Mereka melawat kuil itu.

Mereka means they. It is a third-person plural pronoun used for people.

A useful thing to know is that Malay pronouns do not change form for subject and object the way English pronouns do. So mereka can mean they or them depending on position and context. In Mereka melawat kuil itu, it is the subject, so it means they.

Malay verbs usually do not change form for tense. The verb melawat can mean:

• visit
• visits
• visited
• is/are visiting

The exact time is normally understood from context or from time words such as:

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

So Mereka melawat kuil itu could mean They visit the temple, They are visiting the temple, or They visited the temple, depending on context.

Melawat means to visit.

It comes from the root lawat, and the prefix meN- is added to form an active verb. In this case, lawat becomes melawat.

This is very common in Malay. The meN- prefix often creates a verb meaning that the subject actively does something.

For example:

• baca → membaca = to read
• lihat → melihat = to see
• lawat → melawat = to visit

In normal standard Malay, melawat is the form you would usually use in a sentence like this.

Kuil itu means that temple or sometimes the temple, depending on context.

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

• kuil ini = this temple
• kuil itu = that temple

This is different from English, where this and that come before the noun.

Also, in many contexts itu can make the noun feel definite, so kuil itu can often be translated naturally as the temple if both speaker and listener already know which temple is meant.

Yes, this sentence uses the common Subject–Verb–Object order:

• Mereka = subject
• melawat = verb
• kuil itu = object

So it matches English quite closely:

• They
  • visited
    • that/the temple

That makes this sentence fairly straightforward for English speakers.

Malay does not have articles exactly like English a/an and the.

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

So:

• kuil can mean a temple or temple
• kuil itu can mean that temple or the temple

Malay relies more on context than English does for this kind of meaning.

Usually, mereka is used for people, not for things or animals in most normal situations.

So in this sentence, mereka strongly suggests a group of people visited the temple.

For non-human things, Malay often avoids using a direct plural pronoun in the same way English does, and instead rephrases the sentence or uses the noun again if needed.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

• mereka ≈ muh-REH-kah
• melawat ≈ muh-LAH-waht
• kuil ≈ koo-eel
• itu ≈ ee-too

A few helpful points:

• Malay pronunciation is usually quite regular.
• Each vowel is normally pronounced clearly.
• The r in mereka is lightly rolled or tapped in many accents.
• Stress in Malay is generally not as strong or as important as in English.

In standard Malay, Mereka melawat kuil itu is the better and more natural form.

The bare root lawat without meN- is not usually used this way in careful standard writing. In very informal speech, people may sometimes shorten forms, but for learners, melawat is the form to remember.

So if you want to say They visited the temple, use:

Mereka melawat kuil itu.

It literally means that, but in real usage it often overlaps with English the when the noun is already known or specific.

So kuil itu may be translated as:

• that temple if you want to emphasize distance or contrast
• the temple if it is just a known, specific temple in the conversation

This is very common in Malay, so learners should not expect a perfect one-to-one match with English.

Yes. Mereka melawat kuil itu is a complete and natural Malay sentence.

It has everything needed:

• a subject: mereka
• a verb: melawat
• an object: kuil itu

The only thing missing is time information, but that is normal in Malay. If needed, you could add it:

• Mereka melawat kuil itu semalam. = They visited the temple yesterday.
• Mereka sedang melawat kuil itu. = They are visiting the temple.
• Mereka akan melawat kuil itu. = They will visit the temple.