Breakdown of Banyak pelajar SMA datang ke kelas teknik itu untuk mencoba pemrograman dasar.
Questions & Answers about Banyak pelajar SMA datang ke kelas teknik itu untuk mencoba pemrograman dasar.
Banyak means many / a lot of and already shows that the noun is plural in meaning. So:
- banyak pelajar SMA = many high school students
Indonesian usually does not need extra plural marking when you already have a word like banyak.
Alternatives and nuances:
- para pelajar SMA – means “(the) students” as a group, often used in formal speech/writing, speeches, announcements. It doesn’t emphasize “many” as strongly as banyak; it’s more like “the students”.
pelajar-pelajar SMA – technically plural through reduplication, but with banyak it sounds redundant and unnatural: banyak pelajar-pelajar is generally avoided.
Best natural choice in this sentence is banyak pelajar SMA; the plurality is clear and idiomatic.
All three can translate to “student,” but there are nuances:
- pelajar – literally “learner”; commonly used for school students, and sounds a bit more formal or generic.
- siswa – very common word for school students (especially elementary–high school). Neutral and widely used.
- murid – also “pupil/student,” often with a slightly more traditional or teacher-centered feel.
In this sentence, pelajar SMA means “senior high school students” and is perfectly natural. You could also say:
- banyak siswa SMA – also natural and very common.
- banyak murid SMA – understood, but less common in some regions/registers.
All three are acceptable; choice mostly depends on style and region.
SMA is an abbreviation of Sekolah Menengah Atas, literally “Upper Middle School,” but it corresponds to senior high school (grades 10–12).
Common related terms:
- SMP – Sekolah Menengah Pertama = junior high school (middle school)
- SD – Sekolah Dasar = elementary school
- SMK – Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan = vocational high school
So pelajar SMA = students who attend senior high school.
You could spell it out as pelajar Sekolah Menengah Atas, but in real life almost everyone just says SMA.
Yes. Banyak pelajar SMA is the subject:
- Banyak pelajar SMA (subject)
datang (verb)
ke kelas teknik itu (where)
untuk mencoba pemrograman dasar (purpose)
You could rearrange it a bit for emphasis:
- Ke kelas teknik itu banyak pelajar SMA datang untuk mencoba pemrograman dasar.
→ Emphasizes the place.
But the original order is the most neutral and natural. You can’t move banyak after pelajar (pelajar banyak SMA)—that would be ungrammatical.
Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense. Datang can mean:
- come (habitual / present): Many high school students come…
- came (past): Many high school students came…
- will come (future): Many high school students will come…
The time is usually clarified by context or by adding time words, e.g.:
- Kemarin banyak pelajar SMA datang… – Yesterday, many high school students came…
- Besok banyak pelajar SMA akan datang… – Tomorrow, many high school students will come…
- Setiap minggu banyak pelajar SMA datang… – Every week, many high school students come…
In isolation, your sentence is tense-ambiguous; English learners have to pick a tense from context.
Ke is used for motion towards a place (“to”), while di is used for a static location (“at / in”).
- datang ke kelas – come to the class (movement into the class)
- di kelas – at / in the class (location)
So:
- Mereka datang ke kelas teknik itu. – They came to that engineering class.
- Mereka sudah di kelas teknik itu. – They are already in that engineering class.
Using datang di kelas is generally considered incorrect or at least unnatural; always datang ke.
Breakdown:
- kelas – class
- teknik – technical / engineering (here: “engineering” as a field)
- itu – that
Indonesian noun phrase order is usually:
main noun + modifier(s) + demonstrative (ini/itu)
So:
- kelas teknik itu = “that engineering class”
(literally: “class engineering that”)
Compare:
- kelas itu – that class
- kelas teknik – an/that engineering class (no pointing word)
- kelas teknik ini – this engineering class
Putting itu before the noun (itu kelas teknik) is possible but changes the tone: it’s more like “that engineering class (over there/that one)” as an independent phrase, often pointing something out in discourse or physically with a gesture. Inside a smooth sentence, kelas teknik itu is more natural.
Grammatically it’s a noun used as a modifier, similar to English noun–noun compounds like “math class” or “music teacher.”
- kelas teknik = “engineering class” (class about engineering)
In Indonesian, modifiers follow the main noun:
- kelas musik – music class
- kelas bahasa Indonesia – Indonesian language class
- kelas teknik informatika – informatics engineering class
There is an adjective teknis (“technical” in the sense of practical/technical details), but for the academic field we usually say teknik.
Untuk introduces purpose (“in order to / to”):
- …datang ke kelas teknik itu untuk mencoba pemrograman dasar.
→ came to that engineering class to try basic programming.
You normally need untuk before a verb when you want to explicitly mark purpose like this. Without untuk, the sentence …datang ke kelas teknik itu mencoba pemrograman dasar sounds ungrammatical or at least very awkward.
Informally, untuk is sometimes replaced by buat:
- …datang ke kelas teknik itu buat mencoba pemrograman dasar. (informal)
But you don’t skip it completely in this structure.
Indonesian can be more compact:
- mencoba pemrograman dasar = literally “to try basic programming”
(try doing basic programming / try out basic programming)
You can say:
- mencoba untuk mempelajari pemrograman dasar – “try to study/learn basic programming”
But that’s heavier and suggests more of an effortful learning process.
In context of a short workshop/class, mencoba pemrograman dasar (try out basic programming) matches the idea of “just having a go at it” and sounds natural and concise.
Pemrograman means programming (the activity/field).
Morphology:
- program – program (loanword)
- memprogram/memrogram – to program (verb; in practice people also just say nge-program informally)
- pemrograman – programming (the noun, “the act/field of programming”)
The pe‑…‑an pattern often turns verbal roots into nouns for activities/fields:
- mengajar → pengajaran – teaching
- melatih → pelatihan – training
- membaca → pembacaan – reading (as an event)
So pemrograman is the standard formal term for “programming.”
Both exist, but they are used a bit differently.
- pemrograman dasar – basic programming (programming that is basic)
→ usually the name or description of a subject/course: a course in basic programming. - dasar pemrograman – the basics/fundamentals of programming
→ focuses on the foundational concepts of programming itself.
In a context like “they come to that engineering class to try basic programming,” pemrograman dasar sounds more natural, because it refers to the type of programming activity they’re doing or course they’re trying.
In Indonesian, mencoba directly takes a noun object:
- mencoba makanan baru – to try new food
- mencoba olahraga baru – to try a new sport
- mencoba pemrograman dasar – to try basic programming
The “to” you see in English is part of the infinitive structure (“to try to do X”), but here the verb mencoba is simply followed by a noun phrase (pemrograman dasar). No extra particle is needed.
If the next element were another verb, then you’d usually need untuk:
- mencoba untuk belajar – try to study
- mencoba untuk memahami – try to understand
The sentence is neutral–slightly formal due to words like pelajar and pemrograman.
If you say:
- banyak anak SMA datang ke kelas teknik itu…
it sounds more informal/colloquial:
- anak SMA – literally “high school kids/teens,” very common in everyday speech.
So:
- pelajar SMA – neutral, okay for writing, reports, teachers, announcements.
- anak SMA – casual, good in spoken conversation or informal writing.
Both are grammatically fine; the choice reflects the level of formality and tone.