Hakim garisan itu melihat bulu tangkis.

The basic order is Subject – Verb – Object:

• Hakim garisan itu = the subject
• melihat = the verb
• bulu tangkis = the object

So this sentence follows a very common Malay pattern:

Subject + verb + object

That makes it quite similar to normal English word order.

In Malay, words like ini and itu normally come after the noun they describe.

So:

• hakim garisan itu = that line judge / the line judge
• rumah itu = that house / the house
• orang ini = this person

This is different from English, where we put this or that before the noun.

So English that line judge becomes Malay hakim garisan itu.

It can function as either one, depending on context.

In many sentences, itu literally means that, but in natural translation it often corresponds to English the when the noun is already specific or known.

So hakim garisan itu could be understood as:

• that line judge
• the line judge

Malay does not always make the same definite/indefinite distinctions that English does, so context decides the most natural translation.

Yes, hakim garisan is a noun phrase meaning line judge.

It is built in the Malay order where the main noun often comes first, followed by a word that narrows or specifies it:

• hakim = judge
• garisan = line / boundary marking

So hakim garisan means a judge connected with the line, that is, a line judge.

This is a normal Malay pattern. English often uses noun + noun combinations too, but the exact order does not always match word-for-word.

Garisan comes from the root garis, meaning line.

The suffix -an often forms a noun. In many cases, it gives a meaning like:

• a thing related to the root
• the result of the action
• a place or object associated with the root

So:

• garis = line
• garisan = line, marking, boundary line

In this sentence, garisan is part of the fixed expression hakim garisan.

Malay verbs do not change the way English verbs do.

In English, you get forms like:

• see
• sees
• saw
• will see

In Malay, the verb itself usually stays the same regardless of the subject:

• saya melihat = I see / saw / am seeing
• dia melihat = he/she sees / saw / is seeing
• mereka melihat = they see / saw / are seeing

Time is usually understood from:

• context
• time words such as semalam (yesterday), sekarang (now), esok (tomorrow)
• aspect markers such as sudah, sedang, akan

So melihat by itself does not specifically mean present tense only. It is often translated in the present here because that best fits the sentence.

Yes.

• lihat is the root
• melihat is the standard active verb form built from that root

The prefix meN- often creates an active verb in Malay. Here it appears as me- before lihat, giving melihat.

So:

• lihat = see / look
• melihat = to see, to look at

In casual speech, people sometimes use lihat on its own, but melihat is the more standard full form, especially in careful or written Malay.

These words are related, but they are not exactly the same.

• melihat usually means to look at or to see in an active, straightforward sense
• nampak often means to be visible, to be seen, or to manage/happen to see

Very roughly:

• Saya melihat burung itu = I saw / looked at that bird
• Saya nampak burung itu = I saw that bird / that bird was visible to me

In many situations they overlap, but melihat is often the safer verb when you want a clear transitive verb with a direct object.

Malay does not normally use articles the way English does.

That means a noun can often appear without any word corresponding directly to a/an/the:

• hakim = a judge / the judge
• bulu tangkis = a badminton shuttle / the badminton shuttle / badminton, depending on context and meaning

Malay relies on context, word order, and words like ini and itu to show specificity.

So English learners often want to insert an article somewhere, but in Malay that is usually unnecessary.

It is best to treat bulu tangkis as a set expression / compound noun and learn it as one vocabulary item.

That is common in Malay. Some expressions make most sense when learned as a whole, not by translating each part literally.

So in this sentence, the important grammatical point is that bulu tangkis functions as the object noun phrase of melihat.

Also, do not assume that a two-word expression is plural just because it contains more than one word. It may still refer to one concept.

Usually, you know from context, not from the noun form itself.

Malay often leaves number unmarked unless it needs to be made explicit.

For many nouns:

• one item and several items can look the same
• the context tells you which meaning is intended

Malay can mark plurality in some ways, especially with reduplication, but it does not have to.

So in this sentence, the learner should not expect English-style singular/plural marking on every noun.

Yes.

You could say:

Hakim garisan melihat bulu tangkis.

That is still grammatical. Without itu, the subject is less specifically identified. It may sound more general, less pointed, or more dependent on context.

Compare:

• hakim garisan itu = that/the line judge
• hakim garisan = a line judge / line judges / the line judge, depending on context

So itu helps make the subject more definite and specific.

This is the most neutral and straightforward order, but Malay can use other structures for emphasis, especially passive constructions.

For example, a passive version could be:

Bulu tangkis itu dilihat oleh hakim garisan itu.

That means something like The shuttlecock is seen by the line judge.

However, for a simple basic sentence, Hakim garisan itu melihat bulu tangkis is the natural pattern learners should focus on first.