"Kucing ini makan apa?"
Translation:What does this cat eat?
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I agree. The literal translation is "This cat eats what?". Since this is a proper English sentence, it should be accepted.
Why is "Apa kucing ini makan?" incorrect?
"Apa kucing ini makan?" = Does this cat eat?
Does "apa" always come at the end of a question?
No.
In the strictly formal style, the preferred word order is to start a question with a question word.
That means that 'apa' appears at the beginning of the question.
The word order as shown in the sentence above, is the same word order as in a normal declarative sentence.
In the question sentence 'apa' simply replaces the word that you're asking for.
That's the reason that 'apa' appears at the end.
It works like this :
(+) Kucing ini makan sesuatu. = This cat eats something.
(?) Kucing ini makan apa? = This cat eats what?
(?) Apa yang kucing ini makan? = What does this cat eat?