A direct object can become prominent through voice, but a location, instrument, companion, source, or recipient begins as an oblique relation, usually introduced by a preposition. Malaysian Malay has no single relative word equivalent to every English use of where, with which, to whom, or from which. Natural expression may retain the preposition, add a resumptive form, promote the relation through -i, or recast it with a more suitable predicate or nominal head.
Why oblique relatives require a strategy
In an ordinary clause, the preposition identifies the relation:
Kami tinggal di rumah itu selama enam bulan.
We lived in that house for six months.
Saya berbincang dengan pegawai itu selepas mesyuarat.
I discussed it with that officer after the meeting.
If rumah or pegawai becomes the head of a relative, simply deleting di rumah itu or dengan pegawai itu can also delete the relation that makes the sentence intelligible. A direct-object gap after a voice-marked verb is licensed differently. Obliques therefore invite several repairs, and the best one depends on the relation and register.
Places: recognize relative di mana, but recast it in careful standard prose
Di mana literally asks “where?” In actual Malaysian administrative and academic prose, it is also sometimes used after a spatial head to mean “in/at which place.” Prescriptive Malaysian guidance, however, reserves di mana for questions and treats its use as a relative linker as an English-influenced calque. A careful learner should therefore recognize the attested formal pattern but recast it even when the head denotes a genuine place.
⚠️ Dewan di mana persidangan itu berlangsung kini sedang dibaik pulih.
Attested formal usage: The hall in which the conference took place is now being refurbished. Prescriptive standard style avoids relative di mana.
✅ Dewan yang menjadi tempat berlangsungnya persidangan tersebut kini sedang dibaik pulih.
The hall where the conference took place is now being refurbished. (careful formal)
Another formal recast can turn the location-event relation into a noun phrase: tapak penemuan artifak itu “the site where the artefact was found.” These alternatives avoid both a stranded locative gap and relative di mana.
One option is to promote the location with an -i verb. Compare tinggal di tempat itu with mendiami tempat itu or, where appropriate, tinggali tempat itu. The promoted place can then be the patient of object voice.
Tempat yang saya tinggali ketika mula bekerja dahulu sudah banyak berubah.
The place where I lived when I first started working has changed greatly.
In Malaysian usage, tempat yang saya diami and tempat tinggal saya ketika itu are often stylistically smoother than tempat yang saya tinggali, but the tinggali pattern makes the promotion visible: suffix -i turns the location into the verb's direct patient.
Kawasan yang pernah kami diami itu kini menjadi taman perumahan.
The area where we once lived is now a housing development.
A third option uses a generic yang clause whose predicate supplies a natural relation:
Inilah bilik yang kami gunakan untuk bengkel semalam.
This is the room that we used for yesterday's workshop.
The room is now the patient of gunakan, not a stranded location after “hold.” This voice-based recast is usually neutral and easy to process.
Do not use di mana for every English where
English where extends freely to situations, systems, stages, organizations, and abstract conditions. Prescriptive Malaysian Malay does not treat di mana as a universal relative conjunction. When no literal location is involved, choose yang, apabila, dalam hal ini, a noun complement, or a new sentence according to the meaning.
❌ Kami menghadapi keadaan di mana bekalan tidak mencukupi.
Poor careful style—keadaan is not a literal place, and di mana is a calque of abstract English ‘where’.
✅ Kami menghadapi keadaan yang menyebabkan bekalan tidak mencukupi.
We face a situation that is causing the supply to be insufficient.
Another repair may state the time or circumstance directly: Pada peringkat ini, bekalan masih tidak mencukupi “At this stage, the supply is still insufficient.” There is no single replacement because English where hides several semantic relations.
Retaining a preposition with a resumptive form
For a companion, recipient, source, or other prepositional complement, Malay can leave the preposition in its normal position and attach -nya as a resumptive reference to the head.
Pegawai yang saya bercakap dengannya tadi akan menghubungi tuan esok.
