Mereka memunggah meja kopi itu.

Mereka means they.

A few useful points:

• It is plural.
• It is normally used for people, not things.
• It does not show gender, so it could mean they for men, women, or a mixed group.

So mereka is a straightforward subject pronoun here: they.

Because memunggah is the active verb form built from the root punggah.

In Malay, the active prefix meN- is often added to verbs. With a root beginning with p, that p usually drops:

• punggah → memunggah

This pattern is very common in Malay.

In a sentence like this, memunggah sounds like a normal active verb meaning something like to unload / to move cargo or goods.

Usually, memunggah is most commonly understood as unloading or moving goods off something, especially from a vehicle or ship.

However, words in this area can sometimes be used a bit broadly depending on context. The key nuance is that it often sounds more like handling cargo or bulky items than simply picking something up.

So in this sentence, it most naturally suggests that they were unloading or moving off that coffee table.

That is a very reasonable question.

Memunggah often has a slightly more specific feel than mengangkat:

• mengangkat = to lift / carry
• memunggah = to unload / move goods or cargo, often from a truck, ship, or storage area

So if the idea is simply they carried the coffee table, mengangkat might sound more natural in everyday speech.

If the context is taking it off a vehicle or unloading furniture with other items, then memunggah works well.

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

So memunggah by itself does not tell you whether the action is past, present, or future. The time usually comes from:

• context
• time words
• aspect markers such as sedang, sudah, akan

For example:

• Mereka sedang memunggah meja kopi itu. = They are unloading that coffee table.
• Mereka sudah memunggah meja kopi itu. = They have already unloaded that coffee table.
• Mereka akan memunggah meja kopi itu. = They will unload that coffee table.

So the basic sentence is tenseless on its own.

Yes. This sentence follows the common Subject–Verb–Object order:

• Mereka = subject
• memunggah = verb
• meja kopi itu = object

So structurally it is very similar to English:

• They
  • unloaded
    • that coffee table

That makes this sentence relatively easy for English speakers to parse.

Because in Malay, the main noun usually comes first, and the word modifying it comes after.

So:

• meja = table
• kopi = coffee
• meja kopi = coffee table

Literally, it looks like table coffee, but the natural English translation is coffee table.

This noun + modifier pattern is very common in Malay.

In Malay, demonstratives like ini and itu usually come after the noun phrase they modify.

So:

• meja kopi itu = that coffee table
• rumah itu = that house
• orang ini = this person

Notice that itu comes after the whole phrase meja kopi, not just after meja.

That is standard Malay word order.

Usually, yes: itu is the normal Malay word for that.

But in translation, it can sometimes feel a bit like the because it makes the noun phrase more specific.

So:

• meja kopi = a coffee table / coffee table
• meja kopi itu = that coffee table

It is still best to think of itu primarily as that, not as a true article like English the.

Not necessarily from grammar alone.

Malay nouns are often not marked for singular or plural unless the speaker wants to make it clear. So bare nouns can depend heavily on context.

In this sentence, meja kopi itu will usually be understood as that coffee table, meaning one specific table, because that is the most natural reading.

If you wanted to make plurality clearer, Malay could use:

• a number: dua meja kopi itu = those two coffee tables
• reduplication: meja-meja kopi itu = those coffee tables

So the sentence most naturally sounds singular, but Malay does not mark number as strictly as English.

A simple learner-friendly pronunciation guide would be:

• mereka ≈ muh-REH-kah
• memunggah ≈ muh-MOONG-gah
• meja ≈ MAY-jah
• kopi ≈ KO-pee
• itu ≈ EE-too

A couple of notes:

• ng in memunggah is like the ng sound in sing
• Malay pronunciation is usually more consistent than English spelling

So the whole sentence is roughly:

muh-REH-kah muh-MOONG-gah MAY-jah KO-pee EE-too