Lesson 1 Nama (Name)

Apa nama anda?

Nama saya John.

What is your name?

My name is John.

Dia kawan saya.

He is my friend.

Apa namanya?
Namanya Peter.

What is his name?

His name is Peter.

Dia kawan saya.

She is my friend.

Apa namanya?
Namanya Mary.

What is her name?

Her name is Mary.

Vocabulary
Apa = What
nama = name
anda = you or your
saya = I or my
kawan = friend
dia = he OR she
mereka = they
nama anda = your name
namanya = his/her name
nama saya = my name
kawan anda= your friend
kawannya = his/her friend

The first thing you will notice is the absence of the verb "to be" in Malay in
the above sentences.
In fact the verb "to be" is simply not needed here.
A sentence without a verb? Yes, it's possible in Malay.
Those who had to struggle with the conjugation of the verb "to be" in French
or Spanish will be greatly relieved to hear this! (Having said that, people
who feel lost without putting in a verb in a sentence can note that the word
adalah is sometimes used for the verb "is". Thus Dia guru saya and Dia
adalah guru saya both mean "He/She is my teacher".)
Another thing you will notice is that while in English we have the pronoun
before the noun (eg. my name, your name) in Malay it is just the opposite ie.
the noun comes first then the pronoun (so in Malay we say "name my",
"name your"). If you remember this it will serve you throughout this course
as it is the same word order when it comes to adjectives and nouns (so "big
car" becomes "car big" in Malay).
The third important thing to remember is something that you'd better get
right from the very beginning and that is the same pronoun "dia" is used for
BOTH "he" and "she". Only the context will tell whether you're talking about

a man or a woman.
Please note that the colloquial forms (Apa nama anda? and Apa namanya? )
are used in this lesson. The formal forms would be Siapa nama anda? and
Siapa namanya?
The formal forms only confuse English-speaking students because Siapa
actually means "Who" as in Siapa dia? = "Who is he (or she)?" while Apa
normally means "What" as in Apa ini? (What is this?). So to make it easier for
English-speaking students (why be pedantic when you are a beginner?) I am
using the colloquial form. Please note that this course is aimed at giving you
a basic knowledge so you can get around in Malaysia and not to make you a
Malay language expert. Those hoping to become Malay scholars will have to
go to a proper school.

Lesson 2 Bahasa (language)

Saya boleh cakap bahasa Melayu.

Peter tidak boleh cakap bahasa Jepun.
Dia cakap bahasa Inggeris.
Mereka tidak boleh cakap bahasa Cina.
Vocabulary
Saya = I
boleh= can
cakap = speak
bahasa = language
Melayu = Malay

I can speak the Malay language.

Peter cannot speak Japanese.
He speaks English.
They cannot speak Chinese.
tidak boleh = cannot
bahasa Jepun =Japanese language
Dia = He/She
bahasa Inggeris = English language
Mereka = They
bahasa Cina = Chinese language

You will notice that the suffix nya is tagged on to the noun to indicate "his" or
"her". So namanya can either mean "his name" or "her name" (depending on
the context). Similarly bukunya can mean "his book" or "her book" and
kawannya can mean "his friend" or "her friend".
So far you have learnt the Malay pronouns for I, you, he and she.
The Malay word for the pronoun "they" or "them" is mereka. To help you
remember I am going to bring up three common names: Murphy, Raymond
and Kazan, the famous Hollywood film director. What is so special about
these three people, you might ask. Well, if you remember them, they're not
only going to help you remember the Malay word for "they" or "them" but
also help you to pronounce the word correctly. How is this possible? Well just
pronounce the FIRST syllable of each of the three names and you will get
mereka as it should be pronounced (Mur-Ray-Ka). I hope this little mnemonic
will be of help to you. At least it will show you that the e vowel has got two
different sounds in Malay (see Lesson 50), one the schwa sound as the "Mur"
in Murphy (the phonetic symbol for this sound being ) and the other the ay
sound as in Ray (if you know French, it's the sound of ).