The officer whom I spoke with earlier will contact you tomorrow.
Itulah yayasan yang kami telah mengemukakan permohonan kepadanya bulan lalu.
That is the foundation to which we submitted an application last month.
Syarikat yang kami menerima tajaan daripadanya telah menamatkan operasi.
The company from which we received sponsorship has ceased operations.
Attached -nya supplies the complement required by dengan, kepada, or daripada. This differs from an ordinary direct-object relative such as buku yang saya baca, where adding -nya after baca would wrongly duplicate the patient. In an oblique relative, the resumptive form preserves a prepositional relation that cannot simply vanish.
These strings can become heavy. Yayasan yang menerima permohonan kami and syarikat yang menaja kami are often clearer because a different verb makes the relation direct. Grammatical availability is not a command to maximize embedding.
The extraction and resumption guide explains why this preposition-bearing -nya is compatible with an oblique relation but normally excluded from a simple direct-object relative.
Pied-piping is formal and marked
Formal prose can place the preposition plus resumptive -nya near the front of the relative clause: pegawai yang dengannya saya berbincang. This resembles English with whom, though Malay still uses invariant yang before the prepositional phrase.
Kaedah yang dengannya data tersebut dianalisis diterangkan dalam lampiran.
The method by which the data were analysed is explained in the appendix. (formal/academic)
Rakan yang bersamanya saya menjalankan kajian itu kini bertugas di Sarawak.
The colleague with whom I conducted the research now works in Sarawak. (formal)
Such pied-piping is (formal/academic) and often sounds translated if used repeatedly. Neutral Malay prefers kaedah yang digunakan untuk menganalisis data tersebut and rakan yang menjalankan kajian itu bersama-sama dengan saya or simply rakan penyelidik saya, depending on the intended contrast.
Three registers for a place
The same event can be packaged with different levels of explicitness:
Bangunan yang menjadi tempat berlangsungnya bengkel tersebut memenuhi semua syarat keselamatan.
The building where the workshop was held meets all safety requirements. (formal)
Bangunan yang digunakan untuk bengkel itu memenuhi semua syarat keselamatan.
The building used for the workshop meets all safety requirements. (neutral)
Itulah tempat kami buat bengkel semalam.
That's where we held the workshop yesterday. (informal)
The (informal) version uses bare buat broadly for “do/hold.” It is natural in conversation but too unspecific for a formal safety report. The neutral version promotes bangunan as the patient of digunakan and avoids a locative relative altogether.
Three registers for an instrument
An instrument introduced by dengan in the base clause can be expressed through formal pied-piping, a neutral purpose construction, or a compact conversational relative.
Alat yang dengannya sampel itu dipotong perlu disterilkan selepas digunakan.
The instrument with which the sample was cut must be sterilized after use. (formal/academic)
Alat yang digunakan untuk memotong sampel itu perlu disterilkan selepas digunakan.
The instrument used to cut the sample must be sterilized after use. (neutral)
Ini alat yang kami guna untuk potong kabel itu.
This is the tool we used to cut that cable. (informal)
The conversational version omits meng- in guna and mem- in potong, a familiar informal reduction. It should not be copied into formal technical instructions. The neutral passive with digunakan untuk is the safest all-purpose wording.
Three registers for a companion
Companion relations can likewise be retained, recast with bersama-sama, or expressed with a lexical verb such as menemani “accompany.”
Pegawai yang bersamanya saya menghadiri rundingan itu akan menyediakan laporan rasmi.
The officer with whom I attended the negotiations will prepare the official report. (formal)
Pegawai yang menghadiri rundingan itu bersama-sama dengan saya akan menyediakan laporan rasmi.
The officer who attended the negotiations with me will prepare the official report. (neutral)
Orang yang ikut saya ke rundingan itu akan siapkan laporan.
The person who came with me to the negotiations will prepare the report. (informal)
Ikut saya is common (informal) Malaysian usage for accompanying or coming along with someone. A formal document should prefer bersama-sama dengan saya, menemani saya, or a role noun such as rakan delegasi, according to the exact relationship.
