Guru menegur murid yang curang saat kuis, tetapi beliau tidak langsung memarahinya.

Indonesian does not use articles the way English does. A bare noun like guru can mean the teacher, a teacher, or just teacher in a general sense, depending on context.

So:

• Guru menegur murid ... can naturally mean The teacher reprimanded a/the student ...
• You only add something like seorang guru or seorang murid if you specifically want to emphasize one teacher or one student.

This is very normal in Indonesian, and learners often need to get used to how much is left to context.

These two verbs are related, but they are not the same.

• menegur = to admonish, warn, call out, or correct someone
• memarahi = to scold someone angrily

So in this sentence, the teacher did address the cheating, but did not immediately scold the student harshly.

That contrast is important:

• menegur sounds more controlled or corrective
• memarahi sounds stronger and more emotional

The sentence suggests the teacher responded, but not in the harshest way right away.

yang introduces a relative clause, similar to who/that in English.

So:

• murid yang curang = the student who cheated / the dishonest student

This structure is very common in Indonesian:

• orang yang datang = the person who came
• buku yang saya beli = the book that I bought

You may sometimes see adjective-like descriptions without yang, but in a sentence like this, murid yang curang is the most natural and standard way to say the student who cheated / the student who was dishonest.

Literally, curang means something like dishonest, unfair, or cheating. The exact nuance depends on context.

Because the sentence includes saat kuis (during the quiz), readers will naturally understand murid yang curang as the student who cheated on the quiz.

So the context makes the meaning specific, even though the word itself can be broader.

saat kuis means during the quiz or at quiz time.

• saat = at the time of / during / when
• kuis = quiz

It gives the time context for the cheating situation. In natural reading, it most strongly connects with yang curang:

• murid yang curang saat kuis = the student who cheated during the quiz

Indonesian often uses short time expressions like this without extra words such as the or was.

Both mean but.

• tetapi is more formal or standard
• tapi is more casual and common in everyday speech

In writing, especially neutral or slightly formal writing, tetapi is a very natural choice.

So this sentence sounds a bit more polished because of tetapi, but the meaning would stay the same with tapi.

beliau is a respectful third-person pronoun. It is used for someone you want to speak about politely, such as:

• a teacher
• an elder
• an official
• someone respected

So here, beliau shows respect toward the teacher.

Compare:

• dia tidak langsung memarahinya = neutral, everyday
• beliau tidak langsung memarahinya = respectful

A native English speaker may want to translate both simply as he/she, but the politeness difference matters in Indonesian.

No. beliau is specifically honorific. You use it for respected people, not for just anyone.

For example, it would sound odd to use beliau for:

• a close friend
• a child
• someone you do not especially need to honor

So in this sentence, it fits because the referent is guru, a teacher, who is often spoken of respectfully.

langsung here means immediately or straight away.

So:

• tidak langsung memarahinya = did not immediately scold him/her

This does not mean the teacher never scolded the student. It only says the teacher did not do it right away.

That is an important nuance. The teacher may have paused, handled it calmly first, or responded in another way before scolding.

The -nya is the object pronoun, meaning him, her, or sometimes them, depending on context.

Here it refers back to murid yang curang.

So:

• memarahi = to scold someone
• memarahinya = to scold him/her

Because Indonesian pronouns do not always mark gender, -nya does not tell you whether the student is male or female. Context would decide that.

This is a very common learner question.

• marah = angry / to be angry
• memarahi = to scold someone

So marah describes a state or feeling, while memarahi is a verb directed at an object.

Compare:

• Guru marah. = The teacher is angry.
• Guru memarahi murid. = The teacher scolds the student.

The meN- prefix and -i ending help form the transitive verb memarahi.

That meN- prefix is very common in Indonesian active verbs.

Here:

• tegur → menegur
• marahi → memarahi

In simple terms, this prefix often marks an active verb, especially one where the subject is doing something directly.

So in this sentence:

• Guru menegur ...
• beliau ... memarahinya

Both verbs are active actions done by the teacher.

A learner does not need to master all sound changes at once, but it helps to recognize that meN- often signals an active verb used in a normal sentence.

Grammatically, Indonesian nouns often do not show number unless the speaker makes it explicit.

So murid can mean:

• student
• students

However, in this sentence, the rest of the wording strongly suggests a single student:

• murid yang curang sounds like one identified student
• memarahinya uses -nya, which points back to one referent in the most natural reading

So although Indonesian nouns are often number-neutral, this sentence is most naturally understood as referring to one student.

Yes, but it is also very typical Indonesian word order.

The basic structure is:

• Guru = subject
• menegur = verb
• murid yang curang saat kuis = object + description
• tetapi beliau tidak langsung memarahinya = contrasting second clause

So Indonesian is behaving a lot like English here in overall order:

• subject + verb + object

What often feels different to English speakers is not the main word order, but things like:

• no articles
• no tense marking on the verb
• descriptive phrases like yang curang
• pronoun choices like beliau and -nya

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense the way English verbs do.

So:

• menegur does not mean specifically reprimands or reprimanded
• memarahinya does not mean specifically scolds or scolded

Time is usually understood from context, or shown with time words if needed.

In this sentence, the overall context makes it clear that this is a completed event, so English uses past tense, but Indonesian does not need any special past-tense verb form.