As we learned in Lesson 1, we use the word Siapa (meaning “who”) when asking someone’s name. So how do we use the always-important question word apa, meaning “what”?
By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to have simple conversations identifying objects and determining their ownership, as in the following:
What is that?
Simple, right?
Apa itu?
Literally “what that”
It’s Farah’s bag.
Easy peasy.
Itu beg Farah.
Remember the word ordering!
As always, let’s begin with some new vocabulary:
| Malay | English |
|---|---|
| Apa | What |
| Ini | This |
| Itu | That |
| Rumah | House |
| Kereta | Car |
| Pokok | Tree |
| Beg | Bag |
| Bola | Ball |
| Besar | Big |
| Kecil | Small |
| Merah | Red |
| Hijau | Green |
| Biru | Blue |
Identifying things
Ok great, now we can start to make some quick and easy sentences. The easiest examples are when you’re simply asking for identification. Let’s make a few more sentences with some of our new words:
What is this?
Simple, right?
Apa ini?
Literally “what that”
This is a car.
Easy peasy.
Ini kereta.
Simple identification.
You can see how easy it is to identify an unknown object. This can be particularly useful if you’re traveling or trying new food. If you see something you don’t recognize, you can simply point and ask “Apa ini?” or “Apa itu?” to find out (though you’ll likely hear something closer to “Apa ni?” or “Apa tu?” – Malay tends to get shortened in colloquial speech).
Indicating possession
We can also practice discussing ownership by using our possessive suffixes from Lesson 1. Try and figure out the meaning of the following conversation:
Apa itu?
You know this!
Itu rumahku.
Notice the important -ku tacked on.
Were you able to figure it out? “Itu rumahku” translates out to “That’s my house”, or more literally “That house my”. Here I chose to use the possessive suffix -ku to mean “my”. It would be just as valid to forego the suffix for the full word and just say “Itu rumah aku” for the same meaning.
Using adjectives
Finally, we now have enough words to use adjectives to be more descriptive. Malay uses a slightly different sentence structure here as well, using
[Noun] [Determiner][Adjective]
for simple sentences. How does this look to non-grammarians? Consider the following sentences:
Pokok itu besar.
That tree is big.
Kereta dia hijau.
Her car is green.
Not too bad, right? Try making some sentences of your own!