Breakdown of Polis menangkap pengganas itu.
itu
that
polis
the police
menangkap
to catch
pengganas
a terrorist
Questions & Answers about Polis menangkap pengganas itu.
Why is the sentence order Polis menangkap pengganas itu?
Malay normally uses Subject–Verb–Object word order, just like basic English sentences.
- Polis = the subject
- menangkap = the verb
- pengganas itu = the object
So the structure is:
Polis + menangkap + pengganas itu
= Police + arrested/caught + that/the terrorist
Why is there no word for the before polis?
Malay does not use articles like a/an/the in the same way English does. Very often, nouns appear without any article at all.
So polis can mean things like:
- police
- the police
- sometimes even a police officer, depending on context
In this sentence, context tells you that polis refers to the police.
Does polis mean one police officer or the police in general?