it:

Stasiun Lama

For example:

Kereta sampai di Stasiun Lama pukul delapan.
→ The train arrived at Old Station at eight o’clock.

Without capitalization (and without context suggesting otherwise), learners usually interpret stasiun lama as a descriptive phrase “the old station”, not necessarily an official station name.

What does pukul mean in pukul delapan? How is it different from jam delapan?

Literally:

pukul = to hit/strike (verb), but also used for clock time (like “the clock strikes eight”).
jam = hour / o’clock / clock.

In telling time:

pukul delapan – eight o’clock (slightly more formal / standard)
jam delapan – also eight o’clock (very common in everyday speech)

In your sentence, both are acceptable:

Kereta sampai di stasiun lama pukul delapan.
Kereta sampai di stasiun lama jam delapan.

They mean the same thing: “at eight o’clock”.

You can be more specific by adding part of the day:

pukul delapan pagi – 8 a.m.
pukul delapan malam – 8 p.m.

Can the word order of the time and place phrases be changed? For example, can I say Kereta sampai pukul delapan di stasiun lama?

Yes. Indonesian word order for time and place information is quite flexible.

Your original sentence:

Kereta sampai di stasiun lama pukul delapan.
→ Subject (Kereta) – Verb (sampai) – Place (di stasiun lama) – Time (pukul delapan)

Other natural variations:

Kereta sampai pukul delapan di stasiun lama.
(place and time phrases swapped)
Pukul delapan, kereta sampai di stasiun lama.
(time moved to the front for emphasis)
Di stasiun lama, kereta sampai pukul delapan.
(place moved to the front for emphasis)

All of these can be understood. The most neutral version is usually:

Subject – Verb – Place – Time
as in your original sentence.

How do I know this sentence is in the past (“arrived”) and not present/future (“arrives” / “will arrive”)?

Indonesian verbs like sampai do not change form for tense. There’s no equivalent of English -ed, will, etc.

So sampai by itself can mean:

arrive / reaches (present)
arrived / reached (past)
will arrive (future, if context makes it clear)

In Kereta sampai di stasiun lama pukul delapan, the time expression pukul delapan just gives the clock time, not the tense.

To make the tense more explicit, Indonesians often add time words or particles:

Past:
- Tadi kereta sampai di stasiun lama pukul delapan.
  – Earlier, the train arrived at the old station at eight.
- Kereta sudah sampai di stasiun lama pukul delapan.
  – The train has (already) arrived at the old station at eight.
Future:
- Kereta akan sampai di stasiun lama pukul delapan.
  – The train will arrive at the old station at eight.
- Nanti kereta sampai di stasiun lama pukul delapan.
  – Later, the train arrives/will arrive at the old station at eight.

Without those extra words, you must rely on context to choose the right English tense in translation.

Can I omit some words and still be correct? For example, can I drop di stasiun lama or pukul delapan?

Yes. The sentence has three main pieces of information:

Kereta – the train
sampai di stasiun lama – arrives at the old station
pukul delapan – at eight o’clock

You can remove some parts depending on how much detail you want:

Kereta sampai pukul delapan.
– The train arrived at eight o’clock. (no location)
Kereta sampai di stasiun lama.
– The train arrived at the old station. (no time)
Kereta sampai.
– The train arrived. (very general; context must supply time and place)

But you should not omit di:

✗ Kereta sampai stasiun lama pukul delapan. (sounds wrong in standard Indonesian)
✓ Kereta sampai di stasiun lama pukul delapan.

The preposition di is needed because Indonesian marks locations with di, not just by putting the noun after the verb.