Mereka membincangkan misteri itu.

Mereka means they.

It is a third-person plural pronoun, used for people. In normal modern Malay, it usually refers to more than one person, not it or they for things in the same broad way English sometimes does.

So in this sentence, mereka = they.

The base word is bincang, which is related to discussion / discuss.

Membincangkan can be broken down like this:

• bincang = discuss / discussion
• meN- = a common active verb prefix
• -kan = a suffix that often makes the verb take an object or gives it a more transitive meaning

So:

• bincang = discuss
• membincangkan = to discuss something

In this sentence, the thing being discussed is misteri itu.

In standard Malay, membincangkan is the more complete and natural active transitive form for discussing something.

So:

• Mereka membincangkan misteri itu. = They discussed / are discussing the mystery.

You may hear shorter or more colloquial forms in speech, but for standard grammar, membincangkan is the expected form when there is a direct object.

Here, -kan helps make the verb clearly object-focused.

Compare:

• berbincang = to have a discussion / discuss
• membincangkan sesuatu = to discuss something

So -kan helps create a verb meaning to discuss a particular thing.

That is why misteri itu can come directly after the verb as its object.

Both can relate to discussing something, but they are structured differently.

• membincangkan misteri itu = discuss the mystery

  • direct object
  • more straightforwardly transitive

• berbincang tentang misteri itu = discuss / have a discussion about the mystery

  • uses tentang = about
  • slightly different construction

Both are natural, but membincangkan misteri itu puts the mystery directly as the object of the verb.

In Malay, demonstratives like ini (this) and itu (that / the) usually come after the noun.

So:

• misteri itu = that mystery / the mystery
• buku ini = this book
• rumah itu = that house

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

It can mean either, depending on context.

Very often, noun + itu can refer to something already known in the conversation, so in English it is often translated as:

• the mystery

But in some contexts it can also feel more like:

• that mystery

So misteri itu is a definite, identifiable mystery.

The word order is:

• Mereka = subject
• membincangkan = verb
• misteri itu = object

So the pattern is:

Subject + Verb + Object

That is very similar to normal English word order:

• They discussed the mystery.

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

So mereka membincangkan misteri itu could mean:

• They discuss the mystery
• They are discussing the mystery
• They discussed the mystery

The exact time usually comes from context or from time words such as:

• semalam = yesterday
• sekarang = now
• esok = tomorrow

Without extra context, the sentence itself does not force a single tense.

Malay does not use articles like a, an, and the in the same way English does.

Instead, definiteness is often understood from context, or shown with words like itu.

So:

• misteri = mystery / a mystery
• misteri itu = the mystery / that mystery

That is why there is no separate word exactly matching English the before the noun.

A helpful rough pronunciation is:

mem-bin-chang-kan

A few notes:

• c in Malay sounds like ch in chair
• ng sounds like the ng in sing
• bincang sounds roughly like bin-chang
• membincangkan sounds roughly like mem-bin-chang-kan

Malay spelling is generally quite regular, so once you know the sound system, pronunciation becomes much easier.

The prefix is often written generally as meN-, because its form changes depending on the first sound of the root word.

The root here is bincang, which begins with b, so the prefix appears as mem-:

• meN- + bincang → membincang-
• then plus -kan → membincangkan

This kind of sound-based change is very common in Malay verb formation. It is normal and something learners get used to over time.