Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Guru sejarah kami mengingatkan tujuan rapat sebelum diskusi dimulai. - Our history teacher reminds us of the meeting's purpose before the discussion begins.

guru sejarah kami = our history teacher
- guru = teacher (head noun)
- sejarah = history (describes what kind of teacher)
- kami = we/us, here meaning our

So the pattern is: [thing] + [owner] → guru kami = our teacher, rumah saya = my house.

If you say kami guru sejarah, it would be interpreted as something like:

kami (adalah) guru sejarah = we are history teachers

Here kami is the subject (we), and guru sejarah is a predicate (history teachers). That is a completely different meaning.

What is the difference between kami and kita, and could we say guru sejarah kita here?

Both kami and kita mean we / us / our, but they differ in who is included:

kami = we (excluding the listener)
kita = we (including the listener)

In guru sejarah kami:

The teacher belongs to the speaker’s group but does not necessarily include the listener.
- For example, two students from class A talking about their teacher, to someone from class B.

If the listener also shares that teacher (e.g., classmates talking to each other), guru sejarah kita is very natural and even more expected:

guru sejarah kita = our (both you and I) history teacher

So yes, you can say guru sejarah kita; you just slightly change who is included in “our”.

How is mengingatkan formed, and what is the difference between mengingat and mengingatkan?

The root is ingat (to remember).

From this root:

mengingat = to remember, to recall
- Pattern: meN- + ingat → mengingat
- Example:
  - Saya masih mengingat kejadian itu. = I still remember that incident.
mengingatkan = to remind, to cause someone to remember
- Pattern: meN- + ingat + -kan → mengingatkan
- The suffix -kan often adds a causative meaning: “make someone do / experience X.”
- Example:
  - Tolong ingatkan saya besok. = Please remind me tomorrow.

In the sentence:

Guru sejarah kami mengingatkan tujuan rapat...
= Our history teacher reminded (us of) the purpose of the meeting...

So mengingatkan is “to remind,” not just “to remember.”

In English we say “reminded us of the purpose of the meeting.” Where is “us” in the Indonesian sentence?

Indonesian often leaves out pronouns when they are obvious from context.

The full structure of mengingatkan is usually:

mengingatkan [someone] (tentang/akan) [something]

So, fully spelled out, you might say:

Guru sejarah kami mengingatkan kami tentang tujuan rapat sebelum diskusi dimulai.
= Our history teacher reminded us about the purpose of the meeting before the discussion started.

In the original sentence:

kami as the person being reminded is implied (it’s the students).
Only [something] is mentioned: tujuan rapat (the purpose of the meeting).

This kind of omission is very natural in Indonesian if it’s clear who is being reminded.

Why is it tujuan rapat and not something like tujuan dari rapat for “the purpose of the meeting”?

Indonesian often uses bare noun + noun structures instead of “of” or “’s”:

tujuan rapat
- tujuan = purpose
- rapat = meeting
  → purpose of the meeting

This is the most natural form. Adding dari is possible but usually more wordy or slightly more formal/emphatic:

tujuan rapat = purpose of the meeting (normal, concise)
tujuan dari rapat = the purpose of the meeting (more explicit, sometimes used in writing or when emphasizing the from relationship)

So tujuan rapat is perfectly normal and idiomatic.

What exactly does sebelum mean here, and can we use sebelumnya instead?

sebelum means before and behaves like a preposition/conjunction:

sebelum diskusi dimulai = before the discussion started

It introduces a time clause or a time phrase.

sebelumnya is different:

sebelumnya = previously / before that / earlier
It usually refers back to some earlier time or event already mentioned, and it doesn’t directly take a clause the same way.

Compare:

Sebelum diskusi dimulai, guru sejarah kami mengingatkan tujuan rapat.
= Before the discussion started, our history teacher reminded us of the purpose of the meeting.
Sebelumnya, guru sejarah kami mengingatkan tujuan rapat.
= Previously / Before that, our history teacher reminded us of the purpose of the meeting.
(No clause after sebelumnya; it stands alone.)

In your sentence, you need sebelum, not sebelumnya.

Why is it diskusi dimulai and not diskusi mulai or memulai diskusi?

Here’s the difference:

diskusi dimulai
- dimulai is the passive form of memulai (to start something).
- Literally: “the discussion is started / was started.”
- Agent (who starts it) is not mentioned, which is fine when we just care about the event.
memulai diskusi
- memulai is active: [someone] memulai diskusi = someone starts the discussion.
- You would say, for example:
  - Guru sejarah kami memulai diskusi. = Our history teacher started the discussion.
diskusi mulai
- Possible only if followed by more information:
  - Diskusi mulai jam tiga. = The discussion starts at three o’clock.
- Saying just sebelum diskusi mulai feels less natural than sebelum diskusi dimulai in standard Indonesian.

In your sentence, sebelum diskusi dimulai sounds the most natural and neutral: “before the discussion started.”

How do we know this is past tense (“reminded”) if Indonesian verbs like mengingatkan don’t change form?

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense (past, present, future). Mengingatkan can mean:

reminds
reminded
will remind

Tense is understood from context or from time words, such as:

tadi (earlier, a moment ago)
kemarin (yesterday)
sudah / telah (already)
nanti (later), besok (tomorrow), etc.

For example:

Guru sejarah kami mengingatkan tujuan rapat sebelum diskusi dimulai.
In a narrative about something that happened, this is naturally read as past: reminded.
You could make it explicitly past:
- Tadi, guru sejarah kami sudah mengingatkan tujuan rapat sebelum diskusi dimulai.
  = Earlier, our history teacher had already reminded us of the purpose of the meeting before the discussion started.

So, tense comes from context and time expressions, not from the verb form.

Can we move sebelum diskusi dimulai to the beginning of the sentence?

Yes. It is very natural to front the time clause:

Sebelum diskusi dimulai, guru sejarah kami mengingatkan tujuan rapat.

Meaning is the same; you just:

put more emphasis on the time frame (“before the discussion started”), and
in writing, you typically add a comma after the fronted clause.

Both word orders are correct and common:

Guru sejarah kami mengingatkan tujuan rapat sebelum diskusi dimulai.
Sebelum diskusi dimulai, guru sejarah kami mengingatkan tujuan rapat.

Is the word rapat the only way to say “meeting” here? How does it differ from pertemuan or meeting?

Indonesian has several options:

rapat
- Common for formal or semi-formal meetings: office, school committees, organizational meetings, etc.
- Very suitable in your sentence.
pertemuan
- More general: a meeting, a gathering, an encounter.
- Can be formal or informal.
- tujuan pertemuan would also be possible, but slightly more general in feel.
meeting (English loanword, often pronounced “miting”)
- Used especially in business or corporate contexts, informal office talk, or code-switching.
- Less appropriate for a neutral-standard Indonesian example sentence.

So tujuan rapat here sounds like the purpose of an official or organized meeting—very natural for a school or committee context.

How would this sentence sound in more casual spoken Indonesian?

The given sentence is in neutral–formal style. In casual speech, especially among students, you might hear:

Guru sejarah kita tadi ngingetin lagi tujuan rapat sebelum diskusinya mulai.

Changes you can see:

kita instead of kami, if speaker and listener share the same teacher.
ngingetin = colloquial reduction of mengingatkan.
Adding tadi to mark recent past (earlier today).
diskusinya mulai instead of diskusi dimulai – more casual, with -nya acting like “the”.

Your original sentence is good for writing, exams, and polite speech; the casual version matches everyday conversation.