Doktor memeriksa tulang kakinya.

The sentence follows the very common Malay pattern Subject + Verb + Object:

• Doktor = subject
• memeriksa = verb
• tulang kakinya = object

So it works much like English The doctor examines/checked his/her leg bone(s) in terms of word order.

Periksa is the base word meaning inspect / examine / check.

The form memeriksa has the active verb prefix meN-, which often marks a normal active transitive verb in Malay. So:

• periksa = examine/check, as a base form
• memeriksa = to examine / examines / examined

This is a very common pattern in Malay. Learners often see verbs like:

• baca → membaca
• tulis → menulis
• periksa → memeriksa

So memeriksa is the natural verb form here when the subject is actively doing the action to an object.

No. Malay verbs usually do not change form for tense the way English verbs do.

So memeriksa by itself could mean:

• examines
• is examining
• examined
• will examine

The exact time normally comes from context or time words such as:

• semalam = yesterday
• sekarang = now
• esok = tomorrow
• sedang = in the middle of doing something
• sudah / telah = already
• akan = will

Without extra markers, the sentence is tense-neutral.

Malay does not usually use articles the way English does. There is no direct everyday equivalent of a/an/the that must appear before nouns.

So doktor can mean:

• a doctor
• the doctor

And tulang can mean:

• a bone
• the bone
• sometimes even bones, depending on context

If Malay speakers want to be more specific, they can add words such as:

• seorang doktor = a doctor
• doktor itu = that/the doctor

But in many normal sentences, the bare noun is perfectly natural.

Kakinya = kaki + -nya

• kaki = leg / foot
• -nya = his / her / its / their, depending on context

So kakinya can mean:

• his leg
• her leg
• his foot
• her foot
• sometimes their leg/foot or its leg/foot, depending on context

A key point for English speakers: -nya does not show gender. Malay does not distinguish his and her here.

In practice, it is understood with the whole noun phrase at the end.

So tulang kakinya means something like:

• his/her leg bone
• the bone of his/her leg
• possibly his/her leg bones, depending on context

Malay often places -nya on the final word of the noun phrase. English speakers sometimes want to separate everything very strictly, but Malay structure is often more compact than English.

It can be either. Malay nouns are usually not marked for singular or plural unless the speaker wants to make that explicit.

So tulang may mean:

• bone
• bones

Context tells you which is intended.

If a speaker really wants to show plural clearly, they might use repetition or another clue, for example:

• tulang-tulang = bones

But in many natural sentences, Malay leaves number unstated.

Kaki can mean either leg or foot, depending on context.

That is very common in Malay. So tulang kaki could refer to:

• a leg bone
• a foot bone

Usually the intended meaning is clear from the situation, medical context, or the translation already given to the learner.

Yes, grammatically it could refer to either, depending on context.

So Doktor memeriksa tulang kakinya might mean:

• The doctor examined his/her own leg bone(s), or
• The doctor examined someone else’s leg bone(s)

In real use, context usually makes the reference clear. Malay often allows this kind of pronoun ambiguity more easily than English.

No, it is a borrowed word, ultimately from the same source as English doctor. In Malay spelling, it becomes doktor.

This is normal in Malay. Many borrowed words are adapted to Malay spelling and pronunciation.

Not necessarily. Doktor by itself is very natural.

• Doktor memeriksa tulang kakinya = perfectly normal
• Seorang doktor memeriksa tulang kakinya = also possible, but now it sounds more like A doctor examined...

So adding seorang makes the noun more explicitly indefinite. Without it, the sentence is more neutral and relies on context.

A common way is to add sedang before the verb:

• Doktor sedang memeriksa tulang kakinya.

Here sedang means the action is in progress, similar to English is examining.

Without sedang, the original sentence is more general and can fit several time interpretations depending on context.