Malay grammar

Malay grammar is the body of rules that describe the structure of expressions in the Malay language (known as Indonesian in Indonesia and Malaysian in Malaysia). This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses and sentences.

In Malay, there are four basic parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and grammatical function words (particles). Nouns and verbs may be basic roots, but frequently they are derived from other words by means of prefixes and suffixes.

Word formation

Malay is an agglutinative language, and new words are formed by three methods. New words can be created by attaching affixes onto a root word (affixation), formation of a compound word (composition), or repetition of words or portions of words (reduplication).

Affixes

Root words are either nouns or verbs, which can be affixed to derive new words, e.g. masak (to cook) yields memasak (cooks), memasakkan (cooks for), dimasak (cooked) as well as pemasak (a cook), masakan (a meal, cookery). Many initial consonants undergo mutation when prefixes are added: e.g. sapu (sweep) becomes penyapu (broom); panggil (to call) becomes memanggil (calls/calling), tapis (to sieve) becomes menapis (sieves).

Other examples of the use of affixes to change the meaning of a word can be seen with the word ajar (teach):

• ajar = teach
• ajaran = teachings
• belajar = to learn
• mengajar = to teach
• diajar = being taught (intransitive)
• diajarkan = being taught (transitive)
• mempelajari = to study
• dipelajari = being studied
• pelajar = student
• pengajar = teacher
• pelajaran = subject, education
• pengajaran = lesson, moral of story
• pembelajaran = learning
• terajar = taught (accidentally)
• terpelajar = well-educated, literally "been taught"
• berpelajaran = is educated, literally "has education"

There are four types of affixes, namely prefixes (awalan), suffixes (akhiran), circumfixes (apitan) and infixes (sisipan). These affixes are categorised into noun affixes, verb affixes, and adjective affixes.

Noun affixes are affixes that form nouns upon addition to root words. The following are examples of noun affixes:

Type of noun affixes	Affix	Example of root word	Example of derived word
Prefix	pə(r)- ~ pəng-	duduk (sit)	penduduk (population)
	kə-	hendak (want)	kehendak (desire)
	juru-	wang (money)	juruwang (cashier)
Infix	⟨əl⟩	tunjuk (point)	telunjuk (index finger, command)
	⟨əm⟩	kelut (dishevelled)	kemelut (chaos, crisis)
	⟨ər⟩	gigi (teeth)	gerigi (toothed blade)
Suffix	-an	bangun (wake up, raise)	bangunan (building)
Circumfix	kə-...-an	raja (king)	kerajaan (kingdom)
	pə(r)-...-an pəng-...-an	kerja (work)	pekerjaan (occupation)

The prefix per- drops its r before r, l and frequently before p, t, k. In some words it is peng-; though formally distinct, these are treated as variants of the same prefix in Malay grammar books.

Similarly, verb affixes are attached to root words to form verbs. In Malay, there are:

Type of verb affixes	Affix	Example of root word	Example of derived word
Prefix	bər-	ajar (teach)	belajar (to study)
	məng-	tolong (help)	menolong (to help)
	di-	ambil (take)	diambil (be taken)
	məmpər-	kemas (tidy up, orderly)	memperkemas (to arrange further)
	dipər-	dalam (deep)	diperdalam (be deepened)
	tər-	makan (eat)	termakan (to have accidentally eaten)
Suffix	-kan	letak (place, keep)	letakkan (keep)
	-i	jauh (far)	jauhi (avoid)
Circumfix	bər-...-an	pasang (pair)	berpasangan (in pairs)
	bər-...-kan	dasar (base)	berdasarkan (based on)
	məng-...-kan	pasti (sure)	memastikan (to make sure)
	məng-...-i	teman (company)	menemani (to accompany)
	məmpər-...-kan	guna (use)	mempergunakan (to utilise, to exploit)
	məmpər-...-i	ajar (teach)	mempelajari (to study)
	kə-...-an	hilang (disappear)	kehilangan (to lose)
	di-...-i	sakit (pain)	disakiti (to be hurt by)
	di-...-kan	benar (right)	dibenarkan (is allowed to)
	dipər-...-kan	kenal (know, recognise)	diperkenalkan (is being introduced)

