Ulat itu di bawah daun.

Word by word:

• ulat = caterpillar or worm, depending on context
• itu = that (and in many sentences it can feel a lot like the)
• di bawah = under / below
• daun = leaf

So the structure is literally something like:

caterpillar that under leaf

Natural English adds is and articles, but Malay often does not.

In Malay, demonstratives like ini (this) and itu (that) usually come after the noun.

So:

• ulat itu = that caterpillar / the caterpillar
• daun itu = that leaf / the leaf

This is normal Malay word order.
English says that caterpillar, but Malay says caterpillar that.

Grammatically, itu literally means that.
But in real sentences, noun + itu often works a lot like the + noun in English, especially when the thing is already known or specific.

So ulat itu can be understood as:

• that caterpillar
• or sometimes the caterpillar

Which one sounds best in English depends on context.

Malay often leaves out the verb to be in simple sentences like this.

English says:

• The caterpillar is under the leaf.

Malay says:

• Ulat itu di bawah daun.

There is no separate word for is here, and that is completely normal.

di bawah means under or below.

It is a common location phrase:

• di = at / in / on
• bawah = lower part / underside / below

Together, di bawah means in the position below / under.

You can compare:

• di atas = on / above
• di dalam = in / inside
• di luar = outside

Because here di is a preposition meaning something like at / in / on as part of a location phrase.

So it is written separately:

• di bawah = under
• di rumah = at home
• di sekolah = at school

This is different from the passive verb prefix di-, which is attached to a verb:

• ditulis = written
• dibuka = opened

So:

• di bawah → separate, because it is a preposition
• dibuka → attached, because di- is a verb prefix

Malay does not use articles like a, an, and the the way English does.

So daun can mean:

• a leaf
• the leaf
• sometimes just leaf / leaves in a general sense

The exact English translation depends on context.

In this sentence, English usually needs the leaf or a leaf, but Malay can simply say daun.

Yes. A basic Malay noun often does not show singular vs. plural as clearly as English does.

So daun can mean:

• leaf
• leaves, if the context makes that clear

If you want to make plurality more explicit, Malay can use reduplication:

• daun-daun = leaves

But in many normal sentences, Malay just uses the simple noun and lets context do the work.

Yes, you can.

Ulat di bawah daun is still a valid sentence and means something like:

• A caterpillar is under a/the leaf
• Caterpillars are under leaves, depending on context

Adding itu makes ulat more specific:

• ulat itu = that caterpillar / the caterpillar

So the version with itu sounds more definite and specific.

In standard Malay, you normally need di here.

So the natural form is:

• Ulat itu di bawah daun.

Without di, the sentence sounds incomplete or nonstandard in this context.

Malay location phrases usually use di:

• di atas meja = on the table
• di bawah daun = under the leaf
• di dalam kotak = in the box

A simple approximate pronunciation for an English speaker is:

OO-lat EE-too dee BAH-wah DAH-oon

A few notes:

• u is usually like oo in food
• a is usually like a in father
• di is pronounced dee
• bawah has two syllables: ba-wah
• daun is often pronounced roughly like da-oon, with the vowels both heard

Malay pronunciation is generally quite regular compared with English.

The pattern is:

noun phrase + location phrase

So:

• Ulat itu = the/that caterpillar
• di bawah daun = under the leaf

Malay often builds simple descriptive sentences this way, without needing a word for is.

A useful pattern to remember is:

[thing] + [location]

For example:

• Buku itu di atas meja. = The/That book is on the table.
• Kucing itu di dalam rumah. = The/That cat is in the house.