Learn Hardcore Malay: Saya tanya bos tentang tugasan baru di pejabat. - I ask the boss about the new assignment at the office.

tanya is the root verb meaning to ask. In informal spoken Malay, it’s very common to drop affixes and use the bare root. Formally you might see bertanya (intransitive “to ask a question”) or menanyakan (active/transitive “to ask about something”), but tanya is perfectly natural in casual conversation.

How would you show that the action happened in the past, since there is no past-tense marker on tanya?

Malay verbs are not conjugated for tense. The time frame comes from context or time adverbs. If you want to be explicit, you can add words like sudah (“already”) or telah before the verb: e.g. Saya sudah tanya bos… meaning “I asked the boss…”. Otherwise, listeners infer “I asked” vs “I ask” from the situation.

What does bos mean, and is it a Malay word?

bos means boss and is borrowed directly from English. It’s extremely common in everyday Malay. In more formal or traditional contexts you might hear ketua (“leader”) or penyelia (“supervisor”).

Why doesn’t the sentence say bos saya (“my boss”)?

When the relationship is clear, Malay often omits the possessive pronoun. Here bos implies “my boss.” If you need to stress ownership, you can say bos saya, but it isn’t required for clarity in this sentence.

What does tentang mean, and can I use mengenai instead?

tentang means about or concerning. mengenai is a more formal synonym with the same meaning. In everyday speech tentang is more common; in writing or formal reports you might prefer mengenai.

What is tugasan, and where does the -an suffix come from?

tugasan means assignment or task. It’s formed from the root tugas (“duty/task”) plus the nominalizing suffix -an, which turns verbs or action words into nouns.

Why is the adjective baru placed after tugasan instead of before it?

In Malay, adjectives normally follow the noun they modify. So “new assignment” is tugasan baru, not baru tugasan.

What role does di play in di pejabat, and how is that different from ke pejabat?

di is a locative preposition meaning in or at. So di pejabat = “at the office.” By contrast, ke indicates movement toward: ke pejabat = “to the office.”

Is Saya mandatory at the beginning, or can it be dropped?

Subject pronouns like Saya (“I”) are often optional in Malay if the subject is clear. You could say Tanya bos tentang tugasan baru di pejabat in very casual speech, but including Saya makes the sentence complete and unambiguous.

What register is this sentence, and how would it look in more formal Malay?

The given sentence is neutral-to-informal spoken Malay. For a more formal style, you might write:
Saya bertanya kepada bos saya mengenai tugasan baru di pejabat.