Pengunjung tertarik kepada menara tinggi itu.

It can be either visitor or visitors. Malay nouns often do not change form for singular vs. plural.

So pengunjung tertarik kepada menara tinggi itu could mean:

• A visitor is attracted to that tall tower
• Visitors are attracted to that tall tower

Usually the context tells you which one is meant.

If you want to make the plural more explicit, you could say:

• para pengunjung = the visitors
• pengunjung-pengunjung = visitors

Malay often leaves out the verb to be in sentences like this.

So instead of saying something literally like Visitors are interested, Malay simply says:

• Pengunjung tertarik = The visitors/visitors are interested

This is very normal in Malay, especially when the predicate is an adjective or a state.

In this sentence, tertarik is best understood as a state or adjectival predicate meaning interested or attracted.

So the sentence structure is roughly:

• pengunjung = subject
• tertarik = in an interested/attracted state
• kepada menara tinggi itu = toward that tall tower

English often uses to be + adjective here, but Malay can just use the adjective/state word directly.

Tertarik comes from the root tarik, which means pull.

With the prefix ter-, the meaning here becomes something like:

• drawn
• attracted
• interested

So tertarik is not literally pull here. It means someone has become mentally or emotionally drawn to something.

Also, this ter- is not the same as the one in words like terbesar meaning biggest. Malay ter- has more than one function, and in tertarik it marks a state, not a superlative.

Kepada here means something like to or toward. It marks the target of the feeling.

So:

• tertarik kepada sesuatu = attracted to something / interested in something

In other words, the visitors are attracted toward that tower.

In everyday Malay, you may also hear tertarik dengan, especially in speech. But tertarik kepada is a good, natural, and somewhat more formal choice.

Because in Malay, adjectives usually come after the noun.

So:

• menara tinggi = tall tower
• rumah besar = big house
• kereta merah = red car

This is one of the most important word-order differences from English.

In Malay, demonstratives like ini and itu usually come after the noun phrase.

So:

• menara itu = that tower
• menara tinggi itu = that tall tower

The order is:

• noun + adjective + demonstrative

So menara tinggi itu is perfectly normal Malay word order.

Not exactly. Itu literally means that, but in many contexts it can also help make a noun phrase feel more specific or definite, which may resemble English the.

So:

• menara tinggi itu = that tall tower

Depending on context, English might sometimes translate it in a way that feels close to the tall tower, but the actual Malay word is still that.

Malay does not use articles the way English does.

There is no direct equivalent used in every sentence for:

• a
• an
• the

So a bare noun like pengunjung can mean:

• a visitor
• the visitor
• visitors
• the visitors

Context tells you which meaning is intended.

Words like itu, ini, numbers, classifiers, and surrounding context often provide the needed specificity instead.

Yes. Moving itu changes what it modifies.

Compare:

• Pengunjung tertarik kepada menara tinggi itu = The visitor(s) are attracted to that tall tower
• Pengunjung itu tertarik kepada menara tinggi = That visitor / those visitors are attracted to a tall tower / tall towers

So itu refers to the word or phrase immediately before it.

It can be either, depending on context.

Tertarik kepada often covers both ideas:

• attracted to
• drawn to
• interested in

If the context is about appearance, it may sound more like attracted to.
If the context is about attention or curiosity, it may sound more like interested in.

So the Malay expression is a little broader than any single English translation.

A simple way to break it down is:

• Pengunjung = subject
• tertarik = predicate describing the subject’s state
• kepada menara tinggi itu = prepositional phrase showing what they are attracted to

So the pattern is roughly:

• Subject + state word + kepada + noun phrase

This is a very useful pattern in Malay for talking about feelings, interest, and direction of attention.