Adjective affixes are attached to root words to form adjectives:

Type of adjective affixes	Affix	Example of root word	Example of derived word
Prefix	tər-	kenal (know)	terkenal (famous)
	sə-	lari (run)	selari (parallel)
Infix	⟨əl⟩	serak (disperse)	selerak (messy)
	⟨əm⟩	cerlang (radiant bright)	cemerlang (bright, excellent)
	⟨ər⟩	sabut (husk)	serabut (dishevelled)
Circumfix	kə-...-an	barat (west)	kebaratan (westernized)

In addition to these affixes, Malay also has a lot of borrowed affixes from other languages such as Sanskrit, Arabic and English. For example, maha-, pasca-, eka-, bi-, anti-, pro- etc.

Compound word

In Malay, new words can be formed by joining two or more root words. Compound words, when they exist freely in a sentence, are often written separately. Compound words are only attached to each other when they are bound by circumfix or when they are already considered as stable words.

For example, the word kəreta which means car and api which means fire, are compounded to form a new word kəreta api (train). Similarly, ambil alih (take over) is formed using the root words ambil (take) and alih (move), but will link together when a circumfix is attached to it, i.e. pengambilalihan (takeover). Certain stable words, such as kakitangan (personnel), and kerjasama (cooperation), are spelled as one word even when they exist freely in sentences.

Reduplication

Reduplication (Kata Ganda or Kata Ulang) in the Malay language is a very productive process. It is mainly used for forming plurals, but sometimes it may alter the meaning of the whole word, or change the usage of the word in sentences.

Forms

There are four types of words reduplication in Malay, namely

• Full reduplication (Kata Ganda Penuh (Malaysian) or Kata Ulang Utuh (Indonesian) or Dwilingga)
• Partial reduplication (Kata Ganda Separa (Malaysian) or Kata Ulang Sebagian (Indonesian) or Dwipurwa)
• Rhythmic reduplication (Kata Ganda Berentak (Malaysian) or Kata Ulang Salin Suara (Indonesian))
• Reduplication of meaning

Full reduplication is the complete duplication of the word, separated by a dash (-). For example, buku (book) when duplicated form buku-buku (books), while the duplicated form of batu (stone) is batu-batu (stones).

Partial reduplication repeats only the initial consonant of the word, such as dedaun (leaves) from the word daun (leaf), and tetangga (neighbor) from the word tangga (ladder). The words are usually not separated by spaces or punctuation, and is considered a single word.

Rhythmic reduplication repeats the whole word, but one or more of the its phonemes are altered. For example, the word gerak (motion) can be reduplicated rhythmically to form gerak-gerik (movements) by altering the vowel. The reduplication can also be formed by altering the consonant, e.g. in sayur-mayur (vegetables [bundled for the market]) from the root word sayur (vegetable/vegetables [what is found on plate]).

Functions

Reduplication is used for expression of various grammatical functions (such as verbal aspect) and it is part in a number of complex morphological models.

Reduplication of nouns and pronouns can express at least three meanings:

• Diversity or non-exhaustive plurality :
  • Burung-burung itu juga diekspor ke luar negeri = "All those birds are also exported out of the country".
• Conceptual similarity :
  • langit-langit = "ceiling; palate; etc." < langit = "sky";
  • jari-jari = "spoke; bar; radius; etc." < jari = "finger" etc.
• Pragmatic accentuation :
  • Saya bukan anak-anak lagi! "I am not a child anymore!" (anak = "child")

Reduplication of an adjective can express different things:

• Adverbialisation :
  • Jangan bicara keras-keras! = "Don't speak loudly!" (keras = hard)
• Plurality of the corresponding noun:
  • Rumah di sini besar-besar = "The houses here are big" (besar = "big").

Reduplication of a verb can express various things:

Simple reduplication:

• Pragmatic accentuation:
  • Kenapa orang tidak datang-datang? = "Why aren't people coming?"

