Sumpah itu dibuat di mahkamah.

In Malay, demonstratives like ini (this) and itu (that) usually come after the noun.

So:

• sumpah itu = that oath / the oath
• mahkamah itu = that court

This is different from English, where this/that normally comes before the noun.

It can function as either, depending on context.

In many sentences, itu still clearly means that. But in real usage, noun + itu is also often used to make something definite, so it can feel like English the.

So sumpah itu could be understood as:

• that oath
• the oath

Malay does not have a separate word exactly like English the, so words like itu often help do that job.

Because this sentence is in the passive.

• membuat = to make / makes / made in an active structure
• dibuat = is made / was made in a passive structure

Here, the focus is on the oath, not on the person who did it.

Compare:

• Mereka membuat sumpah itu di mahkamah.
  = They made the oath in court.
  active

• Sumpah itu dibuat di mahkamah.
  = The oath was made in court.
  passive

Malay uses passive constructions very naturally, often more often than English learners expect.

These are two different di's.

• di- attached to a verb is a passive prefix
  • dibuat = was made / is made
• di written separately is a preposition
  • di mahkamah = in/at court

So:

• dibuat → one word, because di- is part of the verb
• di mahkamah → two words, because di means in/at

This is a very important spelling difference in Malay.

Not by grammar alone.

Malay verbs do not change form for tense the way English verbs do. So dibuat can mean:

• is made
• was made
• sometimes has been made

The time is usually understood from:

• context
• time words
• aspect markers such as telah, sudah, akan

For example:

• Sumpah itu telah dibuat di mahkamah.
  = The oath was made / has been made in court.

Without a time marker, the sentence can still be translated as past if the context makes that clear.

Malay generally does not use articles like English a/an/the.

So mahkamah can mean:

• court
• the court
• a court

The exact meaning depends on context.

If Malay wants to make it more specific, it might use:

• mahkamah itu = that court / the court
• another descriptive phrase

But very often, no article is needed at all.

It can cover both ideas.

Malay di is a general location preposition and often corresponds to English:

• in
• at
• sometimes on

So di mahkamah could be translated naturally as:

• in court
• at the court / at court

In English, in court is usually the most natural translation for this sentence.

It is grammatical, but it may sound a bit general depending on the exact situation.

dibuat literally means made/done, so sumpah itu dibuat is understandable. But Malay also has more specific expressions for oaths, such as:

• mengangkat sumpah = to take an oath
• melafazkan sumpah = to recite/utter an oath
• bersumpah = to swear
• sumpah itu diangkat = the oath was taken

So this sentence is fine, but in some contexts a native speaker might prefer a more specific verb.

Yes, sometimes.

The basic order here is:

• Sumpah itu = topic/subject
• dibuat = verb
• di mahkamah = place

But Malay can move phrases around for emphasis. For example:

• Di mahkamah, sumpah itu dibuat.

This gives more emphasis to the location: In court, the oath was made.

The original version is the more neutral, straightforward order.

Yes, but the meaning changes a little.

• Sumpah itu dibuat di mahkamah.
  = The/that oath was made in court.
  specific oath

• Sumpah dibuat di mahkamah.
  = Oaths are made in court or An oath was made in court, depending on context
  less specific

So itu helps identify a particular oath that the speaker and listener already know about.

The grammatical subject is sumpah itu.

Even though English learners often look for the doer of the action, in this passive sentence the subject is the thing receiving the action:

• sumpah itu = the oath
• dibuat = was made
• di mahkamah = in court

The person who made or swore the oath is not mentioned.

If you wanted to mention the doer, you could add it separately, for example:

• Sumpah itu dibuat oleh saksi di mahkamah.
  = The oath was made by the witness in court.

Here, oleh means by in passive sentences.