Polis menahan penjahat itu.

The sentence follows the normal Malay word order: Subject – Verb – Object.

• Polis = subject
• menahan = verb
• penjahat itu = object

So structurally, it is very similar to English: The police arrested the criminal.

Menahan is the active verb form built from the root tahan.

In Malay, many active transitive verbs take the prefix meN-. Here:

• tahan = to hold, restrain, endure
• meN- + tahan → menahan

When this prefix is added to a root beginning with t, the t usually drops. That is why you get menahan, not mentahan.

In this sentence, menahan means to arrest or to detain.

Literally, menahan can have several related meanings, such as hold, detain, restrain, or withstand, depending on context.

With polis as the subject and penjahat as the object, the natural meaning is:

• to arrest
• to detain

So context is very important in Malay, just as it is in English.

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

So:

• penjahat itu = that criminal / the criminal
• rumah itu = that house
• orang ini = this person

This is a normal Malay pattern, even though it feels reversed to an English speaker.

It can function as either, depending on context.

• In a very literal sense, itu means that
• In many real sentences, it also works like a marker of a specific known noun, which often sounds like the in English

So penjahat itu could be understood as:

• that criminal
• the criminal

If the meaning has already been given to the learner as the criminal, that is perfectly natural.

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

Instead, Malay often shows definiteness through:

• context
• word order
• words like itu or ini

So:

• polis can mean police, the police, or sometimes a police officer, depending on context
• penjahat itu is specific because of itu

English requires articles much more often than Malay does.

Malay nouns usually do not change form for singular and plural, so polis itself does not tell you clearly whether it is singular or plural.

In context, polis often means:

• the police as a group
• or sometimes a police officer

If you want to be more explicit, Malay can add other words:

• seorang polis = a police officer
• pegawai polis = police officer
• anggota polis = police personnel / police officer

In this sentence, polis is most naturally understood as the police.

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

So menahan does not specifically mean:

• arrest
• arrests
• arrested
• is arresting

by itself.

The time is usually understood from context or made clear with time words, for example:

• semalam = yesterday
• sekarang = now
• tadi = earlier
• akan = will

So Polis menahan penjahat itu could mean The police arrested the criminal, are arresting the criminal, or arrest the criminal, depending on context.

Yes, you can say:

Polis menahan penjahat.

That still makes grammatical sense, but it is less specific.

• penjahat = a criminal / criminals / criminal(s) in general, depending on context
• penjahat itu = that criminal / the criminal

So itu helps identify a specific person.

Yes. Penjahat is related to jahat, which means bad, evil, or wicked.

Penjahat is a noun meaning:

• criminal
• evildoer
• wrongdoer

This is a useful pattern in Malay: a base word can be turned into a noun referring to a person associated with that quality or action.

So learners often remember it as:

• jahat = evil / bad
• penjahat = evil person / criminal

Yes. A very natural passive version is:

Penjahat itu ditahan polis.

That means the same thing overall: The criminal was arrested by the police or The criminal was being arrested by the police, depending on context.

Compare:

• Polis menahan penjahat itu. = active
• Penjahat itu ditahan polis. = passive

Malay uses both active and passive constructions quite often, so it is good to get used to both.