Reduplication with meN- prefixation, depending on the position of the prefix meN-:

• Repetition or continuation of the action:
  • Orang itu memukul-mukul anaknya : "That man continuously beat his child";
• Reciprocity:
  • Kedua orang itu pukul-memukul = "Those two men would beat each other".

Notice that in the first case, the nasalisation of the initial consonant (whereby /p/ becomes /m/) is repeated, while in the second case, it only applies in the repeated word.

Nouns

Common derivational affixes for nouns are peng-/per-/juru- (actor, instrument, or someone characterized by the root), -an (collectivity, similarity, object, place, instrument), ke-...-an (abstractions and qualities, collectivities), per-/peng-...-an (abstraction, place, goal or result).

Gender

Malay does not make use of grammatical gender. There are only a few words that use natural gender; the same word used for he and she is also used for his and her. Most of the words that refer to people (family terms, professions, etc.) have a form that does not distinguish between the sexes. For example, adik can both refer to a younger sibling of either sex. In order to specify the natural gender of a noun, an adjective has to be added: adik lelaki corresponds to "brother" but really means "male younger sibling". There are some words that are gendered. For instance, puteri means "princess" and putera means "prince"; words like these are usually borrowed from other languages (in this case, Sanskrit).

Number

There is no grammatical plural in Malay. Thus orang may mean either "person" or "people". Plurality is expressed by the context, or the usage of words such as numerals, bəbərapa "some", or səmua "all" that express plurality. In many cases, it simply isn't relevant to the speaker.

Reduplication is commonly used to emphasize plurality. However, reduplication has many other functions. For example, orang-orang means "(all the) people", but orang-orangan means "scarecrow". Similarly, while hati means "heart" or "liver", hati-hati is a verb meaning "to be careful". Also, not all reduplicated words are inherently plural, such as orang-orangan "scarecrow/scarecrows", biri-biri "a/some sheep" and kupu-kupu "butterfly/butterflies". Some reduplication is rhyming rather than exact, as in sayur-mayur "(all sorts of) vegetables".

Distributive affixes derive mass nouns that are effectively plural: pohon "tree", pepohonan "flora, trees"; rumah "house", perumahan "housing, houses"; gunung "mountain", pegunungan "mountain range, mountains".

Quantity words come before the noun: səribu orang "a thousand people", beberapa pegunungan "a series of mountain ranges", beberapa kupu-kupu "some moths".

Pronouns

Personal pronouns are not a separate part of speech, but a subset of nouns. They are frequently omitted, and there are numerous ways to say "you". Commonly the person's name, title, title with name, or occupation is used ("does Johnny want to go?", "would Madam like to go?"); kin terms, including fictive kinship, are extremely common. However, there are also dedicated personal pronouns, as well as the demonstrative pronouns ini "this, the" and itu "that, the".

Personal pronouns

From the perspective of a European language, Malay boasts a wide range of different pronouns, especially to refer to the addressee (the so-called second person pronouns). These are used to differentiate several parameters of the person they are referred to, such as the social rank and the relationship between the addressee and the speaker.

This table shows an overview over the most commonly and widely used pronouns of the Malay language:

Common pronouns

person		respect	singular	plural
1st person	exclusive	informal, familiar	aku	kami (we: they and me, s/he and me)
		standard, polite	saya
	inclusive			kita (we: you and me, you and us)
2nd person		familiar	kamu	kalian
		polite	Anda (you)	Anda sekalian (you, y'all)
3rd person		colloquial	ia ~ dia (s/he)	dia orang (they)
		formal standard		mereka (itu) (they)

First person pronouns

Notable among the personal-pronoun system is a distinction between two forms of "we": kita (you and me, you and us) and kami (us, but not you). The distinction is increasingly confused in colloquial Indonesian.

