Kanak-kanak itu percaya pada keajaiban.

This is called reduplication. In Malay, repeating a word often gives a plural or collective meaning.

With kanak-kanak, the doubled form is the normal word you should learn. The base kanak is not usually used by itself in everyday standard Malay. So kanak-kanak is the standard form meaning child or children, depending on context.

It can be either, depending on context.

Malay often does not force you to choose singular or plural as clearly as English does. So kanak-kanak itu may refer to:

• that child
• those children
• the child
• the children

If Malay needs to make one child completely clear, it can say seorang kanak-kanak.

Itu is a demonstrative. It often means that or those, and in many sentences it can also feel like English the when the noun is already specific.

Malay normally puts demonstratives after the noun:

• rumah itu = that house / the house
• budak itu = that child / the child
• kanak-kanak itu = that child / those children / the child / the children

So the word order is normal for Malay.

Malay verbs do not change for person or number the way English verbs do.

So you say:

• saya percaya = I believe
• dia percaya = he/she believes
• mereka percaya = they believe

The verb percaya stays the same. This is one of the nice simplifications in Malay.

Percaya by itself means to believe or to trust, but when you say what someone believes in, Malay often uses a preposition.

In this sentence, pada links percaya to keajaiban.

A useful rough guide is:

• percaya pada — often used with things, ideas, concepts, or abstract nouns
• percaya kepada — often used with people, beings, or more personal objects of trust

So:

• percaya pada keajaiban = believe in miracles
• percaya kepada Tuhan = believe in God
• percaya kepada guru = trust the teacher

In real usage, there can be some overlap, but pada keajaiban is very natural here.

Keajaiban comes from the root ajaib, which means miraculous, amazing, or wonderful/strange in a supernatural way.

Malay adds ke-...-an around the root:

• ajaib → miraculous, amazing
• keajaiban → miracle, wonder, miraculousness

This ke-...-an pattern often makes an abstract noun or a noun describing a state or quality.

Because Malay often leaves nouns unmarked for plural when the meaning is already clear from context.

So keajaiban can mean:

• miracle
• miracles
• sometimes even a more general idea like the miraculous

If a speaker really wants to emphasize plurality, they can say keajaiban-keajaiban, but that is not necessary here and would often sound heavier than needed.

Yes, you can.

• Kanak-kanak itu percaya pada keajaiban = the/that child or those/the children believe in miracles
• Kanak-kanak percaya pada keajaiban = children believe in miracles, more general

So itu makes the noun phrase more specific.

Yes, fairly similar.

The structure is:

• Kanak-kanak itu = subject
• percaya = verb
• pada keajaiban = prepositional phrase

So the sentence follows a basic subject + verb + complement pattern, which feels familiar to English speakers.

Yes, in many situations you could.

But there is a difference in tone:

• kanak-kanak = more neutral, standard, and suitable for writing
• budak-budak = more casual, everyday, like kids

So kanak-kanak itu percaya pada keajaiban sounds a bit more neutral or formal, while budak-budak itu percaya pada keajaiban sounds more conversational.