Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Berakhirnya pertandingan futsal ditandai dengan tepuk tangan panjang dari penonton. - The end of the futsal match is marked by long applause from the audience.

The suffix -nya in berakhirnya turns that verb into a noun-like phrase, roughly meaning “the ending (of …)” or “the end (when … ends)”.

So:

berakhir = to end
berakhirnya pertandingan futsal = the end / the ending of the futsal match

Here -nya is not “his/her/its” in the usual possessive sense; it’s functioning more like:

English “the …-ing”: the ending (of the match)
or “when … ends”: when the futsal match ends (as a thing that can be the subject)

You’ll see this pattern a lot:

Dimulainya pertandingan… = The start of the match…
Datangnya musim hujan… = The arrival of the rainy season…

Could we say akhir pertandingan futsal instead of berakhirnya pertandingan futsal?

You can say akhir pertandingan futsal, but it feels a bit different:

akhir pertandingan futsal = the end (point) of the futsal match (more like a noun “end”)
berakhirnya pertandingan futsal = the event of the futsal match ending (more verbal, more like “when it ended”)

In this sentence:

Berakhirnya pertandingan futsal ditandai dengan…

we are talking about the event/process of the match coming to an end, and that event is marked by the applause. Using berakhirnya sounds more natural and dynamic.

You could say:

Akhir pertandingan futsal ditandai dengan tepuk tangan panjang dari penonton.

This is grammatically OK and understandable, but berakhirnya is more idiomatic when you want to highlight the moment of ending as something that happens and is marked by something else.

Why is ditandai (passive) used instead of the active menandai?

Indonesian often prefers a passive-like structure when we want to put the event or thing (not the doer) in focus.

Passive-style (in the original):
Berakhirnya pertandingan futsal ditandai dengan tepuk tangan panjang dari penonton.
The end of the futsal match was marked by prolonged applause from the spectators.
Active-style (alternative):
Tepuk tangan panjang dari penonton menandai berakhirnya pertandingan futsal.
Prolonged applause from the spectators marked the end of the futsal match.

Both are correct. The difference is:

Original sentence focuses on “the end of the futsal match” (subject).
The active version focuses on “the applause” as the agent doing the marking.

Using ditandai is very common in narrative or formal descriptions:
> Acara ini ditandai dengan… = This event is/was marked by…

Why do we say ditandai dengan and not just ditandai or ditandai oleh?

With the verb (di)tandai, the preposition dengan is a very common collocation:

ditandai dengan X = is marked by X / is characterized by X

Some patterns:

Tahun baru Imlek ditandai dengan perayaan meriah.
Musim kemarau ditandai dengan berkurangnya curah hujan.

You can use oleh with the agent (who does the marking), but that shifts the meaning:

Berakhirnya pertandingan futsal ditandai oleh wasit.
= The end of the match was signaled/marked by the referee.
(here “the referee” is the doer)

In your sentence, the applause is more like the sign/phenomenon that characterizes the end, so dengan is natural:

ditandai dengan tepuk tangan panjang = was marked by prolonged applause

What exactly is tepuk tangan? Why two words, and does it mean “applause”?

Yes, tepuk tangan means applause.

Breakdown:

tepuk = a clap, to clap
tangan = hand

Together: tepuk tangan = hand claps → applause.

This is a fixed expression; you don’t normally say just tepuk for applause. Examples:

Mereka memberikan tepuk tangan meriah.
They gave loud/cheerful applause.
Dia disambut dengan tepuk tangan.
He/She was welcomed with applause.

You may also see tepukan tangan, but tepuk tangan is more common in everyday use.

Why is panjang used with tepuk tangan? Doesn’t panjang mean “long” in the sense of physical length?

Literally, panjang = long (in length), but it can also extend metaphorically to duration, similar to English “a long meeting” or “a long applause”.

So:

tepuk tangan panjang = prolonged / long-lasting applause

In many contexts, panjang and lama both relate to time:

waktu yang panjang / waktu yang lama = a long time

Here, tepuk tangan panjang sounds natural and emphasizes that the applause lasted for quite a while.
You could also say:

tepuk tangan yang lama

but for this fixed collocation, tepuk tangan panjang is very idiomatic.

What does dari penonton add? Could we say oleh penonton or omit it?

dari penonton literally means “from the spectators”, indicating the source of the applause.

tepuk tangan panjang dari penonton
= prolonged applause from the spectators

Alternatives:

tepuk tangan panjang penonton
- Also understandable, but sounds a bit compressed; more natural if you add para:
  tepuk tangan panjang para penonton.
tepuk tangan panjang oleh penonton
- Grammatically possible, but oleh is mainly used to mark an agent in a passive construction:
  - Dipukul oleh dia. = Hit by him.
- With tepuk tangan, “oleh” feels less natural; dari is better to show “coming from.”
Omitting it: tepuk tangan panjang
- Then you lose the detail of who is applauding, but the sentence is still grammatical.

So the original dari penonton nicely specifies who the applause is coming from.

Why isn’t there any explicit past tense marker? How do we know this happened in the past?

Indonesian usually does not mark tense (past/present/future) with verb changes, unlike English. Time is understood from:

Context (narrative usually describes past events)
Time adverbs (e.g. kemarin, tadi, nanti, sudah, telah)

In:

Berakhirnya pertandingan futsal ditandai dengan tepuk tangan panjang dari penonton.

we interpret it as past because it’s talking about a specific match that already finished.

If you want to make the past sense very clear, you can add:

Telah / sudah:
Berakhirnya pertandingan futsal telah ditandai dengan tepuk tangan panjang dari penonton.

But in many real-life contexts, the simple form ditandai is enough, and listeners infer the tense from context.

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral in style?

The sentence is fairly formal / written-style Indonesian.

Indicators:

The nominalized structure berakhirnya pertandingan futsal (instead of just pertandingan futsal berakhir)
The passive-like verb ditandai
The overall sentence flow is typical of news reports, articles, or written descriptions.

A more casual / spoken version might be:

Waktu pertandingan futsal berakhir, penonton memberi tepuk tangan panjang.
When the futsal match ended, the spectators gave prolonged applause.

Both mean the same thing, but the original is more likely to appear in written narratives or reports.

Can we rephrase the sentence using a more straightforward word order?

Yes. One common alternative is to turn it into a “when …” clause:

Ketika pertandingan futsal berakhir, hal itu ditandai dengan tepuk tangan panjang dari penonton.
When the futsal match ended, that was marked by prolonged applause from the spectators.

Or in a less formal style:

Saat pertandingan futsal berakhir, penonton memberi tepuk tangan panjang.

The original:

Berakhirnya pertandingan futsal ditandai dengan tepuk tangan panjang dari penonton.

packs the “ending of the match” into a noun-like subject (berakhirnya pertandingan futsal) and is stylistically tighter and more formal.

Is penonton singular or plural? Do we need para penonton?

Penonton can mean either:

a spectator (singular), or
spectators / the audience (plural),

depending on context. Indonesian doesn’t always mark plural forms explicitly.

In this sentence, context clearly suggests many people, so penonton is understood as “the spectators / the audience”.

If you want to emphasize plurality, you can say:

para penonton = the spectators (explicitly plural, a bit more formal)

So you could write:

…tepuk tangan panjang dari para penonton.

Both dari penonton and dari para penonton are correct; the latter just makes the idea of multiple spectators more explicit and slightly more formal.