Bendahari menjelaskan pencalonan itu.

Malay basic word order is usually Subject–Verb–Object, just like English.

So in Bendahari menjelaskan pencalonan itu:

• Bendahari = subject
• menjelaskan = verb
• pencalonan itu = object

So the sentence structure is very straightforward: The treasurer explained/explains that nomination.

It can mean either, depending on context.

Malay usually does not use articles like a, an, or the. So bendahari by itself can be understood as:

• a treasurer
• the treasurer
• sometimes even Treasurer as a role or title

In this sentence, context usually makes it feel like the treasurer.

Because Malay normally does not have articles equivalent to English a/an/the.

Instead, Malay often relies on:

• context
• word order
• demonstratives like ini and itu

So bendahari does not need a separate word for the.

If you wanted to make it more specifically that/the treasurer, you could say bendahari itu.

Itu is a demonstrative, usually meaning that.

In Malay, demonstratives come after the noun, not before it like in English.

So:

• pencalonan itu = that nomination
• depending on context, it can also feel like the nomination

This is very common in Malay:

• rumah itu = that house / the house
• buku itu = that book / the book

That is the normal Malay pattern.

English:

• that nomination

Malay:

• pencalonan itu

So the noun comes first, and ini/itu comes after it:

• orang ini = this person
• orang itu = that person

This word order is one of the first big differences English speakers notice in Malay.

The base word is jelas, which means clear.

From jelas, Malay can form the verb menjelaskan, which means to explain, to make clear, or to clarify.

So the idea is roughly:

• jelas = clear
• menjelaskan = to make something clear

That is why menjelaskan pencalonan itu means to explain the nomination.

This is a common Malay word-formation pattern.

menjelaskan is built from:

• meN- = an active verb prefix
• jelas = clear
• -kan = a suffix often used to make a verb transitive or causative

So:

• jelas = clear
• menjelaskan = to explain / to make clear something

The verb is transitive here, which means it takes an object:

• menjelaskan pencalonan itu

English speakers can think of it as similar to turning clear into clarify or make clear.

Pencalonan is a noun formed from calon.

• calon = candidate / nominee / prospective person
• pencalonan = nomination / the act or process of nominating

This uses the peN- ... -an noun-forming pattern, which often creates nouns related to a process, event, or result.

So pencalonan is not candidate; it is nomination.

That is an important distinction:

• calon = candidate
• pencalonan = nomination

The verb form menjelaskan shows that it is an active sentence.

In Malay, active verbs often use the meN- prefix.

So here:

• Bendahari is doing the action
• pencalonan itu receives the action

A passive version would look like:

• Pencalonan itu dijelaskan oleh bendahari.

That means: The nomination was explained by the treasurer.

So:

• menjelaskan = active
• dijelaskan = passive

Yes.

Bendahari can be understood as:

• a common noun: treasurer
• a role/title: Treasurer

Malay often uses job titles and roles naturally without an article. So depending on context, this could mean:

• The treasurer explained the nomination
• Treasurer explained the nomination

Because the sentence starts with Bendahari, it is capitalized anyway, so capitalization alone does not prove it is a formal title.

Yes, it sounds fairly standard and somewhat formal, especially together with pencalonan.

This sentence feels like something you might see in:

• meetings
• reports
• news
• official discussions

In casual speech, people might still use menjelaskan, but the overall sentence has a formal tone because of words like:

• bendahari
• pencalonan
• menjelaskan

Sometimes context can make the English translation vary slightly, but pencalonan most naturally means nomination or the act/process of being nominated.

If you mean candidate, that would usually be calon.

So the safest distinction is:

• calon = candidate
• pencalonan = nomination

Depending on context, English might sometimes use candidacy, but nomination is usually the most direct match.

A simple learner-friendly guide:

• menjelaskan ≈ men-juh-LAS-kan
• pencalonan ≈ pen-cha-lo-NAN
• bendahari ≈ ben-da-HA-ri

A few helpful points:

• j in Malay sounds like English j in jam
• c in Malay sounds like ch in chair
• Malay pronunciation is generally quite regular and close to spelling

Also, stress in Malay is usually not as strong or dramatic as in English, so even if your stress is not perfect, being clear with the syllables matters more.

Yes.

That would make the subject more specifically identifiable:

• Bendahari menjelaskan pencalonan itu = The treasurer explained the nomination
• Bendahari itu menjelaskan pencalonan itu = That/The treasurer explained that/the nomination

Adding itu after bendahari makes the treasurer more explicitly definite or pointed out.

So both are grammatical, but the version without itu is slightly simpler and often perfectly natural if the treasurer is already understood from context.