Saya and aku are the two major forms of "I". Saya is the more formal form, whereas aku is used with family, friends, and between lovers. Sahaya is an old or literary form of saya. Sa(ha)ya may also be used for "we", but in such cases it is usually used with sekalian or semua "all"; this form is ambiguous as to whether it corresponds with inclusive kami or exclusive kita. Less common are hamba "slave", hamba tuan, hamba datok (all extremely humble), beta (a royal addressing oneselves), patek (a commoner addressing a royal), kami (royal or editorial "we"), kita, təman, and kawan.

Second person pronouns

There are three common forms of "you", Anda (polite), kamu (familiar), and kalian "all" (commonly used as a plural form of you, slightly informal). Anda is used with strangers, recent acquaintances, in advertisements, in business, and when you wish to show respect (though terms like tuan "sir" and other titles also show respect), while kamu is used in situations where the speaker would use aku for "I". Anda sekalian is polite plural.

Engkau (əngkau), commonly shortened to kau, and hang are used to social inferiors, awak to equals, and əncek (cek before a name) is polite, traditionally used for people without title. The compounds makcek and pakcek are used with village elders one is well acquainted with or the guest of.

Third person pronouns

The common word for "s/he" and "they" is ia, which has the object and emphatic/focused form dia. Bəliau "his/her Honour" is respectful. As with "you", names and kin terms are extremely common. Colloquially, dia orang is commonly used for the plural "they"; in writing, mereka "someone", mereka itu, or orang itu "those people" are used for "they".

Regional varieties

There are a large number of other words for "I" and "you", many regional, dialectical, or borrowed from local languages. Saudara "you" (male) and saudari (female) (plural saudara-saudara or saudari-saudari) show utmost respect. Daku "I" and dikau "you" are poetic or romantic. Indonesian gua "I" and lu "you" are slang and extremely informal. In the state of Pahang, two variants for "I" and "you" exist, depending on location. In East Pahang, around Pekan, "kome" is used as "I" while in the west around Temerloh, "koi" is used. Interestingly, "kome" is also used in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, but instead it means "you". This allegedly originated from the fact that both the royal families of Pahang and Perak (whose seats are in Pekan and Kuala Kangsar respectively) were descendants of the same ancient line.

The informal pronouns aku, kamu, engkau, ia, kami, and kita are indigenous to Malay.

Possessive pronouns

Aku, kamu, engkau, and ia have short possessive enclitic forms. All others retain their full forms like other nouns, as does emphatic dia: meja saya, meja kita, meja anda, meja dia "my table, our table, your table, his/her table".

Possessed forms of meja "table"

Pronoun	Enclitic	Possessed form
aku	-ku	mejaku (my table)
kamu	-mu	mejamu (your table)
engkau	-kau	mejakau (your table)
ia	-nya	mejanya (his, her, their table)

There are also proclitic forms of aku and engkau, ku- and kau-. These are used when there is no emphasis on the pronoun:

Ku-dengar raja itu penyakit sopak. Aku tahu ilmu tabib. Aku-lah mengubati dia.

"It has come to my attention that the Raja has a skin disease. I am skilled in medicine. I will cure him."

Here ku-verb is used for a general report, aku verb is used for a factual statement, and emphatic aku-lah meng-verb (≈ "I am the one who...") for focus on the pronoun.

Demonstrative pronouns

There are two demonstrative pronouns in Malay. Ini "this, these" is used for a noun which is generally near to the speaker. Itu "that, those" is used for a noun which is generally far from the speaker. Either may sometimes be equivalent to English "the". There is no difference between singular and plural. However, plural can be indicated through duplication of a noun followed by a ini or itu. The word yang "which" is often placed before demonstrative pronouns to give emphasis and a sense of certainty, particularly when making references or enquiries about something/ someone, like English "this one" or "that one".

Pronoun	Malay	English
ini	buku ini	This book, these books, the book(s)
	buku-buku ini	These books, (all) the books
itu	kucing itu	That cat, those cats, the cat(s)
	kucing-kucing itu	Those cats, the (various) cats

Pronoun + yang	Example Sentence	English Meaning
Yang ini	Q: Anda mau membeli buku yang mana? A: Saya mau beli yang ini	Q: Which book do you wish to purchase? A: I would like this one
Yang itu	Q: Kucing mana yang makan tikusmu? A: Yang itu!	Q: Which cat ate your mouse? A: That one!

