Dia memanjangkan lengan baju itu.

Dia can mean he, she, or sometimes they for a person when gender is not being specified.

Malay does not normally mark gender in third-person singular pronouns the way English does. So from Dia memanjangkan lengan baju itu, you cannot tell from dia alone whether the person is male or female. You need context.

The base word is panjang, which means long.

From that base, Malay builds the verb memanjangkan, which means to make something longer or to lengthen something.

So you can think of it roughly like this:

• panjang = long
• memanjangkan = to lengthen / to make longer

This is because of the meN- prefix, which changes shape depending on the first sound of the root word.

The root here is panjang. When meN- is added to a root beginning with p, the p usually disappears, and the prefix becomes mem-:

• meN- + panjang + -kan
• becomes memanjangkan

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

In this sentence, -kan helps make the verb transitive, meaning it acts on an object.

So:

• memanjang can mean something like to become long / extend
• memanjangkan means to lengthen something

That is why memanjangkan fits well with an object like lengan baju itu.

This is a very common learner question.

• memanjang often describes something becoming long or extending
• memanjangkan means causing something to become longer

So:

• Tali itu memanjang. = The rope got longer / stretched out.
• Dia memanjangkan tali itu. = He/She lengthened the rope.

In your sentence, the person is doing something to the sleeve, so memanjangkan is the right form.

Literally, lengan means arm, and baju means shirt/clothing.

But in Malay, noun combinations often work like this:

• lengan baju = the arm-part of a shirt
• natural English translation: sleeve

So even though the literal meaning looks like shirt arm, the normal English equivalent is sleeve.

Malay usually does not force you to mark singular vs. plural the way English does.

So lengan baju can mean:

• the sleeve
• the sleeves

The exact number depends on context.

If the meaning shown to the learner says sleeve, that is fine. If it says sleeves, that can also be fine in the right context. Malay often leaves this unspoken unless it matters.

In Malay, demonstratives like ini and itu usually come after the noun phrase, not before it.

So:

• baju itu = that shirt
• rumah itu = that house

In your sentence:

• lengan baju itu means the sleeve of that shirt or that shirt’s sleeve

This word order is completely normal in Malay.

In practice, learners usually understand lengan baju itu as referring to the sleeve(s) of that shirt.

Structurally, itu comes after the noun phrase, and Malay noun phrases can be compact. The most natural interpretation here is that itu identifies baju within the phrase, giving the sense:

• lengan baju itu = the sleeve(s) of that shirt

So the important idea is that itu helps point out which shirt is being talked about.

The basic structure is:

• Dia = subject
• memanjangkan = verb
• lengan baju itu = object

So the sentence follows a normal Subject–Verb–Object pattern:

• Dia | memanjangkan | lengan baju itu

This is a very common and straightforward Malay sentence structure.

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

So memanjangkan by itself does not tell you whether the action is past, present, or future. The time is usually understood from context or from time words.

For example:

• Dia memanjangkan lengan baju itu semalam. = He/She lengthened that shirt’s sleeve yesterday.
• Dia sedang memanjangkan lengan baju itu. = He/She is lengthening that shirt’s sleeve.
• Dia akan memanjangkan lengan baju itu. = He/She will lengthen that shirt’s sleeve.

Without extra context, the English translation may vary.

Yes. Baju can have a broader meaning related to clothing, but in many everyday contexts it is often understood as shirt, top, or a garment.

In the expression lengan baju, the meaning is clear: it refers to the sleeve of a garment.

So even if baju can be broad in other contexts, here the phrase is idiomatic and easy to understand.

No, not naturally.

If the sentence were about a person extending their arm, you would expect something involving lengan referring directly to a person’s arm, not lengan baju, which clearly refers to a shirt sleeve.

Because baju is included, the sentence is about clothing, not a human arm.