Malay distinguishes a static comparison from a quality that changes along a scale. Lebih tinggi daripada compares one height or level with another; semakin tinggi says that the height or level is rising over time. No comparative ending is added to the adjective.
Harga semakin tinggi.
Prices are getting higher.
Harga kedai itu lebih tinggi daripada harga di laman web.
The shop’s price is higher than the price on the website.
The first sentence follows one changing value. The second locates two values relative to each other. This distinction is the organizing logic behind semakin, makin, kian, and bertambah.
semakin tracks one evolving degree
Place semakin immediately before a gradable adjective or adjective phrase: semakin panas, semakin sukar, semakin jelas, semakin tidak stabil. It means “increasingly,” “more and more,” or “getting + adjective.” Semakin is neutral in contemporary Standard Malaysian speech and writing.
Cuaca semakin panas menjelang tengah hari.
The weather is getting hotter toward midday.
Selepas beberapa kali berbincang, rancangan itu semakin jelas.
After several discussions, the plan is becoming clearer.
Jalan di hadapan semakin sempit apabila kami menghampiri kampung itu.
The road ahead gets narrower as we approach the village.
The subject comes first in an ordinary statement: Cuaca semakin panas, not an English-like construction with an inflected adjective. Time expressions such as sejak semalam, dari hari ke hari, and apabila... make the development explicit, but semakin itself already signals change.
The movement need not be physical or objectively measured. A judgment, understanding, or emotion can develop too.
Saya semakin yakin bahawa keputusan itu betul.
I am becoming increasingly confident that the decision is right.
makin is compact and common
Makin has the same central increasing-degree function. It is fully established Malay and especially common in conversation, headlines, slogans, and compact parallel phrasing (often informal/conversational, but not nonstandard). Semakin is usually the safer choice in measured formal prose.
Makin petang, makin ramai orang datang ke pasar malam.
As evening approaches, more and more people come to the night market. (conversational)
Kos membaiki kereta itu makin tinggi.
The cost of repairing that car is getting higher. (conversational)
The marker stays separate from the following word. Makin mahal is two words; semakin jelas is two words. These are degree markers, not productive prefixes.
In spontaneous speech, makin lama often forms a time frame meaning “as time goes on.” The required sentence Makin lama makin sulit is a compact complete judgment: the situation becomes harder as time passes.
Makin lama makin sulit.
The longer it goes on, the more difficult it becomes. (compact/conversational)
In Malaysian usage, sulit is available in the sense “difficult,” though sukar is often the more neutral everyday choice for many speakers. The construction does not depend on that lexical choice: Makin lama makin sukar has the same grammar.
Two matched halves correlate two scales
The paired frames semakin...semakin... and makin...makin... mean “the more..., the more...” or “as..., ...”. Each half introduces its own scale. Malay expresses the relationship without comparative inflection and without an equivalent of English repeated the.
Semakin awal kita bertolak, semakin mudah kita mendapat tempat letak kereta.
The earlier we leave, the easier it is to find parking.
Semakin banyak dia membaca, semakin kritis pemikirannya.
The more she reads, the more critical her thinking becomes.
Makin cepat kita bertindak, makin kecil risikonya.
The faster we act, the smaller the risk. (conversational)
The first half establishes a changing condition; the second states the correlated outcome. The relationship can be causal, predictive, or simply observed. Grammar alone does not prove causation. Semakin ramai pengunjung, semakin bising dewan itu can report a regular association without claiming that every extra visitor produces an exact amount of noise.
Semakin ramai pengunjung, semakin bising dewan itu.
The more visitors there are, the noisier the hall becomes.
Keep the two halves parallel in careful language. A matched pair makes the relationship immediately visible. Mixing semakin in one half with ordinary lebih in the other often sounds like an unfinished calque of English rather than a deliberate Malay correlative.
Word order changes inside the paired frame
An ordinary clause says Harganya semakin tinggi “Its price is getting higher.” In a paired construction, the scale phrase is fronted: Semakin tinggi harganya, semakin kurang pembelinya “The higher its price, the fewer its buyers.” This fronting belongs to the correlative frame.
Semakin tinggi harganya, semakin rendah permintaannya.
The higher its price, the lower the demand.
Semakin lama kami menunggu, semakin sukar untuk mendapatkan teksi.
The longer we waited, the harder it became to get a taxi.
