Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Perkara warisan pernah membuat saudara jauh bertengkar, tapi akhirnya mereka rukun lagi. - An inheritance issue once made distant relatives quarrel, but in the end they became harmonious again.

perkara
- Literally: a case, legal matter, or dispute.
- Often used for serious issues, especially legal or formal disputes:
  - perkara pidana = a criminal case
  - perkara perceraian = a divorce case
- Here, perkara warisan suggests a serious conflict or dispute about inheritance, not just a casual topic.
masalah
- Very common, general word for problem / issue.
- masalah warisan = a problem about inheritance (could be serious, but not necessarily legal-sounding).
soal
- Can mean matter / about or question.
- soal warisan = regarding inheritance / about inheritance. Slightly more neutral.
hal
- More like thing / aspect / matter (often abstract):
  - hal ini penting = this thing/aspect is important.

So, perkara warisan is chosen to give the idea of a problematic or conflict-ridden inheritance case, not just “the topic of inheritance” in general.

Why is it perkara warisan and not perkara tentang warisan?

Both are possible, but there is a nuance:

perkara warisan
- Very natural and compact.
- Sounds like a specific dispute/matter of inheritance.
- Similar to English “an inheritance case / inheritance dispute.”
perkara tentang warisan
- Literally “a case about inheritance”.
- Grammatically correct, but a bit heavier and less idiomatic in this context.
- You’d more often see tentang with words like pembicaraan tentang, diskusi tentang, etc.

Indonesian often puts a noun directly after another noun to show a relationship, without a preposition:

masalah uang = money problems
perkara warisan = inheritance case / issue

So perkara warisan is the most natural here.

What does pernah add to the sentence? Could we just say Perkara warisan membuat saudara jauh bertengkar?

Pernah roughly means “ever / once / at some time in the past.”

Perkara warisan pernah membuat saudara jauh bertengkar
- Implies: At some point in the past, an inheritance issue once caused them to fight.
- Focuses on the fact that it happened at least once, without saying exactly when.

If you remove pernah:

Perkara warisan membuat saudara jauh bertengkar
- Sounds more like a simple past or a general truth:
  - Either “An inheritance issue caused them to fight” (one known past event)
  - Or “Inheritance issues cause distant relatives to fight” (more generic, depending on context).

So pernah softens it to “once / at some point” and makes it feel more like a background event in their history rather than a single specific narrated event.

How does the structure membuat saudara jauh bertengkar work? Why is a verb (bertengkar) after the object?

This is a common Indonesian causative pattern:

membuat + [someone] + [adjective/verb]

It means “to make [someone] [be/do something].”

Here:

membuat = to make / to cause
saudara jauh = the distant relatives (object)
bertengkar = to quarrel / to fight (intransitive verb)

So membuat saudara jauh bertengkar = “made the distant relatives fight” / “caused the distant relatives to quarrel.”

Other examples of this pattern:

Berita itu membuat dia sedih.
= That news made him/her sad.
Ucapannya membuat saya marah.
= His/her words made me angry.
Film itu membuat kami tertawa.
= The movie made us laugh.

So having a verb (like bertengkar) or an adjective after the object is normal in this pattern.

Does saudara jauh mean “distant relatives” in the sense of family tree distance, or “siblings who live far away”?

Saudara jauh almost always means “distant relatives” in the genealogical sense:

cousins of various degrees
relatives not in the immediate nuclear family
sometimes even very extended kin

It does not usually mean “siblings who live far away.” For that, you would say something like:

saudara yang tinggal jauh = siblings/relatives who live far away
kakak saya yang jauh (context needed)

Also note:

saudara by itself is quite broad: it can mean siblings or relatives, depending on context.
Here, because it’s saudara jauh and followed by mereka, the meaning is distant relatives (a group).

What exactly does bertengkar mean? Is it physical fighting or just arguing?

Bertengkar generally means to quarrel / to argue, mostly verbal conflict. It can include:

heated arguments
serious disagreements
family fights (usually spoken, emotional)

It doesn’t specifically imply physical violence. For that, Indonesians might say:

berkelahi = to fight physically
bakuk pukul (in some regions) = to beat each other up

Some rough contrasts:

bertengkar – to quarrel (usually verbal)
berdebat – to debate (can be more formal/intellectual, not necessarily angry)
berkelahi – to fight, often physical

In family or social contexts, bertengkar is often like English “fall out / have a fight / have a big argument.”

