Penyelia membersihkan tumpahan.

The word order is the standard Malay pattern:

• Penyelia = subject
• membersihkan = verb
• tumpahan = object

So it follows Subject–Verb–Object, just like English:

• The supervisor / cleans / the spill

That makes this sentence quite straightforward for an English speaker.

The base word is bersih, which means clean.

Then Malay adds affixes:

• meN- → an active verb prefix
• -kan → often makes the word mean to make something become X or to do X to something

So:

• bersih = clean
• membersihkan = to clean something, literally something like to make clean

In this sentence, membersihkan tumpahan means to clean the spill.

Here, -kan helps turn the idea of clean into a verb that takes an object.

Compare the roles:

• bersih = clean (an adjective/state)
• membersihkan = to clean something

So -kan helps give the sense of making something clean.

That is why membersihkan fits well with a direct object like tumpahan.

Because tumpah and tumpahan do different jobs.

• tumpah = to spill / spilled over
• tumpahan = a spill, something that has been spilled

So in this sentence, tumpahan is a noun, not a verb.

A useful way to think about -an here is that it often forms a noun related to the action or result of the root word:

• tumpah → spill
• tumpahan → spill, spillage

So membersihkan tumpahan means clean the spill, not clean spill in a verbal sense.

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

So membersihkan can mean different things depending on context:

• cleans
• is cleaning
• cleaned
• sometimes even will clean

The time is usually understood from:

• context
• time words such as semalam (yesterday), sekarang (now), esok (tomorrow)

So by itself, Penyelia membersihkan tumpahan is tense-neutral.

Malay usually does not require articles like English a/an or the.

So:

• penyelia can mean a supervisor or the supervisor
• tumpahan can mean a spill or the spill

The exact meaning depends on context.

If you want to be more specific, Malay can add other words, for example:

• seorang penyelia = a supervisor
• penyelia itu = the supervisor / that supervisor
• satu tumpahan = a spill
• tumpahan itu = the spill / that spill

No. Penyelia is gender-neutral.

It can refer to:

• a male supervisor
• a female supervisor

Malay nouns usually do not change form for gender. If needed, the speaker can add extra information, but the word penyelia itself does not tell you whether the person is male or female.

Malay nouns are often not marked for plural unless the speaker wants to make that explicit.

So penyelia by itself is often understood as singular in a sentence like this, but Malay does not force the distinction as strongly as English does.

If you want to show plural clearly, you could say things like:

• para penyelia = the supervisors
• penyelia-penyelia = supervisors

The same idea applies to tumpahan as well, though in this sentence it will usually be understood as one spill unless context says otherwise.

Yes. That is perfectly natural.

Adding itu makes the noun more specific:

• penyelia itu = that supervisor / the supervisor
• tumpahan itu = that spill / the spill

So:

• Penyelia membersihkan tumpahan = Supervisor cleans a/the spill
• Penyelia itu membersihkan tumpahan itu = That/The supervisor cleans the/that spill

Malay often leaves nouns bare when context is enough, but adding itu is very common when you want definite reference.

This comes from the prefix often written as meN-, where the final nasal sound changes depending on the first sound of the base word.

With bersih, the prefix appears as memb-:

• meN- + bersih + -kan → membersihkan

This kind of sound adjustment is very common in Malay word formation. You do not always need to calculate it yourself at first, but it is helpful to recognize that many Malay verbs are built this way.

Yes, it is very natural.

Because the object is tumpahan (a spill), membersihkan is a very normal choice for cleaning it.

It sounds like a standard, neutral way to describe the action. For a learner, this is the best verb to remember in this sentence.