The Malaysian language (Bahasa Malaysia) is actually the Malay language

(Bahasa Melayu). As such the two terms are interchangeable.
In Lesson 1 saya was used as a possessive (nama saya = "my name" and
buku saya = "my book"). Here it is used as a pronoun. Another widely-used
word for "I" is aku).
Oh, by the way while in English and many other languages we have different
forms for I (such as me, my, mine) in Malay there is just one form: saya.
Cool!
Dia can mean he or she depending on the context. Thus:
Dia kawan saya. (= He is my friend - if the person referred to is a man)
Dia kawan saya. (= She is my friend - if the person referred to is a woman)
Dia marah. (= "He is angry" or "She is angry" depending on the context)
The two words in Malay to distinguish between the two sexes are:
lelaki for "male" and
perempuan for "female".
Thus to avoid any ambiguity in the above sentences you could say:
Orang lelaki itu kawan saya. (= That man is my friend) or
Orang perempuan itu kawan saya. (= That woman is my friend)
By the way while "male" and "female" are also used to describe animals in
English lelaki and perempuan should never be used for animals in Malay.
The male of an animal is described as jantan and the female as betina.
Thus a cock is ayam jantan and a hen is ayam betina.
In written form Dia is often replaced by Ia which is also used to indicate
objects and animals (equivalent of "it").
By the way newspapers often use beliau for "he" or "she" (but this use is
restricted to an elderly or respectable person and is not used for a criminal).
nya is tagged on to a noun to mean "his" or "her" eg. isterinya (his wife),
suaminya (her husband) or anaknya (his child or her child - depending on the

context). Similarly kawannya can mean "his friend" or "her friend" and
keretanya can mean "his car" or "her car", again depending on the context.

Lesson 3 Ini......(This is.....)

Ini kereta saya.

Ini bapa saya.
Ini emak saya.
Ini isteri saya.
Ini anak saya.
Ini kawan saya.

This is my car.
This is my father.
This is my mother.
This is my wife.
This is my child.
This is my friend.

Vocabulary
Ini... = This is ...
kereta = car
kereta saya = my car
bapa = father
emak = mother
isteri = wife
anak = child

For those who want to know more:

You might have noticed that unlike English and French, where the possessive
pronoun precedes the noun, in Malay it is the other way round i.e. the noun
comes first followed by the possessive pronoun. Thus "my car" becomes
kereta saya (car my) and "your friend" becomes kawan anda (friend your).
1. Ini is used for something within reach or when you are introducing
someone. When an object is not within reach we use Itu eg. Itu rumah saya.
= That is my house.
2. Another word for "father" in Malay is ayah .
3. Another word for "mother" is ibu. .
4. Another word for "wife" is bini .
5. From anak (child) we have anak lelaki (son) and anak perempuan
(daughter).

ENGLISH
This is my car.
This is my wife.

MALAY
Ini kereta saya.
Ini isteri saya.

Lesson 11 - Greetings

GREETINGS (according to the time of the day):

Selamat pagi (=Good morning)
Selamat tengah hari (=Good afternoon - from noon to 2p.m. or so)
Selamat petang (=Good afternoon/Good evening)
Selamat malam (=Goodnight)
(Note that while in English you can also say "Goodnight" before going to bed, in Malay it is more
correct to say Selamat tidur rather than Selamat malam in such a situation.
Other greetings:
Selamat datang (=Welcome) eg.
Selamat datang ke rumah saya.(=Welcome to my house)
Apa khabar? (=How are you? or How do you do?)
Khabar baik, terima kasih.(=I'm fine, thank you.)
Selamat jalan.(Goodbye, you say this to the person leaving.)
Selamat tinggal.(Goodbye, you say this to your host who is staying behind.)
MNEMONICS: I've received the following email from Michael C Hunt, a teacher of language and
linguistics, and am reproducing it (with his permission) as it could be of interest to other
learners:
There are many interesting ways of learning. If it is of interest, Europeans for some reason learn
very quickly when they can adopt a picture connected to the sound of the phrases one is
learning (and learning phrases is presented really well by Michel Franc, a man who only
teaches phrases!) For me I am remembering what you have written as the following. I say this
purely for your interest!
Selamat datang......(offer someone some salami soup when you meet them...as salami and
tang in Chinese is soup)
Khabar baik.....(a cab or a bike )
Terima kasih.....(offer someone a terrine of kashik, a Polish lentil)
These are clearly things I like....soup, Chinese language, Polish soup and bikes.
SAYING GOODBYE IN MALAY
There are two different ways of saying "Goodbye" in Malay depending on whether you're leaving
or staying behind. These are Selamat tinggal and Selamat jalan . I will explain them in detail
below.
1st form: Selamat tinggal
The one who is leaving will say to the one staying behind (the host) Selamat tinggal . So

