Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Benang putih di kotak kecil itu dipakai nenek untuk menjahit rok sekolah. - The white thread in that small box is used by grandmother to sew the school skirt.

Active: Nenek memakai benang putih di kotak kecil itu untuk menjahit rok sekolah.
→ “Grandma uses the white thread in that small box to sew the school skirt.”
Passive (your sentence): Benang putih di kotak kecil itu dipakai nenek untuk menjahit rok sekolah.
→ Literally: “The white thread in that small box is used by Grandma to sew the school skirt.”

So:

Subject (topic): Benang putih di kotak kecil itu
Verb: dipakai
Agent (doer): nenek (the word oleh ‘by’ is omitted but understood)
Purpose: untuk menjahit rok sekolah

The passive form is common when you want to highlight the thing being used (the thread), not the person doing the action (Grandma).

Why is there no oleh before nenek in dipakai nenek?

In passive sentences, oleh (“by”) can introduce the agent, but it is often dropped in everyday Indonesian when the agent is short and clear:

Full form: Benang putih … dipakai *oleh nenek …*
Common spoken/written form: Benang putih … dipakai *nenek …*

Both are grammatically correct.
Without an agent: Benang putih … dipakai untuk menjahit rok sekolah. would just mean “The white thread … is used to sew the school skirt,” with no mention of who uses it.

What does itu refer to in di kotak kecil itu? The box or the thread?

itu (“that / the”) here modifies kotak kecil and directly refers to the small box, not the thread.

The structure is:

kotak = box
kotak kecil = small box
kotak kecil itu = that small box / the small box (already known to speaker and listener)

So itu attaches to the noun phrase kotak kecil, not to benang putih.
However, making the box definite also makes the whole description of the thread more specific: “the white thread (that is) in that small box.”

Why are the describing words (adjectives) after the nouns: benang putih, kotak kecil? Can I say putih benang?

In Indonesian, descriptive adjectives almost always come after the noun they describe.

benang putih = white thread
kotak kecil = small box
rok baru = new skirt

You generally cannot say putih benang the way you say “white thread” in English; that sounds wrong or poetic at best.

So the normal order is:

Noun + Adjective
benang putih, kotak kecil, rumah besar, buku tebal

The exception is certain fixed expressions (e.g. orang kaya, orang tua), but those are best learned individually.

Why is sekolah after rok in rok sekolah? Is sekolah an adjective here?

sekolah is still a noun (“school”), but in Indonesian it can function like a modifier after another noun, forming a kind of “compound noun”:

rok sekolah = school skirt / skirt for school (uniform skirt)
buku sekolah = school book
seragam sekolah = school uniform

So the pattern is:

Noun (main thing) + Noun (type/purpose)

Even though sekolah is a noun, in this position it behaves like a classifier or a specific type label for rok.

Does rok sekolah mean one skirt or multiple skirts? There’s no plural marker.

Indonesian usually does not mark plural unless it is important to be explicit.

rok sekolah can mean:
- “a school skirt”
- “the school skirt”
- “school skirts” (in general)

Context decides whether it’s singular or plural.
If you want to clearly say “skirts (plural)”, you can say:

rok-rok sekolah
or add a number or quantifier: dua rok sekolah, beberapa rok sekolah

What does untuk do in untuk menjahit rok sekolah?

untuk means “for / in order to” and often introduces a purpose.

menjahit = to sew
untuk menjahit = for sewing / in order to sew

So untuk menjahit rok sekolah = “to sew the school skirt” or “for sewing the school skirt”.

You’ll often see:

untuk + verb: untuk makan, untuk tidur, untuk belajar
untuk + noun: untuk nenek, untuk anak-anak

Why is it menjahit and not just jahit?

menjahit is the standard verb form meaning “to sew”. It uses the prefix meN-, which is very common for active transitive verbs:

jahit (root) → menjahit (to sew)
baca → membaca (to read)
pakai → memakai (to wear/use)

jahit by itself appears:

as a bare root in dictionaries,
in some imperative or very informal speech (Jahit rok itu! “Sew that skirt!”),
or as part of other derived forms.

But in a normal sentence after untuk, you use the meN- form:

untuk menjahit rok sekolah = to sew the school skirt

Could I say di dalam kotak kecil itu instead of di kotak kecil itu? What’s the difference between di and di dalam?

Yes, you can say:

Benang putih *di dalam kotak kecil itu dipakai nenek …*

The difference:

di = at/in/on (general location)
di dalam = inside, in the interior of

In practice:

di kotak kecil itu is natural and usually understood as “in that small box”.
di dalam kotak kecil itu makes the idea of “inside” a little more explicit, but both are acceptable here and feel normal.

Why is there no word like “which” or “that” before di kotak kecil itu? In English we’d say “the white thread that is in the small box”.

Indonesian often attaches prepositional phrases directly after the noun to modify it, without using a separate “that/which” word.

benang putih di kotak kecil itu
Literally: “white thread in that small box”
Meaning: “the white thread that is in that small box”

If you want to be more explicit, you can add yang:

benang putih yang di kotak kecil itu (less common)
benang putih yang ada di kotak kecil itu (more natural)

But the version without yang is very common and perfectly correct:

Noun + (adjectives) + (prepositional phrase)
benang putih di kotak kecil itu

What exactly does nenek mean here? “Grandma” or just “old woman”?

nenek can mean both, depending on context:

As a kinship term / address:
- “Grandma / Granny / Nan”
- Often used without a possessive: Nenek lagi di rumah. = “Grandma is at home.”
As a common noun:
- “an old woman / elderly woman”
- e.g. Seorang nenek berjalan di jalan. = “An old woman walked on the street.”

In your sentence, context (and typical textbook style) suggests it’s being used like “Grandma” (someone known to the speaker), but grammatically it can also be interpreted as “an old woman.”
If you want to be explicit about “my grandma”, you can say nenek saya or nenekku.

Is this sentence saying what Grandma usually does or what she is doing right now?

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense, so dipakai by itself is neutral; it can be:

present: “is used”
past: “was used”
habitual: “is used (generally / usually)”

The specific time depends on context or added time words:

sekarang (now)
tadi (earlier)
biasanya (usually)
setiap hari (every day), etc.

So the sentence could be translated as:

“Grandma uses the white thread in that small box to sew the school skirt.” (habit)
or “The white thread in that small box is being used by Grandma to sew the school skirt.” (now)

without changing the Indonesian wording.