Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Kakak laki-laki saya ikut bermain futsal setiap Sabtu malam. - My older brother joins in playing futsal every Saturday night.

So kakak laki-laki saya is explicitly “my older brother”.
If the context already makes it clear that the kakak is male, Indonesians may just say kakak saya (my older sibling). But if you want to be clear that it’s a brother, adding laki-laki is natural and common, especially in written or careful speech.

Why does the possessive saya come after the noun (kakak laki-laki saya) and not before, like in English (my older brother)?

Indonesian usually puts the possessor after the thing possessed:

kakak saya = my older sibling
buku saya = my book
rumah mereka = their house

So kakak laki-laki saya literally feels like “older-sibling male my”.

You cannot normally say saya kakak laki-laki to mean “my older brother” – that word order is wrong for possession. The usual options are:

kakak laki-laki saya
kakak saya yang laki-laki (more like “the older sibling of mine who is male”)

Very colloquial alternatives use enclitics:

kakak laki-laki ku (informal, -ku = my)
kakak laki-laki gue / kakak cowok gue (slang, Jakarta style)

What does ikut add here? Could we just say Kakak laki-laki saya bermain futsal setiap Sabtu malam?

Yes, you can absolutely say:

Kakak laki-laki saya bermain futsal setiap Sabtu malam.

That already means “My older brother plays futsal every Saturday night.”

The verb ikut basically means “to join / to take part / to go along.” In this sentence, ikut bermain suggests:

he joins in playing (with others),
he takes part in the futsal game.

Nuance:

bermain futsal = he plays futsal (simple statement of activity)
ikut bermain futsal = he joins in playing futsal (highlights that he joins the group/activity)

In everyday speech, people use ikut a lot before another verb to show “joining” an activity:

Saya ikut makan. = I’ll join in eating / I’ll eat too.
Dia ikut rapat. = He/She attends the meeting (joins the meeting).

What’s the difference between ikut bermain futsal and ikut futsal or just bermain futsal?

All three are possible, with slightly different feel:

ikut bermain futsal
- Literally “to join playing futsal”.
- A bit more explicit/formal, clearly marking bermain as the verb.
ikut futsal
- Colloquial, very common in speech.
- The sport name is treated like an activity: “to join futsal (sessions / team / club)”.
- Often used when talking about joining a club/team, e.g.
  Dia ikut futsal di kampus. = He plays futsal / is on the futsal team at campus.
bermain futsal
- Straightforward “to play futsal”.

So in your sentence, any of these would be natural, with small nuance differences:

…ikut bermain futsal… (joins in playing)
…bermain futsal… (plays futsal)
…ikut futsal… (takes part in futsal / the futsal group)

There is no word for “is/does” in the Indonesian sentence. How do we know the tense is “plays” (habitual present) and not past or future?

Indonesian doesn’t mark tense the way English does. There is no obligatory equivalent of is / does / did / will.

Time and aspect are usually guessed from:

Time expressions
- setiap Sabtu malam = every Saturday night
  → This clearly indicates a habitual, repeated action.
Optional time/aspect markers (not used here, but common):
- sudah / telah (already) → past / completed
- akan (will) → future
- sedang (currently) → ongoing right now

So without any marker, ikut bermain is neutral.
With setiap Sabtu malam, it is understood as a regular habit → “plays (every Saturday night)”.

What does setiap mean here? Is it the same as tiap?

setiap means “every / each”.

setiap Sabtu malam = every Saturday night
setiap hari = every day
setiap orang = each person / everyone

tiap is simply a more informal/short form of setiap:

tiap Sabtu malam = every Saturday night
tiap hari = every day

In speech, tiap is very common.
In writing (especially formal), setiap is more common, but both are correct.

Why is there no pada before setiap Sabtu malam or Sabtu malam? When do we use pada?

You can use pada, but it’s optional in many cases.

Kakak laki-laki saya ikut bermain futsal setiap Sabtu malam.
Kakak laki-laki saya ikut bermain futsal pada setiap Sabtu malam. (more formal)
Kakak laki-laki saya ikut bermain futsal pada Sabtu malam. (also fine)

Rules of thumb:

Without pada: very common, especially in speech and neutral writing.
With pada: sounds a bit more explicit or formal, often used in formal writing, announcements, or when the time expression is long/complex.