Is tapi too informal? Should I use tetapi instead?

Both are correct; the difference is mainly formality and tone:

tapi
- More colloquial / informal / neutral spoken.
- Very common in everyday speech and informal writing (messages, chats, informal narrative).
tetapi
- More formal or standard written Indonesian.
- Preferred in essays, formal articles, official documents.

In this sentence:

… bertengkar, tapi akhirnya mereka rukun lagi.
- Sounds natural in spoken Indonesian or informal storytelling.

If you change it to tetapi, the meaning stays the same, just a bit more formal:

… bertengkar, tetapi akhirnya mereka rukun lagi.

What does akhirnya mean here, and where can it appear in the sentence?

Akhirnya means “finally / in the end / eventually.”

In this sentence:

… tapi akhirnya mereka rukun lagi.
= “… but in the end they got along again.”

It implies that:

there was a period of conflict,
and after some time, the situation improved.

Placement options:

Akhirnya mereka rukun lagi. (as in the sentence)
Mereka akhirnya rukun lagi. (also correct; a slightly different rhythm)
Pada akhirnya mereka rukun lagi. (“in the end” with pada, a bit more formal/emphatic)

All three are acceptable; the given word order is very natural.

What does rukun mean? Is it the same as akrab or baik?

Rukun describes a state of living in harmony / being on good terms / at peace with each other.

In this context:

mereka rukun lagi = they reconciled / they were on good terms again / they lived harmoniously again.

Rough comparison:

rukun
- Focus: peaceful, harmonious relations, no conflict.
- Often used for families, neighbors, communities:
  - hidup rukun = live in harmony
  - rukun tetangga = neighborhood community unit
akrab
- Focus: closeness / intimacy / familiarity.
- mereka sangat akrab = they are very close (emotionally).
baik (about relationships)
- hubungan kami baik = our relationship is good.
- Very general; doesn’t strongly emphasize harmony or closeness.

Here, rukun lagi suggests that the conflict has ended and they get along peacefully again. They may or may not be very close (akrab), but they are no longer in conflict.

What does lagi mean in rukun lagi? Could it mean “still”?

Lagi has several meanings, but here it clearly means “again.”

rukun lagi = in harmony again / on good terms again.

Compare:

Dia datang lagi. = He/She came again.
Mereka bertengkar lagi. = They fought again.

“Still” in Indonesian is usually:

masih

So:

mereka masih rukun = they are still on good terms.
mereka rukun lagi = they are (now) on good terms again (after not being rukun for a while).

Position-wise, lagi commonly comes after the verb or adjective:

datang lagi
marah lagi
rukun lagi

If Indonesian has no past tense, how do we know this happened in the past?

The past-ness comes from context words, especially:

pernah – indicates something happened at some point in the past.
The whole second clause akhirnya mereka rukun lagi also implies a sequence: first they fought, then they became harmonious again.

So:

Perkara warisan pernah membuat saudara jauh bertengkar
=> The inheritance issue once caused the distant relatives to fight.

Indonesian does not change the verb form for past tense, so it relies on:

time adverbs: kemarin (yesterday), dulu (in the past), tadi (earlier), sudah (already), pernah (ever/once).
context from surrounding sentences.

Here, pernah is the main clue that the event is in the past.

Could we reorder it as Saudara jauh pernah bertengkar karena perkara warisan? Does that change the meaning?

Yes, that sentence is correct and natural:

Saudara jauh pernah bertengkar karena perkara warisan, tapi akhirnya mereka rukun lagi.
= The distant relatives once quarreled because of an inheritance issue, but in the end they got along again.

Differences in nuance:

Original:
- Perkara warisan is the subject and focus:
  - “An inheritance issue once caused the distant relatives to fight …”
  - Emphasis on the issue as the cause.
Reordered version:
- Saudara jauh is the subject and focus:
  - “The distant relatives once quarreled because of an inheritance issue …”
  - Emphasis on the relatives’ quarrel, with perkara warisan as the reason (karena = because).

Meaning is largely the same, but the focus shifts:

Original: focus on the inheritance issue as a cause.
New version: focus on the relatives’ action (quarreling).