Kami mengeringkan tanah liat.

We dry the clay.

Breakdown of Kami mengeringkan tanah liat.

• kami: we/us
• tanah liat: clay
• mengeringkan: to dry something

Questions & Answers about Kami mengeringkan tanah liat.

What does kami mean, and how is it different from kita?

Kami means we, but it is the exclusive form: it includes the speaker and other people, but not the listener.

So Kami mengeringkan tanah liat means we are drying clay, but you are not part of the we.

By contrast, kita is inclusive: it means we, including the listener.

• kami = we, not you
• kita = we, including you

This is a very important distinction in Malay.

How is mengeringkan built, and what does it literally mean?

Mengeringkan comes from the root kering, which means dry.

It is formed like this:

• kering = dry
• meN- ... -kan = a common verb pattern that often means to make something become X or to do X to something

So:

• mengeringkan = to dry something, to make something dry

In this sentence, it is a transitive verb, so it takes a direct object:

• mengeringkan tanah liat = to dry clay

Why does kering become mengeringkan, not ?