normally it is the guest who says this when taking leave of his host. This of course has to take
place at the host's house and not at a restaurant if the host is also leaving at the same time as
his guest since tinggal here means to stay (back)!
Note: The word tinggal by itself is used as follows:
Saya tinggal di PJ. = I live in PJ (or Petaling Jaya if you like).
Saya tinggalkan payung saya di rumahnya. (I left my umbrella at his house.)
2nd form: Selamat jalan
The host i.e. the one who is remaining in the house will say this to his departing guest to wish
him a safe journey back. Though jalan means "to walk" this term is still used even if the guest is
returning home by car.
If the above two forms of saying Goodbye are a bit confusing to you then just stick to Jumpa lagi
or in its full form Sampai berjumpa lagi. It simply means "See you soon" or "So long!"
Note: The word jumpa alone means "to meet" as in this sentence:
Saya akan jumpa dia esok. (= I shall be meeting him/her tomorrow).
Warning: When you say Jumpa lagi in the sense of "So long" make sure you do not raise the
tone at the end or it could be taken for a question ("Shall we meet again?") in which case you
are likely to be asked in turn, Ya, bila? (Yes, when?)

Note: The following rules are not at all rigid. They are only meant to be used as a guide and I
know that some people interpret them differently. So please don't hold me responsible for your
quarrels!
From sunrise (about 5 or 6 a.m.) to 12 noon, you say Selamat pagi.
Between 12 noon and 2 p.m. or so, you say Selamat tengah hari.
From 2 p.m. until sunset (about 8 or 9 p.m.) , you say Selamat petang.
From sunset to midnight, you can say Selamat petang or Selamat malam (the latter is usually
said upon leaving an evening function).
But after midnight and until sunrise you can either say (considering that it is already a.m.)
Selamat pagi or, if you are taking leave of your colleagues after a night shift Selamat malam.
A word that does not go by the clock hour is siang which means daytime i.e. when you don't
need to turn on the lights. So if you are baffled by Selamat pagi, Selamat tengah hari and
Selamat petang you can just say Selamat siang which is not so precise and which is more used
by Indonesians but which serves the purpose.
If all this sounds too complicating to you a passe-partout (or all-purpose) greeting which can be
used at all times of the day and night is Apa khabar? It's equivalent to "How are you?" in English
or "Qu tal?" in Spanish. The standard answer is Khabar baik, terima kasih. (=I'm fine, thank
you.)
Incidentally if someone says Terima kasih (=Thank you) to you the standard reply is Samasama (=You're welcome). An Indonesian though would reply Kembali instead of Sama-sama but
that's another story.
Another common word of greeting is Salam and if you ask someone to send your greetings or
regards to a mutual friend you can say Tolong sampaikan salam saya kepadanya. (Please send
him my regards).
A very useful expression to learn is Maafkan saya when you wish to apologise for something.