For simple time expressions like days, months, dates, native speakers often just drop pada:

Dia datang Senin. = He comes on Monday.
Mereka berangkat besok pagi. = They leave tomorrow morning.

What exactly does Sabtu malam mean? Is it “Saturday night” or the night before Saturday?

In standard Indonesian:

Sabtu malam = Saturday night (the night after Saturday daytime).

So:

Sabtu malam ≈ Saturday evening/night
Minggu malam ≈ Sunday evening/night

Be careful with malam Sabtu, which you might hear in some regions or in religious contexts. In many Indonesian/Javanese calendars:

malam Sabtu = the night before Saturday → Friday night.

But in normal everyday standard Indonesian, if people say Sabtu malam in a sentence like yours, they mean Saturday night.

Why is Sabtu capitalized but malam is not?

In Indonesian spelling conventions:

Names of days and months are capitalized:
Senin, Selasa, Rabu, Kamis, Jumat, Sabtu, Minggu
Januari, Februari, Maret, …
Ordinary nouns like malam (night/evening), pagi (morning), siang (midday), sore (late afternoon) are not capitalized.

So:

Sabtu malam (correct)
Sabtu Malam (incorrect in standard Indonesian)

Could we move the time phrase to the beginning: Setiap Sabtu malam, kakak laki-laki saya ikut bermain futsal?

Yes, that is completely correct and very natural:

Setiap Sabtu malam, kakak laki-laki saya ikut bermain futsal.

In Indonesian, time expressions are flexible:

Kakak laki-laki saya ikut bermain futsal setiap Sabtu malam.
Setiap Sabtu malam, kakak laki-laki saya ikut bermain futsal.
Kakak laki-laki saya setiap Sabtu malam ikut bermain futsal. (still OK, but less common)

Putting the time at the beginning can slightly emphasize “every Saturday night,” similar to English.

Is laki-laki always written with a hyphen? Can we write laki laki or just laki?

Standard Indonesian uses the hyphen:

laki-laki = male/man (noun), or male (as an adjective)
e.g. kakak laki-laki, dokter laki-laki

Forms:

laki-laki (standard, correct)
laki alone is not standard for “man”; it might appear in dialects/slang, but avoid it in proper Indonesian.
laki laki (without a hyphen) is considered a spelling mistake in formal contexts.

Note: The more general word for “man” is pria or lelaki, but laki-laki is very common in everyday language.

Why is there no word like “the” or “a” before kakak laki-laki?

Indonesian does not have articles like a/an or the.

Context tells you whether it’s “my older brother,” “an older brother,” or “the older brother.”
Because saya (my) is attached, we automatically understand kakak laki-laki saya as “my older brother” (a specific person).

Other examples:

saya punya anjing = I have a dog (no “a”)
dia membaca buku = he/she reads a/the book (depends on context)
guru itu = that/the teacher (itu can serve like “that/the”)

Can I say kakak saya laki-laki instead of kakak laki-laki saya?

kakak saya laki-laki sounds awkward/unnatural in Indonesian.
It feels like two separate statements jammed together: “My older sibling is male.”

If you want to say “My older sibling is male,” you would usually say:

Kakak saya laki-laki. (as a full sentence, with pause and stress on laki-laki)

But when you are using it as one noun phrase meaning “my older brother,” the natural forms are:

kakak laki-laki saya
kakak saya yang laki-laki (literally: my older sibling who is male)

In your original sentence, because kakak laki-laki saya is just the subject noun phrase, you should keep the word order as in the original.

Does malam mean “night” or “evening”? When does malam start?

malam generally covers both evening and night in English. There’s no sharp official border, but in everyday feel:

sore ≈ late afternoon / early evening (around 3–6/7 p.m.)
malam ≈ evening and night (from around 6/7 p.m. onwards)

So:

Sabtu malam can be anything from Saturday evening (e.g. 7 p.m.) to late at night.
If you want to be very specific, you’d add a clock time:
Sabtu malam jam delapan = Saturday night at 8 o’clock.