-an: Valency, Lexicalization, and Register in Malaysian Malay | Malay Grammar

Knowing that tulis + -an forms tulisan does not tell you every phrase that tulisan can enter. An -an noun develops its own collocations, participant structure, and register profile: an author may follow it directly, a topic may be introduced by tentang, and a purpose may take untuk. The most useful learning unit is therefore not the suffix by itself but a lexical family plus its normal phrase patterns.

This page focuses on those usage choices. Review formation for spelling and the semantic network for the major meaning branches.

Derived nouns retain participants indirectly

A verb can assign roles such as writer, thing eaten, user, or beneficiary inside a clause. Once -an creates a noun, those participants are no longer direct objects of that noun. Malay expresses them as possessors, following noun phrases, prepositional phrases, or relative clauses.

Head noun	Following material	Interpretation
tulisan Aina	bare following noun	Aina's writing / a text by Aina
tulisan tentang sejarah Melaka	tentang phrase	writing about the history of Melaka
makanan untuk tetamu	untuk phrase	food intended for guests
mainan kanak-kanak	bare following noun	children's toy / toy for children
simpanan untuk kecemasan	untuk phrase	savings reserved for emergencies

Tulisan Aina tentang sejarah Melaka memenangi hadiah utama.

Aina's piece about the history of Melaka won the main prize.

Kami sudah menyediakan makanan untuk tetamu yang datang dari Sabah.

We have prepared food for the guests coming from Sabah.

Mainan kanak-kanak itu perlu disimpan selepas digunakan.

Those children's toys need to be put away after use.

Mereka mempunyai simpanan untuk menghadapi kecemasan.

They have savings for dealing with emergencies.

The relation after a noun can be ambiguous. Tulisan Aina usually identifies Aina as author or owner, but only context can settle the intended relation. If precision matters, especially in formal prose, write tulisan yang ditulis oleh Aina “the text written by Aina.”

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An -an noun cannot take a verbal direct object merely because its base is a verb. Repackage the participant as a following noun phrase, a prepositional phrase, or a relative clause.

Four families and their neighbouring nominalizers

Malay often offers more than one noun from a root. The shorter -an noun frequently names a concrete or conventional result, while peN-...-an or per-...-an can foreground a process, system, or organized activity. This is a tendency, not a rule that predicts every pair.

Family	-an noun	Neighbouring noun	Typical contrast
tulis	tulisan	penulisan	text/handwriting versus writing process, practice, or field
makan	makanan	pemakanan	food versus dietary intake or nutrition pattern
main	mainan	permainan	toy/plaything versus game or activity of playing
simpan	simpanan	penyimpanan	savings/reserve versus the process or system of storage

Tulisan pada sampul itu hampir tidak kelihatan.

The writing on the envelope is almost invisible.

Penulisan laporan teknikal memerlukan istilah yang konsisten.

Technical report writing requires consistent terminology. (formal/academic)

Makanan di kantin itu dimasak setiap pagi.

The food in that canteen is cooked every morning.

Corak pemakanan remaja dibincangkan dalam laporan tersebut.

Adolescents' dietary patterns are discussed in the report. (formal/academic)

Kakak membelikan adik sebuah mainan.

The older sister bought the younger sibling a toy.

Permainan itu terpaksa dihentikan kerana hujan lebat.

The game had to be stopped because of heavy rain.

Simpanan saya belum cukup untuk membeli motosikal.

My savings are not yet enough to buy a motorcycle.

Penyimpanan bahan kimia mesti mematuhi prosedur keselamatan.

The storage of chemicals must comply with safety procedures. (formal)

The contrast is clearest in these collocations, not in an abstract translation. Makanan sihat is healthy food, whereas pemakanan sihat is healthy eating or a healthy dietary pattern. Mainan rosak is a broken toy; permainan tertunda is a postponed game.

Lexicalization blocks mechanical composition

Some established meanings can no longer be calculated word for word. Simpanan may mean financial savings, a reserve, a substitute player, or stored material. Tulisan can be handwriting, an inscription, an article, or writing in a particular script. Mainan can metaphorically denote a plaything manipulated by others. A dictionary-listed word is therefore not guaranteed to mean every logically imaginable combination of “base meaning + result.”

Pemain simpanan itu menjaringkan gol kemenangan.

The substitute player scored the winning goal.

Nama jalan itu turut dipaparkan dalam tulisan Jawi.

The street name is also displayed in Jawi script.

Syarikat kecil tidak wajar dijadikan mainan oleh pihak yang lebih berkuasa.

Small companies should not be made playthings of more powerful parties. (formal)

These readings are connected to “something kept,” “something written,” and “something played with,” but conventional usage narrows and extends them. Learn the whole phrase pemain simpanan, tulisan Jawi, and menjadi mainan, not just isolated glosses.

