Selokan di depan rumah cepat kotor kalau banyak daun jatuh dari pohon.

Selokan usually means a drain, gutter, or small drainage channel, especially one that carries rainwater or wastewater along a road or near houses.

Depending on context, English might translate it as:

• drain
• ditch
• gutter
• drainage channel

In this sentence, drain is probably the most natural translation.

In Indonesian, it is very common to leave out possessive words like my, your, or the when the meaning is clear from context.

So:

• di depan rumah = in front of the house / in front of the home
• di depan rumah saya = in front of my house

If the sentence is being said by someone talking about their own home, rumah can naturally be understood as my house even without saya.

Di depan means in front.

Breakdown:

• di = a preposition meaning in / at / on
• depan = front

So:

• di depan rumah = in front of the house

This is a very common pattern:

• di belakang rumah = behind the house
• di dalam rumah = inside the house
• di samping rumah = beside the house

Yes, cepat often means fast or quick. In this sentence, it works like quickly in English.

So:

• cepat kotor = gets dirty quickly / becomes dirty fast

Indonesian does not always clearly separate adjective and adverb forms the way English does. A word like cepat can often cover both ideas:

• mobil cepat = a fast car
• cepat kotor = gets dirty quickly

Indonesian often leaves out words like get, become, or is when the meaning is obvious.

So cepat kotor literally looks like quick dirty, but naturally it means:

• gets dirty quickly
• becomes dirty quickly

This is very normal in Indonesian. Another example:

• airnya dingin = the water is cold
• bajunya cepat kering = the clothes dry quickly / get dry quickly

Yes. Kalau here means if.

The sentence structure is:

• Selokan ... cepat kotor kalau banyak daun jatuh dari pohon.
• The drain ... gets dirty quickly if many leaves fall from the tree.

Kalau is very common in everyday Indonesian and often sounds more conversational than jika, which also means if.

So:

• kalau = common, everyday if
• jika = also if, sometimes a bit more formal

Because banyak already shows plurality or a large amount.

So:

• banyak daun = many leaves
• daun-daun can mean leaves too, but it is not needed here

In Indonesian, reduplication is one way to show plural, but it is often unnecessary when another word already makes plurality clear.

Compare:

• daun = leaf / leaves
• banyak daun = many leaves
• daun-daun = leaves

Using banyak daun is the most natural choice here.

Both are possible, but they give slightly different shades of meaning.

• jatuh = fall
• berjatuhan = fall in large numbers / keep falling / fall one after another

So in this sentence:

• banyak daun jatuh dari pohon = many leaves fall from the tree

If you said:

• banyak daun berjatuhan dari pohon it would emphasize the repeated or abundant falling, almost like leaves are dropping all over the place.

The original sentence is simpler and very natural.

Dari pohon means from the tree or from trees, depending on context.

Breakdown:

• dari = from
• pohon = tree

Indonesian does not have articles like a, an, and the, so pohon can mean:

• a tree
• the tree
• trees

The context tells you which one makes sense.

It is most naturally understood with jatuh:

• banyak daun jatuh dari pohon = many leaves fall from the tree

So dari pohon tells you the source of the falling.

In practice, it also helps identify the leaves as leaves coming from a tree, but grammatically the phrase is most closely tied to the verb jatuh.

Because cepat is modifying the idea of becoming dirty, so cepat kotor means quickly dirty → gets dirty quickly.

This order is the natural Indonesian order here.

Compare:

• cepat kotor = gets dirty quickly
• mudah kotor = gets dirty easily

Kotor cepat would sound unnatural in this context.

Yes, but it would sound a bit heavier or less natural in everyday speech.

For example:

• Selokan di depan rumah cepat menjadi kotor kalau banyak daun jatuh dari pohon.

This is understandable, but most speakers would prefer the simpler:

• Selokan di depan rumah cepat kotor ...

Indonesian often prefers shorter, more direct phrasing when become is obvious from context.

You can definitely put the kalau clause first.

Original:

• Selokan di depan rumah cepat kotor kalau banyak daun jatuh dari pohon.

Also natural:

• Kalau banyak daun jatuh dari pohon, selokan di depan rumah cepat kotor.

Both mean the same thing. Putting kalau first can make the condition feel more prominent, similar to English:

• If many leaves fall from the tree, the drain in front of the house gets dirty quickly.