Mana tahu seramik ini selamat di dalam tanur.

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Breakdown of Mana tahu seramik ini selamat di dalam tanur.

• di: in
• dalam: in
• selamat: safe

Questions & Answers about Mana tahu seramik ini selamat di dalam tanur.

What does mana tahu mean here? It looks like mana should mean where.

Literally, yes: mana often means which / where, and tahu means know. But mana tahu is a fixed expression in Malay.

Depending on context, it can mean things like:

• who knows
• maybe / perhaps
• you never know
• sometimes, with a different intonation, how would anyone know?

So learners should not translate it word-for-word as where know. In this sentence, it is best understood as an idiomatic expression, not a literal combination.

Is this sentence a question or a statement?

As written with a full stop, it looks like a statement.

That matters because mana tahu can be used in different ways:

• as a speculative opener: who knows / maybe
• as a rhetorical question: how would one know?

If you wanted a straightforward yes/no question such as Is this ceramic safe in a kiln?, Malay would more naturally use something like:

• Adakah seramik ini selamat di dalam tanur?
• Selamatkah seramik ini di dalam tanur?

So the punctuation and intonation are important here.

Why is ini after seramik? Why not put ini first like in English?