Nominal heads can eliminate a difficult relative
Malay often packages the relation inside a compound or possessed nominal: tempat tinggal kami “our residence,” alat pemotong kaca “glass-cutting tool,” rakan seperjalanan saya “my travelling companion.” This is not evasion; it is a productive native strategy.
Tempat tinggal kami semasa di Johor kini sudah dirobohkan.
The place where we lived while in Johor has now been demolished.
Rakan seperjalanan saya berasal dari Kuala Terengganu.
My travelling companion comes from Kuala Terengganu.
A nominal head is especially helpful when an oblique relative would contain several pronouns or prepositions. It also forces the writer to specify whether the person is a colleague, companion, sponsor, recipient, or source rather than relying on a vague English relative word.
Common Mistakes
1. Extending di mana to an abstract situation
❌ Ini masalah di mana semua pihak perlu bekerjasama.
Poor careful style—masalah is not a place, and di mana calques abstract English ‘where’.
✅ Ini masalah yang memerlukan kerjasama semua pihak.
This is a problem that requires cooperation from all parties.
2. Deleting a necessary companion relation
❌ Itulah pegawai yang saya berbincang semalam.
Incorrect for ‘the officer I discussed it with’—the relation introduced by dengan has disappeared.
✅ Itulah pegawai yang saya berbincang dengannya semalam.
That is the officer whom I discussed it with yesterday.
3. Adding a resumptive to a direct object relative
❌ Itulah alat yang saya menggunakannya semalam.
Incorrect as a simple direct-object relative—the head is duplicated by -nya and actor voice is retained.
✅ Itulah alat yang saya gunakan semalam.
That is the tool that I used yesterday.
4. Carrying conversational bare verbs into formal prose
⚠️ Alat yang kami guna untuk potong sampel hendaklah disterilkan.
Register mismatch—guna and potong are informal bare forms inside a formal instruction.
✅ Alat yang digunakan untuk memotong sampel hendaklah disterilkan.
The instrument used to cut the sample must be sterilized. (formal)
5. Forcing a heavy prepositional relative when a noun is clearer
⚠️ Orang yang bersamanya saya berjalan sepanjang perjalanan itu jatuh sakit.
Grammatically possible but unnecessarily heavy for an ordinary travelling companion.
✅ Rakan seperjalanan saya jatuh sakit.
My travelling companion fell ill.
Key Takeaways
Recognize relative di mana as an attested formal or administrative usage, but do not treat it as the safest prescriptive Malaysian standard—even with a physical location. Prefer a locative or nominal recast, promote locations through -i verbs, recast objects as patients of gunakan, retain prepositions with resumptive -nya, or choose a clearer nominal head. Formal pied-piping is available but marked; neutral and colloquial Malay often prefer different predicates rather than deeper relative syntax.
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- Relative Clauses with yang in Malaysian MalayA2 — Build noun modifiers with yang, identify the unspoken role inside them, and choose an appropriate voice for subject and object relatives.
- Object Relatives and Voice Switching in Malaysian MalayB2 — Relativize a patient by choosing object voice with a pronominal actor or a di- passive with a third-person actor.
- Extraction, Gaps, and Resumptive Pronouns in Malaysian MalayC2 — Trace how Malay questions, relatives, and topics connect a fronted expression to a gap, a voice-marked clause, or a resumptive form.
- -i Applicative Patterns: Overview and Formation in Malaysian MalayB2 — Understand how -i promotes a location, recipient, or affected target to direct-object status and why its meaning remains lexically constrained.
- dengan: Instrument, Companion, and Manner in Malaysian MalayA1 — Use dengan for tools, companions, manner, and reciprocal partners without confusing it with dan or passive-agent oleh.
- di: Static Location in Malaysian MalayA1 — Use the separate preposition di for static settings, and distinguish it from directional ke and the attached passive prefix di-.