The first half can contain an adjective followed by its subject-like -nya phrase: semakin tinggi harganya. It can also contain a quantified noun or a verb phrase: semakin banyak pilihan, semakin kerap berlatih. This page focuses on increasing degree; the full range of paired linking patterns appears on correlative linkers.
Semakin kerap dia berlatih, semakin lancar dia bercakap.
The more often she practises, the more fluently she speaks.
kian gives the development a formal or literary tone
Kian + adjective also means “increasingly.” It is concise and prominent in formal commentary, news-style prose, speeches, and literary writing (formal/literary). It may appear in conversation, but it sounds more elevated than neutral semakin for many speakers.
Keadaannya kian jelas selepas dokumen baharu diterbitkan.
The situation is becoming increasingly clear after the new documents were published. (formal)
Jurang antara bandar dengan luar bandar kian lebar.
The gap between urban and rural areas is growing wider. (formal)
The fixed-looking literary rhythm kian hari kian... means “increasingly as the days pass.” It is effective when the register warrants it, but it can sound theatrical in a routine text message.
Kian hari kian pudar ingatannya tentang peristiwa itu.
Day by day, his memory of that event grew fainter. (literary)
Do not treat kian as a stronger mathematical degree than semakin. The difference is principally style and register, not a guaranteed difference in rate.
bertambah presents an increase as a process
Bertambah is an intransitive verb meaning “increase, grow, be added.” Before a property predicate, it can mean “become more + adjective”: bertambah baik, bertambah buruk, bertambah panas, bertambah jelas. The property remains a separate word.
Suhunya bertambah panas.
Its temperature is getting hotter.
In everyday monitoring of a machine or container, this describes increasing felt heat. Technical prose more often says Suhunya semakin tinggi “Its temperature is rising,” because temperature is conventionally high rather than hot.
Keadaan pesakit bertambah baik selepas rawatan kedua.
The patient’s condition improved after the second treatment.
Masalah itu bertambah buruk apabila bekalan air terputus.
The problem grew worse when the water supply was cut off.
Bertambah emphasizes the process or accumulation of change and behaves independently as a verb: Jumlah peserta bertambah “The number of participants increased.” Do not add lebih after it in the simple property construction; bertambah lebih baik redundantly stacks two ways of marking increase. Use bertambah baik or semakin baik.
Change can rise or fall on a named scale
An increasing-degree marker increases the degree expressed by its following word. If the word names a negative property, the situation can deteriorate: semakin buruk, makin lemah. If the word itself points downward, increasing it may mean a numerical decrease: semakin rendah, semakin kecil, semakin sedikit.
Selepas promosi tamat, bilangan tempahan semakin sedikit.
After the promotion ended, the number of bookings became smaller and smaller.
Bunyi enjin itu makin lemah sebelum terhenti sama sekali.
The sound of the engine grew weaker before stopping completely. (conversational)
Thus semakin does not itself mean “better” or “upward.” It means movement farther along the scale named by the following expression.
Common Mistakes
1. Adding lebih after an increasing-degree marker
❌ Harga rumah semakin lebih mahal.
Incorrect redundant marking—semakin already expresses increasing degree.
✅ Harga rumah semakin mahal.
House prices are getting more expensive.
2. Leaving the second scale unmatched
❌ Semakin lama kami menunggu, lebih sukar mendapat teksi.
Unbalanced as a paired correlative—the second scale lacks its matching marker.
✅ Semakin lama kami menunggu, semakin sukar mendapat teksi.
The longer we wait, the harder it becomes to get a taxi.
3. Putting semakin after the adjective
❌ Cuaca panas semakin.
Incorrect neutral word order—the degree marker precedes its property.
✅ Cuaca semakin panas.
The weather is getting hotter.
4. Using daripada for a temporal starting point
❌ Harga semakin mahal daripada Januari.
Incorrect for 'since January'—daripada introduces a comparison or source, not this temporal starting point.
✅ Harga semakin mahal sejak Januari.
Prices have been getting more expensive since January.
5. Attaching a degree marker to its adjective
❌ Keadaannya kianjelas.
Incorrect spelling—kian is a separate degree marker, not a prefix.
✅ Keadaannya kian jelas.
The situation is becoming increasingly clear. (formal)
Key Takeaways
Use semakin + property for neutral evolving degree and makin + property for a compact form especially common in conversation. Match both halves of semakin...semakin... or makin...makin... to correlate two scales. Kian is formal or literary, while bertambah + property portrays increase as a process. None of these requires comparative inflection, and none should be mechanically doubled with lebih.
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