Measure words

Another distinguishing feature of Malay is its use of measure words, also called classifiers (penjodoh bilangan). In this way, it is similar to many other languages of Asia, including Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese, and Bengali.

Measure words are found in English two head of cattle, a loaf of bread, or this sheet of paper, where *two cattle, a bread, and this paper (in the sense of this piece of paper) would be ungrammatical. The word satu reduces to se- /sə/, as it does in other compounds:

measure word	used for measuring	literal translation	example
buah	things (in general), large things, abstract nouns houses, cars, ships, mountains; books, rivers, chairs, some fruits, thoughts, etc.	'fruit'	dua buah meja (two tables), lima buah rumah (five houses)
ekor /ekor/	animals	'tail'	seekor ayam (a chicken), tiga ekor kambing (three goats)
orang	human beings	'person'	seorang lelaki (a man), enam orang petani (six farmers), seratus orang murid (a hundred students)
biji	smaller rounded objects most fruits, cups, nuts	'grain'	sebiji/ sebutir telur (an egg), sebiji epal (an apple), sebutir/ butiran-butiran beras (rice or rices)
batang	long stiff things trees, walking sticks, pencils	'trunk, rod'	sebatang sungai (a river), sebatang kayu (a stick)
həlai, lai	things in thin layers or sheets paper, cloth, feathers, hair	'leaf'	sepuluh helai pakaian (ten cloths)
kəping	flat fragments slabs of stone, pieces of wood, pieces of bread, land, coins, paper	'chip'	sekeping kertas ( a piece of paper)
pucuk	letters, firearms, needles	'sprout'
bilah	blades: knives, spears	'lathe'

Less common are

bəntuk	rings, hooks (with ringed 'eyes')	'shape'
bidanɡ	mats, widths of cloth	'breadth'
kuntum	flowers	'blossom'
tangkai	flowers	'stem'
kaki	long-stemmed flowers	'leg'
urat	threads, sinew	'fiber, vein'
pintu	houses in a row	'door'
tangga	traditional houses with ladders	'ladder'
patah	words, proverbs	'fragment'
butir	smallest rounded objects smaller fruits, seeds, grains, rounds of ammunition, gems, points	'particle'	commonly replaced with biji
puntung	stumps, stubs, butt ends of firewood, cigarettes, teeth	stump
potong	slices of bread etc.	'cut'
kərat		'fragment'
utas		nets, cords, ribbons
carik	things easily torn, like paper	'shred'

Measure words are not necessary just to say "a": burung "a bird, birds". Using se- plus a measure word is closer to English "one" or "a certain":

Ada se-ekor burung yang pandai bercakap

"There was a (certain) bird that could talk"

Verbs

Verbs are not inflected for person or number, and they are not marked for tense; tense is instead denoted by time adverbs (such as "yesterday") or by other tense indicators, such as sudah "already" and belum "not yet". On the other hand, there is a complex system of verb affixes to render nuances of meaning and to denote voice or intentional and accidental moods. Some of these affixes are ignored in colloquial speech.

Examples of these are the prefixes di- (patient focus, frequently but erroneously called "passive voice", for OVA word order), meng- (agent focus, frequently but erroneously called "active voice", for AVO word order), memper- and diper- (causative, agent and patient focus), ber- (stative or habitual; intransitive VS order), and ter- (agentless actions, such as those which are involuntary, sudden, or accidental, for VA = VO order); the suffixes -kan (causative or benefactive) and -i (locative, repetitive, or exhaustive); and the circumfixes ber-...-an (plural subject, diffuse action) and ke-...-an (unintentional or potential action or state).

