Learn Hardcore Malay: Data itu kemudian ditunjukkan dalam graf mudah di papan putih. - That data was then shown in a simple graph on the whiteboard.

data = “data” in a general or new sense, not clearly identified.
data itu = “that data / the data” – data which both speaker and listener already know about or can identify from context.

In this sentence, data itu implies the data has already been mentioned or is understood from earlier context.

Could you drop itu? Grammatically yes:

Data kemudian ditunjukkan…
but it would sound a bit less specific. Data itu is more natural here because the speaker is talking about particular, known data.

How does Malay show past tense here? There is no word like “was” or a past marker.

Malay doesn’t mark tense the way English does; it relies on:

Time adverbs / sequence words – here kemudian means “then / afterwards”, which strongly suggests a past sequence of events.
Context – if the surrounding text or situation is in the past, listeners assume this sentence is also past.

So Data itu kemudian ditunjukkan… is understood as “The data was then shown…”, even though there is no explicit past-tense verb form. The same form could be used for present or future if the context requires it.

What is the function and position of kemudian in this sentence? Could it go somewhere else?

Kemudian means “then / afterwards / later” and is an adverb indicating sequence.

In the sentence:

Data itu kemudian ditunjukkan…
kemudian comes after the topic (data itu) and before the verb phrase, showing what happened next to that topic.

Other possible positions:

Kemudian, data itu ditunjukkan dalam graf…
– more like English “Then, the data was shown in a graph…”, slightly more narrative/story-like.
Data itu ditunjukkan kemudian dalam graf…
– possible, but the nuance is a bit different; it can sound like “shown later in a graph,” with more emphasis on “later” relative to the showing, not the whole event chain.

The original placement (after data itu) is very natural and common in written explanatory text.

Why is ditunjukkan in the passive voice, and what exactly does it mean?

Ditunjukkan is the passive form of menunjukkan (“to show, to display”).

Morphologically:

tunjuk = show / point
meN-…-kan → menunjukkan = to show something, to display
di-…-kan → ditunjukkan = to be shown / was shown

So Data itu kemudian ditunjukkan… = “The data was then shown…”

Malay uses the passive here to:

Put focus on the data (the thing affected) rather than on who did the showing.
Fit a more formal / report-style tone, common in written descriptions, reports, or procedures.

If you wanted an active form with an explicit subject:

Guru itu kemudian menunjukkan data itu…
= “The teacher then showed the data…”

What is the role of -kan in ditunjukkan? Could you just say ditunjuk?

The suffix -kan often makes a verb:

transitive (needs an object), or
causative / applicative (cause something to happen, direct an action towards something).

Tunjuk by itself is “to point/to show (physically pointing)”.
Menunjukkan sesuatu is “to show something (as an object or content)”.

Ditunjukkan = “(was) shown (as an object/content)”.

You might hear ditunjuk in casual speech, but:

ditunjukkan sounds more complete and is standard when there is a clear object like data itu.
ditunjuk often feels more like “was pointed at” (gesture) than “was presented/displayed”.

In formal or neutral Malay, ditunjukkan is the better choice here.

Why is dalam used in dalam graf mudah instead of di or pada? How should I think about dalam here?

Dalam literally means “in / inside / within”, and it’s used in abstract senses too, like “in a form / format / medium”.

Here, dalam graf mudah is like “in the form of a simple graph” or “within a simple graph”.

Compare:

di graf – physically at/on the graph’s location (less idiomatic here).
pada graf – more like “on the graph,” often used in math/science for points on a graph.
dalam graf – “in the graph” as a medium or representation.

For representing information as a graph, dalam graf is the most natural choice.

What does graf mudah literally mean, and why is the adjective after the noun?

Graf mudah literally means “simple graph” or “easy/straightforward graph”.

graf = graph (loan from English)
mudah = easy / simple

In Malay, adjectives usually come after the noun:

buku baru = new book
rumah besar = big house
graf mudah = simple graph

So the word order is Noun + Adjective, not the other way around as in English.

Here mudah is closer to “simple/straightforward” rather than “easy to do.” It suggests the graph is not complicated.

Is there any article like “a” or “the” before graf mudah? How do we know if it’s “a simple graph” or “the simple graph”?

Malay does not have articles like “a / an / the”.

graf mudah by itself can be interpreted as “a simple graph” or “the simple graph”, depending on context.

In this sentence:

Data itu is definite (“the/that data”).
dalam graf mudah is probably “in a simple graph”, because it introduces a way of presenting the data, not a specifically known graph that was mentioned earlier.

If you wanted to make it clearly definite, you could add itu or a relative phrase:

dalam graf mudah itu = in that simple graph
dalam graf mudah yang kita lukis tadi = in the simple graph that we drew earlier

What does di papan putih mean, and how is it different from pada papan putih?

Di papan putih means “on the whiteboard” (literally “at/on the white board”).

di = at / in / on (location)
papan putih = whiteboard (literally “white board”)

Pada can also mean “on/at,” but:

di is generally used for physical locations.
pada is more common for abstract locations/time/targets (e.g. pada hari Isnin = on Monday, pada kamu = to you).

For something physically drawn/written/displayed on a whiteboard, di papan putih is the natural choice.
Pada papan putih would sound odd in most contexts.

Does di papan putih describe the graph, or the act of showing? In other words, is the graph on the whiteboard or is the data shown on the whiteboard?

In this sentence, di papan putih is interpreted naturally as describing where the graph is displayed, which also effectively answers where the showing happens.

The structure is:

Data itu (the data)
kemudian ditunjukkan (was then shown)
dalam graf mudah (in a simple graph)
di papan putih (on the whiteboard)

So the smooth reading is:

The data was then shown in a simple graph on the whiteboard.

There isn’t a strong ambiguity in normal usage; people will understand that:

The graph is on the whiteboard, and
Therefore, the data is shown on the whiteboard via that graph.

Is this sentence formal or informal? How would it sound in everyday spoken Malay?

The original sentence is neutral to formal, suitable for:

reports,
written exercises,
presentations,
classroom descriptions.

An everyday spoken version might be more colloquial:

Lepas tu, kami tunjuk data tu dalam graf yang ringkas dekat whiteboard.

Changes:

Lepas tu instead of kemudian (more casual “then/after that”).
kami tunjuk (active, explicit subject) instead of ditunjukkan (passive).
data tu instead of data itu (spoken reduction).
yang ringkas instead of mudah (very natural for “simple” in speech).
dekat whiteboard instead of di papan putih (colloquial dekat and English loan whiteboard).

Why is data not pluralized? In English we distinguish “datum/data” (at least formally). How does Malay treat data?

In Malay, data is used as a mass noun, similar to common modern English usage where “data is” is more natural than “data are” in everyday speech.

There is no separate form like “datum” in normal Malay.
data can refer to one set of data, multiple pieces, or data in general.

If you need to be explicit, you can add a classifier:

sekeping data (a piece of data – rare, more like translationese)
more naturally: satu set data (one set of data), beberapa set data (several data sets)

But in most cases, data alone is enough and does not change form for singular/plural. The sentence simply treats data itu as “that data/the data (set)”.