Instead of this you could also say Minta maaf or Harap maaf (= Excuse me). The usual reply to
this would be Tidak apa-apa or just Tak apa (=It doesn't matter) or Tak apalah (see Lesson 20).
Note that the suffix lah is always added to soften the tone or to make something less formal.
("Yeslah it's true" I can hear your Malaysian friends saying!)
But note that Maafkan saya is also used when you are trying to squeeze your way between two
people who are talking or passing by a row of people. Politeness is very important in the Malay
culture and you don't just barge your way through people without saying a polite word.
Note also that greetings in Malay are normally followed by the name of the person to whom we
greet. Thus if we are greeting Mr. Ahmad, we don't just say Selamat pagi but Selamat pagi,
Encik Ahmad or Selamat pagi, Cik Ahmad.. Note that while in the written form "Cik" is equivalent
to "Miss", in its spoken form "Encik" for Mr. is very often contracted to "Cik".
If we are greeting someone whose name we do not know (as when asking a stranger for
information) we can use "encik" (mister) or "puan" (madam). Thus: Selamat pagi, encik or
Selamat pagi, puan (for a married or elderly woman).
When addressing someone whom we know to be a teacher we can use cikgu eg. Apa khabar,
cikgu?
By the way the Malay word for "teacher" is guru.
Example: Dia guru anak saya. (He/She is my son/daughter's teacher).
When addressing a titled person we can just use his title without his name. Thus Apa khabar,
Datuk? or Selamat pagi, Tan Sri.
"Datuk" (sometimes spelt Dato or Dato'), which literally means grandfather, is a title conferred to
"prominent" Malaysians (ah, I'm treading on dangerous ground here by using the word
"prominent" since there have been cases of such titles being bought!) by the King or Sultans on
their birthdays. The wife of a "Datuk" should be addressed as "Datin" but if it is a woman who
has the title of "Datuk" in her own right (which is quite rare) her husband is not affected by her
title.
Higher up on the title hierarchy is "Tan Sri" and even higher still is "Tun". The wife of a "Tan Sri",
by the way, should be addressed as "Puan Sri" and the wife of a "Tun" as "Toh Puan".
Incidentally "Tun" is limited to 60 living holders at the moment (at the initial stage it was limited
to only 5).
When you know that besides the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (the King), each of the thirteen States
also confers such titles every year you will not be surprised by their proliferation.
WISHING AND HOPING:
First Wishing:
You might want to send your regards or best wishes to someone (John, for example) through a
friend. In such a case you will tell your friend Tolong kirim salam saya kepada John. (New
vocabulary: kirim means to send, as a letter while salam means "salutation".
As you have seen earlier on all wishes and greetings start with the word Selamat (followed by
another word).
Other examples are:
Merry Christmas = Selamat Hari Krismas
Wish You a Happy New Year = Selamat Tahun Baru
Wish you success = Selamat berjaya

Or if you prefer you can also say Selamat maju jaya (the word maju meaning "progress").
There is also Selamat sejahtera (May peace be with you) and Selamat hari jadi (Happy
Birthday)
Then there is Selamat berbahagia which you say when wishing someone long life and
happiness and Selamat belayar to a person about to sail on a ship.
Incidentally if you want to put the above wishes in a full sentence you can by starting with Saya
mengucapkan... meaning "I wish you (success, etc)"
Thus the sentence "I wish you and your family a Happy New Year" would be translated in Malay
as:
Saya mengucapkan Selamat Tahun Baru kepada anda dan keluarga anda.
But mengucapkan does not mean "to wish" but rather "to express" in the following sentence:
Bila dia mendengar kematian kawannya dia pun mengucapkan takziah kepada keluarganya.
(=When he heard about his friend's death he expressed his condolence to the family.)
This little word pun is used here to show an action that follows, or is the result of, an earlier
action. In this case the first action is that of hearing his friend's death and this resulted in the
second action, the sending of his condolence to the family.
Apart from Christmas and the international New Year on January 1, there are the following
occasions when you might have to express your greetings to your Malaysian friends:

End of the fasting month by wishing the Muslims Selamat Hari Raya

The Chinese New Year by wishing your Malaysian Chinese friends Selamat Tahun Baru
Cina (unless you'd like to wish them in Chinese in which case you'd say
Nian Kuai Le" or "Gong Xi Fa Cai")

"Xin

The Hindu festival Diwali, also called the "festival of lights," by wishing your Malaysian
Indian friends Selamat Hari Deepavali (Diwali is spelt Deepavali in Malaysia)
Talking about the Chinese New Year here is an interesting article on the
tradition of giving "lucky money" (ya1 sui4 qian2) or red packets ("ang
pow" in Hokkien or duit raya in Bahasa Malaysia) given by married
people to friends' children - and even to 60-year-old adults if they're still
unmarried! If your child happens to receive an "ang pow" tell him not to
open it in front of the giver to see how much is inside. If he is impatient,
do like what some children do - go out of the room to open it! In fact this
age-old custom has been "adopted" by the Malays and Indians too so if
you are staying in Malaysia for some time you might want to know more
about it.

