Lesson 1 Nama (name)
Malay
Apa nama anda?
Nama saya John. Dia kawan saya.
Apa namanya?
Namanya Peter. Dia kawan saya.
Apa namanya?
Namanya Mary.
English
What is your name?
My name is John. He is my friend.
What is his name?
His name is Peter. She is my friend.
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 conjugations 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.
For learning
Malay | Category
Uncategorized | Level
Unspecified |
Second language
English | Created
Sep 14, 2009 08:54 | Views
727 |
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