• duduk to sit down
• mendudukkan to sit someone down, give someone a seat, to appoint
• menduduki to sit on, to occupy
• didudukkan to be given a seat, to be appointed
• diduduki to be sat on, to be occupied
• terduduk to sink down, to come to sit
• kedudukan to be situated

Often the derivation changes the meaning of the verb rather substantially:

• tinggal to reside, to live (in a place)
• meninggal to die, to pass away (short form of meninggal dunia to pass on from the world)
• meninggalkan to leave (a place), to leave behind/abandon (someone/something)
• ditinggalkan to be left behind, to be abandoned
• tertinggal to be left behind
• ketinggalan to miss (a bus, train) (and thus to be left behind)

Forms in ter- and ke-...-an are often equivalent to adjectives in English.

"Adjectives"

There are no grammatical adjectives in Malay. Stative verbs are used for this purpose.

Malay	Gloss	English	Remarks
Hutan hijau	forest be-green	The forest is green	as in French la forêt verdoie
Kəreta yang merah	car that be-red	The red car
Dia orang yang terkenal sekali	he/she person which be-(most)famous	He/she is the most famous person
Orang ini terkenal sekali	person this be-famous very	This person is very famous

Negation

Four words are used for negation in Malay, namely tidak, bukan, jangan, and belum.

• Tidak (not), often shortened to tak, is used for the negation of verbs and "adjectives".
• Bukan (be-not) is used in the negation of a noun.

For example:

Malay	Gloss	English
Saya tidak tahu	I not know	I do not know
Ibu saya tidak senang	mother I not be-happy	My mother is not happy
Itu bukan anjing saya	that be-not dog I	That is not my dog

• Jangan (do not!) is used for negating imperatives or advising against certain actions. For example,

Jangan tinggalkan saya di sini!

Don't leave me here!

• Belum is used with the sense that something has not yet been accomplished or experienced. In this sense, belum can be used as a negative response to a question.

—Anda sudah pernah ke Indonesia or Anda sudah pernah ke Indonesia belum?

Have you ever been to Indonesia before, (or not)?

—Belum, saya masih belum pernah pergi ke Indonesia

No, I have not yet been to Indonesia

Orang itu belum terbiasa tinggal di Indonesia

That person is not (yet) used to living in Indonesia.

Function words

There are 16 types of function words in Malay which perform a grammatical function in a sentence. Amongst these are conjunctions, interjections, prepositions, negations and determiners.

Word order

Adjectives, demonstrative determiners, and possessive determiners follow the noun they modify.

Malay does not have a grammatical subject in the sense that English does. In intransitive clauses, the noun comes before the verb. When there is both an agent and an object, these are separated by the verb (OVA or AVO), with the difference encoded in the voice of the verb. OVA, commonly but inaccurately called "passive", is the basic and most common word order.

Either the agent or object or both may be omitted. This is commonly done to accomplish one of two things:

1) Adding a sense of politeness and respect to a statement or question

For example, a polite shop assistant in a store may avoid the use of pronouns altogether and ask:

Ellipses of pronoun (agent & object)	Literal English	Idiomatic English
Bisa dibantu?	Can + to be helped?	Can (I) help (you)?

2) Agent or object is unknown, not important, or understood from context

For example, a friend may enquire as to when you bought your property, to which you may respond:

Ellipses of pronoun (understood agent)	Literal English	Idiomatic English
Rumah ini dibeli lima tahun yang lalu	House this + be purchased five year(s) ago	The house 'was purchased' five years ago

Ultimately, the choice of voice and therefore word order is a choice between actor and patient and depends quite heavily on the language style and context.

Emphasis

Word order is frequently modified for focus or emphasis, with the focused word usually placed at the beginning of the clause and followed by a slight pause (a break in intonation):

• Saya pergi ke pasar kemarin "I went to the market yesterday" – neutral, or with focus on the subject.
• Kemarin saya pergi ke pasar "Yesterday I went to the market" – emphasis on yesterday.
• Ke pasar saya pergi, kemarin "To the market I went yesterday" – emphasis on where I went yesterday.
• Pergi ke pasar, saya, kemarin "To the market went I yesterday" – emphasis on the process of going to the market.

The last two are more likely to be encountered in speech than in writing.

External links

• Malay Grammar by R. O. Winstedt