Penyelia membersihkan tumpahan.

The supervisor cleans the spill.

Breakdown of Penyelia membersihkan tumpahan.

• membersihkan: to clean
• tumpahan: a spill
• penyelia: a supervisor

Questions & Answers about Penyelia membersihkan tumpahan.

What is the basic word order in 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.

Why is the verb membersihkan so long? What is the base word?

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.

What does the -kan in membersihkan do?