Saya dan rakan saya berbual sambil minum air di taman.

Because rakan saya means my friend.

In Malay, possession usually works like this:

• rakan = friend/companion
• rakan saya = my friend

So Saya dan rakan saya literally follows the Malay structure I and friend my.

This repetition is completely normal. English says my friend, but Malay puts the possessor after the noun.

Examples:

• buku saya = my book
• rumah saya = my house
• kawan saya = my friend

Dan means and when joining two nouns or two parts of a sentence.

So:

• Saya dan rakan saya = My friend and I

Dengan usually means with.

Compare:

• Saya dan Ali = I and Ali
• Saya pergi dengan Ali = I go with Ali

In this sentence, the speaker and the friend are two equal parts of the subject, so dan is the correct choice.

Both can mean friend, but they have slightly different tones.

• rakan often sounds a bit more neutral or formal
• kawan is very common and casual in everyday speech

So:

• rakan saya = my friend
• kawan saya = my friend

In casual conversation, many speakers would naturally say kawan saya.
Rakan saya is still correct and natural, just a little less casual.

Berbual means to chat or to have a conversation.

The root is bual, which relates to chatting/talking.
The prefix ber- often makes a verb that is intransitive, meaning it does not take a direct object.

So:

• berbual = to chat
• You do not normally say berbual sesuatu the way you might say eat something

In this sentence:

• Saya dan rakan saya berbual = My friend and I are chatting

The ber- prefix is very common in Malay verbs.

Other examples:

• berjalan = to walk
• bermain = to play
• berenang = to swim

Sambil means while, while at the same time, or simultaneously.

So:

• berbual sambil minum air = chatting while drinking water

It connects two actions happening together.

A useful thing to know: with sambil, the subject is usually understood to be the same as the subject of the main clause.

So here, the people who are berbual are also the ones minum air.

Example:

• Dia membaca sambil makan. = He/She reads while eating.

Usually, yes.

In Malay, air normally means water, not the broad English word drink.

So:

• minum air = drink water

If you want to say another drink, you usually name it:

• minum kopi = drink coffee
• minum teh = drink tea
• minum jus = drink juice

So in this sentence, air is best understood as water.

Di taman means in the park.

Malay often puts place expressions after the main action, so this word order is very natural:

• Saya dan rakan saya berbual sambil minum air di taman.

This is like:

• subject + action + extra action + place

Malay word order is often fairly flexible, but putting the location at the end is very common and natural.

You could sometimes move parts around for emphasis, but the original version is the most straightforward.

Because here di is a preposition meaning at/in/on, and prepositions are written separately from the following word.

So:

• di taman = in the park
• di rumah = at home
• di sekolah = at school

This is different from the passive prefix di-, which is attached to a verb:

• ditulis = written
• dibaca = read

So remember:

• di taman → separate, because it is a preposition
• ditulis → attached, because it is a verb prefix

Malay does not mark tense the same way English does.

The sentence can often be understood as present, past, or even habitual, depending on context.

So this sentence could mean things like:

• My friend and I are chatting while drinking water in the park
• My friend and I chatted while drinking water in the park
• My friend and I chat while drinking water in the park

If you want to make the ongoing sense clearer, Malay can add words like:

• sedang = currently/in the middle of

Example:

• Saya dan rakan saya sedang berbual sambil minum air di taman. = My friend and I are chatting while drinking water in the park.

Sometimes yes, but it changes the nuance.

• Saya dan rakan saya explicitly says my friend and I
• kami means we, but specifically we excluding you

So:

• Kami berbual sambil minum air di taman. = We chatted / are chatting while drinking water in the park.

This is grammatical, but it no longer explicitly mentions the friend.

Also remember:

• kami = we, not including the listener
• kita = we, including the listener

Since the original sentence specifically names my friend, Saya dan rakan saya is more exact.

It is neutral and perfectly natural.

A few parts affect the tone:

• saya is standard and polite for I
• rakan sounds a bit more formal or neutral than kawan
• berbual is standard and natural

A more casual version might be:

• Saya dan kawan saya berbual sambil minum air di taman.

In everyday speech, some speakers might also drop repeated words if the context is clear, but the full sentence you have is correct and natural standard Malay.

The most natural reading is that the whole subject — saya dan rakan saya — is doing both actions together.

So it suggests:

• my friend and I are chatting
• my friend and I are drinking water

Because the subject is plural and sambil links simultaneous actions, listeners will usually understand both actions as applying to both people unless context suggests otherwise.

If you wanted to be extra explicit, you could say:

• Saya dan rakan saya berbual sambil masing-masing minum air di taman. = My friend and I chatted while each drank water in the park.

But in normal usage, the original sentence is already clear enough.