Kami membawa kompas supaya tidak tersesat.

In Malay, kami and kita both can mean we, but they are not interchangeable:

• kami = we, excluding the listener
• kita = we, including the listener

So Kami membawa kompas... means the speaker is talking about their group, not including the person being spoken to.

Membawa is the verb to carry / to bring.

Its base form is bawa.
The prefix meN- is added to form an active verb, and with bawa, it becomes membawa.

So:

• bawa = bring/carry (root or informal base)
• membawa = to bring/carry, in a more standard full form

In everyday speech, people may say bawa more casually, but membawa is very normal in standard written Malay.

The meN- prefix changes shape depending on the first sound of the root word. This is a regular sound-change pattern in Malay.

With roots beginning with b, meN- usually becomes mem-:

• bawa → membawa
• baca → membaca

So this is just normal prefix assimilation.

Malay usually does not use articles like a, an, or the.

So:

• kompas can mean a compass, the compass, or just compass, depending on context.

If you want to be more specific, Malay can add things like:

• sebuah kompas = a compass / one compass

But in many ordinary sentences, just kompas is perfectly natural.

Supaya means something like:

• so that
• in order that
• so as to

It introduces the purpose of the action.

So the structure is:

• Kami membawa kompas = we bring/brought/will bring a compass
• supaya tidak tersesat = so that we do not get lost

This is a very common way to express purpose in Malay.

It can say supaya kami tidak tersesat, but Malay often omits the subject when it is already clear from context.

So both are possible:

• Kami membawa kompas supaya tidak tersesat.
• Kami membawa kompas supaya kami tidak tersesat.

The version without the second kami sounds natural and efficient because the subject is already understood to be the same group.

Malay has two main negatives:

• tidak = negates verbs and adjectives
• bukan = negates nouns and noun phrases

Here, tersesat is a verb/state meaning become lost / be lost, so the correct negative is tidak.

Examples:

• tidak tersesat = not get lost
• bukan kompas = not a compass

So bukan tersesat would be wrong here.

Tersesat comes from sesat, which relates to being lost or going astray.

The prefix ter- often gives meanings like:

• being in a state
• something happening unintentionally
• something happening accidentally

So tersesat means to get lost / to end up lost / to be lost, often with the sense that it was not intentional.

That makes it very suitable here:
supaya tidak tersesat = so as not to get lost

Sometimes you may hear supaya tidak sesat, and it can be understandable. But tidak tersesat is very natural because tersesat specifically expresses ending up lost or becoming lost, which fits the idea of carrying a compass to avoid that outcome.

So:

• tidak sesat = not lost / not astray
• tidak tersesat = not get lost / not end up lost

In this sentence, tersesat is slightly more precise.

Malay verbs usually do not change form for tense the way English verbs do.

So membawa by itself does not tell you whether it is:

• bring
• brought
• will bring
• are bringing

The time is understood from context or from time words, such as:

• semalam = yesterday
• sekarang = now
• esok = tomorrow

So Kami membawa kompas supaya tidak tersesat could refer to different times depending on the situation.

Yes. It follows a very common Malay pattern:

• Subject
  • Verb
    • Object
      • Purpose clause

So here:

• Kami = subject
• membawa = verb
• kompas = object
• supaya tidak tersesat = purpose

This word order is straightforward and natural in Malay.

Yes, there are a few alternatives, depending on style and nuance.

For example:

• agar = also means so that
• untuk = often means to / in order to, but it does not always work in exactly the same way

You could say:

• Kami membawa kompas agar tidak tersesat.

That is very similar in meaning.

Supaya and agar are both common for purpose clauses. Supaya is often especially common in everyday use.

It is a borrowed word, and it looks very similar to English compass. Malay has many loanwords from various languages, and kompas is the standard word for compass.

This is very common in Malay vocabulary, so learners will often notice familiar-looking words.