Next Hoping:
When you tell someone that you hope he will get a job, for example, you start with Semoga (can
be replaced by Moga-moga or Mudah-mudahan). All three terms mean "It is hoped that..." or "I
hope that..."
Thus Semoga anda dapat pekerjaan yang diminta (dipohon) itu means "I hope you will obtain
the job you applied for" and

Mudah-mudahan saya dapat tolong anda means "Hopefully I'll be able to help you".
Note the two different meanings of the verb dapat in the above two sentences:
1. meaning "to get" or "to obtain" eg.
Dia dapat banyak hadiah untuk hari jadinya. (= He obtained many gifts for his birthday).
2. meaning "can" or "be able to" eg.
Dia tidak dapat membuat kerja itu. (= He is not able to do the job).
There is another way of saying the same thing (in fact this is closer to the English way) since the
Malay verb for "to hope" is harap or berharap to give its formal form with the prefix. So if you
want to tell someone that you hope he gets the job for which he applied you can also say:
Saya harap anda akan dapat pekerjaan yang diminta itu ("I hope you will obtain the job you
applied for".)
Other examples on how to use Semoga:
I hope that you will get well soon (or if you prefer "I wish you a speedy recovery") = Semoga
lekas sembuh or Semoga cepat sembuh or simply Harap cepat sembuh (Both lekas and cepat
mean "quick, fast").
I hope you will pass your exam = Semoga lulus dalam peperiksaan (ujian) anda.
I hope you will be happy in your new life = Semoga anda berbahagia dalam kehidupan baru.
If you want to split hairs you can always say that Semoga berjaya means "I hope you will
succeed" while Selamat berjaya means "I wish you success". But to all intents and purposes it
comes to the same thing so in this particular case you might just as well use the first word that
comes to your mind.
In the case of wishing someone good health though you have to use Semoga or Moga-moga or
Mudah-mudahan but not Selamat.
Thus you would say Semoga sihat selalu meaning "I hope you will always be in good health".
Want some more? Well, sihat walafiat is of Arabic origin and means good health but is quite
often used by the local Malays. Thus if you have a Malay friend you could write:
Semoga anda dan keluarga anda dalam keadaan sihat walafiat (= May this find you and your
family in a state of good health).
And in case you are the religious type you might wish to say "I pray that.." In Malay it is Saya
berdoa or Saya berdoa kepada Tuhan (I pray to God).
Example:
Saya berdoa semoga ibu anda sembuh dengan cepat. (I pray that your mother will have a quick
recovery)

In the Indonesian language the two principal forms of salutation not used in
Malaysia are Selamat siang and Selamat sore. The word siang means
"daytime" (specifically late morning or early afternoon) while sore means
"late in the afternoon". The word sore (pronounced so-ray) is never used by
Malaysians (but might be eventually, who knows?)
As in Malaysia Selamat pagi and Selamat malam are equally used in
Indonesia while instead of Selamat tengah hari the Indonesians would say
Selamat siang. The following is a guide to the time of day when the above
four types of greetings are used in Indonesia:
From about 4.00 a.m. to 10 a.m. Selamat pagi

From about 10.00 a.m. to 3 p.m. Selamat siang

From about 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Selamat sore
From about 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. Selamat malam
This is just a rough guide for foreigners. Hey, don't take it to the letter
please (or should I rather say "Don't take it to the very minute please"?)
ENGLISH

MALAY

How are you?

Apa khabar?

I'm fine.

Khabar baik.

See you later.

Jumpa lagi.

Excuse me (as when you have to pass between two people). Maafkan saya.
grandfather

datuk

Merry Christmas

Selamat Hari Krismas

Happy birthday!

Selamat hari jadi!