There is also no guarantee that every possible base has a current -an derivative. Speakers may understand a coinage while still preferring an established compound, relative clause, or different nominalizer. This is genuinely lexical knowledge; no fully reliable shortcut exists.

Formal and conversational packaging

The common nouns tulisan, makanan, mainan, and simpanan are register-neutral and occur in speech and writing. Longer process nouns are especially frequent in administrative, technical, and academic prose (formal/academic). Conversation often unpacks a dense noun phrase into a relative clause or a simple verb phrase.

Pihak kementerian akan memperketat tatacara penyimpanan rekod rasmi.

The ministry will tighten procedures for storing official records. (formal)

Kita kena simpan rekod rasmi ikut cara yang betul.

We have to keep the official records properly. (informal)

Penulisan semula garis panduan itu dijangka selesai bulan depan.

The rewriting of those guidelines is expected to be completed next month. (formal)

Mereka nak tulis semula garis panduan itu dan siapkan kerjanya bulan depan.

They want to rewrite those guidelines and finish the work next month. (informal)

The conversational versions are not word-for-word replacements; they recast an institutional noun phrase as an event with participants. In careful speech, a concrete -an noun is perfectly natural: Bawa makanan sendiri “Bring your own food” needs no formal paraphrase.

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Dense institutional prose often prefers a process noun, while conversation often restores a finite verb and its participants. Preserve the message, not necessarily the same part of speech, when moving between registers.

For the four core nouns, natural conversational paraphrases can also make their internal logic visible:

Lexical noun	Possible conversational unpacking
tulisan dia	apa yang dia tulis “what they wrote”
makanan	benda untuk dimakan “things to eat”
mainan adik	barang yang adik guna untuk bermain “things the younger sibling uses for playing” (informal)
simpanan kami	duit yang kami simpan “money that we save/keep”

Saya belum baca apa yang dia tulis.

I haven't read what they wrote yet. (informal)

Bawa sedikit makanan untuk perjalanan nanti.

Bring some food for the journey later.

The unpacked phrasing may be clearer when a participant relation is complex, but it is not inherently better. Fluent Malay alternates between compact nouns and clauses according to register and information structure.

Regional checking is part of usage

A related form may be normal in Indonesian but not the preferred Malaysian item. Parkiran (regional: Indonesia) should not be inserted into Malaysian prose merely because its structure resembles familiar -an nouns. Depending on the intended meaning, Malaysian usage has tempat letak kereta, ruang parkir, and kawasan parkir.

Kawasan parkir motosikal terletak di sebelah pintu masuk.

The motorcycle parking area is beside the entrance.

This is not a claim that Malaysians cannot understand parkiran. It is a register-and-variety choice: recognition across closely related standards does not make every derivative neutral in each one.

Common Mistakes

1. Coining every imaginable -an form.

❌ Tempat cetakan kaki itu masih kelihatan di lantai.

Awkward coinage for the intended meaning — use kesan tapak kaki for a footprint or trace.

✅ Kesan tapak kaki itu masih kelihatan di lantai.

The footprint is still visible on the floor.

2. Treating a lexicalized noun as fully compositional.

❌ Pemain simpanan ialah pemain yang menyimpan barang pasukan.

Incorrect interpretation — pemain simpanan conventionally means a reserve or substitute player.

✅ Pemain simpanan itu masuk pada minit ke-70.

The substitute player came on in the 70th minute.

3. Choosing a concrete noun where the process is intended.

❌ Tulisan data peribadi mesti mematuhi dasar keselamatan.

Wrong lexical choice — the intended process is storage, not writing.

✅ Penyimpanan data peribadi mesti mematuhi dasar keselamatan.

The storage of personal data must comply with security policy. (formal)

4. Importing parkiran as neutral Malaysian usage.

❌ Kereta kami masih di parkiran.

Regionally mismatched — parkiran is characteristic of Indonesian usage.

✅ Kereta kami masih di tempat letak kereta.

Our car is still in the car park.

Key Takeaways

Learn -an nouns with their normal participant phrases: tulisan Aina, makanan untuk tetamu, simpanan untuk kecemasan.
Contrast lexical results with process nouns: tulisan/penulisan, makanan/pemakanan, mainan/permainan, simpanan/penyimpanan.
Dictionary meanings can be lexicalized and metaphorically extended; they are not pure sums of base plus suffix.
Common -an nouns are register-neutral, while longer process nouns are especially frequent in formal and academic prose.
Treat the pattern as productive guidance plus lexical families, and verify unfamiliar regional derivatives.

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