Learn Hardcore Malay: Dia letak cermin kecil di tepi pokok supaya daun kelihatan hijau dalam cahaya malap. - He/She puts a small mirror beside the tree so the leaves look green in the dim light.

Dia is the 3rd-person singular pronoun in Malay, equivalent to he, she, or sometimes it in English. It is gender-neutral, so you don’t need separate words for “he” or “she.”

Why is letak used here rather than meletakkan?

Letak is the bare root form and is common in spoken or informal Malay. In standard or formal written Malay you’d use meletakkan, which has the me-...-kan affixes that turn the root into a transitive verb meaning “to place.”

In the phrase cermin kecil, why does the adjective kecil (small) come after the noun cermin (mirror)?

Malay normally follows the order noun + adjective. So cermin kecil literally is mirror small, which corresponds to small mirror in English.

How is the preposition di functioning in di tepi pokok? Can di ever be skipped?

Di marks location (like “at,” “in,” or “by”). You generally need di before a place word like tepi (“side”). In very casual spoken Malay, you might hear tepi pokok, but grammatically di tepi pokok (“at the side of the tree”) is correct.

What does supaya mean, and how does it differ from agar or untuk?

Supaya means so that or in order that and introduces a purpose clause. Agar has virtually the same meaning but is slightly more formal. Untuk is also “for” or “to,” but it’s followed directly by a verb (e.g., untuk kelihatan), whereas supaya/agar links two separate clauses.

What role does kelihatan play in daun kelihatan hijau? Is it passive voice?

Kelihatan comes from the root lihat with the affixes ke-...-an, forming a stative verb meaning to appear or to seem. It’s not the passive voice—it describes the state of the leaves (“the leaves appear green”).

What does cahaya malap translate to, and is malap an adjective?

Cahaya means light, and malap means dim. So cahaya malap is dim light. Malap is indeed an adjective, and as usual it follows the noun in Malay.