Tukang jahit memendekkan kelim itu.

Tukang jahit means tailor or seamstress/seamster, depending on context.

It is made of two words:

• tukang = a worker, craftsperson, or someone who does a particular skilled job
• jahit = sew / sewing

So literally, it is something like sewing worker, which in natural English is tailor.

In Malay, this kind of two-word combination is very common.

Memendekkan can be broken down like this:

• pendek = short
• meN- ... -kan = a common verb-forming pattern

So:

• pendek = short
• memendekkan = to shorten something / to make something shorter

The meaning here is to shorten in a transitive sense, meaning something is being shortened by someone.

This is why it fits with kelim itu: the tailor is shortening the hem.

Because pendek is mainly an adjective meaning short.

To express to make something short / to shorten something, Malay often uses meN- ... -kan.

So:

• pendek = short
• memendekkan = to shorten something

A helpful way to think about -kan here is that it often gives a causative or transitive sense: cause something to become X.

So memendekkan kelim itu = shorten that/the hem.

This happens because the prefix is really meN-, where the final nasal sound changes depending on the next consonant.

Since the base word is pendek, beginning with p-, the prefix changes in a regular way:

• meN- + pendek + -kan → memendekkan

The initial p of the root drops, and the prefix appears as mem-.

This kind of sound change is very common in Malay verb formation.

Similar patterns happen with other roots too.

Kelim means hem, especially the folded and sewn edge of a piece of clothing or fabric.

So in this sentence, the tailor is shortening the hem of a garment.

Depending on context, English might translate this naturally as:

• The tailor shortens the hem.
• The tailor is shortening the hem.
• The tailor shortened that hem.

Malay itself does not mark tense the way English does, so the exact time depends on context.

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

So:

• kelim itu = that hem or the hem
• baju ini = this shirt
• rumah itu = that house

This is different from English, where this/that comes before the noun.

So kelim itu is the normal Malay order.

It can function as either, depending on context.

Most directly:

• itu = that

But in real sentences, noun + itu can also feel like the ... when the thing is already known or specific.

So kelim itu could be understood as:

• that hem
• the hem

If the meaning has already been shown to the learner, that probably reflects the intended context.

The sentence follows normal Malay Subject–Verb–Object order:

• Tukang jahit = subject
• memendekkan = verb
• kelim itu = object

So it is directly parallel to English:

• The tailor / shortens / the hem

This makes Malay sentence structure feel quite familiar to English speakers in many basic sentences.

Malay verbs usually do not change form for tense.

So memendekkan by itself does not tell you whether the action is present, past, or future.

Depending on context, this sentence could mean:

• The tailor shortens the hem.
• The tailor is shortening the hem.
• The tailor shortened the hem.

If Malay speakers want to make the time clearer, they often add time words such as:

• sedang = currently / in the process of
• sudah / telah = already
• akan = will

For example:

• Tukang jahit itu sedang memendekkan kelim. = The tailor is shortening the hem.
• Tukang jahit itu telah memendekkan kelim. = The tailor has shortened the hem.

No. Tukang jahit is generally gender-neutral.

It can refer to:

• a male tailor
• a female tailor
• a tailor without specifying gender

Malay usually does not force you to mark gender in nouns the way English sometimes does.

So whether you translate it as tailor, seamstress, or something similar depends on context.

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

So:

• tukang jahit can mean a tailor or the tailor
• kelim can mean a hem or the hem

Specificity is often understood from context, or shown with words like ini and itu.

That is why a short Malay sentence can look more bare than its English translation, even though it is perfectly complete.

Yes. Malay often uses passive constructions, especially when the object is more important.

An active version is:

• Tukang jahit memendekkan kelim itu.
  • The tailor shortens/is shortening/shortened that hem.

A passive version could be:

• Kelim itu dipendekkan oleh tukang jahit.
  • That hem is shortened/was shortened by the tailor.

Here:

• di- marks the passive
• oleh means by

Malay uses passive forms very naturally, often more than English learners expect.

A rough pronunciation guide for English speakers:

• tukang ≈ too-kang
• jahit ≈ ja-hit
• memendekkan ≈ meh-men-dek-kan
• kelim ≈ keh-lim
• itu ≈ ee-too

A few helpful notes:

• e in Malay can vary depending on the word, but here a simple meh / keh approximation is fine for beginners.
• Final consonants are usually clearly pronounced.
• Malay spelling is generally quite regular, much more so than English spelling.

So the whole sentence is roughly:

too-kang ja-hit meh-men-dek-kan keh-lim ee-too

Usually yes in a sentence like this, but it helps to remember the structure behind it.

Memendekkan means to make something shorter.

So in different contexts, natural English translations could be:

• shorten
• make shorter
• take up a hem, in clothing context

For sewing, English sometimes uses more specialized phrasing, so a very natural translation might be:

• The tailor is shortening the hem.
• The tailor is taking up the hem.

So shorten is a good core meaning, but the best English wording depends on context.