Learn Hardcore Malay: Kipas digunakan ketika cuaca panas. - The fan is used when the weather is hot.

Digunakan is the passive form of gunakan (to use). In Malay, adding the di- prefix to a verb stem turns it into passive voice, shifting focus onto the object—in this case, kipas—and omitting or generalizing the doer of the action. An active version would be Orang menggunakan kipas ketika cuaca panas (“People use a fan when the weather is hot”), but the passive Kipas digunakan… stresses the fan itself.

How exactly is digunakan formed from its root word?

Breakdown of digunakan:

Root: guna (use)
Suffix: -kan (makes it causative, so gunakan = “to use [something]”)
Prefix: di- (passive marker)
Put together: di- + guna + ‑kan → digunakan (“is used”).

Can I replace digunakan with dipakai in this sentence?

Yes. Pakai also means “use,” so dipakai is its passive form.
Example: Kipas dipakai ketika cuaca panas.
Nuance:

digunakan (from gunakan) is slightly more formal or technical.
dipakai (from pakai) is common in everyday speech and also means “worn” (for clothes).

What does ketika mean, and are there other ways to say “when”?

Ketika means “when” in a temporal sense. It’s somewhat formal or literary. Other options include:

apabila (more formal, used in writing)
bila (colloquial/spoken)
masa or waktu (generic words for “time,” often followed by yang or directly by a clause)

Could I say bila cuaca panas instead of ketika cuaca panas?

Absolutely. In everyday conversation, bila cuaca panas is perfectly natural:

Kipas digunakan bila cuaca panas.
It’s less formal than ketika, but means the same thing.

Why is panas placed after cuaca here, instead of before it?

In Malay, adjectives generally follow the nouns they describe. So you say cuaca panas (“weather hot”) rather than panas cuaca. This pattern holds for most noun–adjective phrases, e.g. makanan sedap (“food tasty”), rumah besar (“house big”).

Does kipas indicate one fan or more than one? How do I show plural?

Malay nouns don’t change form for number. Kipas alone can mean one or multiple fans, depending on context. To mark plural, you add quantifiers or reduplication:

beberapa kipas (several fans)
semua kipas (all the fans)
kipas-kipas (some fans, colloquial)

Could I use pada cuaca panas instead of ketika cuaca panas, and is there a nuance?

Yes, you can say pada cuaca panas:

Kipas digunakan pada cuaca panas.
Nuance:
ketika/ bila focus on the exact moment something happens.
pada is a general preposition (“at,” “on,” “during”) and is also common in formal writing. Both are acceptable.

Who is implied to be using the fan in Kipas digunakan ketika cuaca panas?

No specific person is mentioned; it’s an agent-less passive construction. It implies a general or habitual use—essentially “people” or “you/one” whenever the weather is hot. If you wanted to specify an agent, you could add oleh:

Kipas digunakan oleh penghuni rumah ketika cuaca panas.