Breakdown of Salji menyejukkan udara di gunung pagi ini.
udara
the air
di
on
pagi ini
this morning
gunung
the mountain
menyejukkan
to cool
salji
the snow
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Questions & Answers about Salji menyejukkan udara di gunung pagi ini.
Why aren't there any articles (like the or a) before salji, udara, or gunung in this sentence?
Malay does not use definite or indefinite articles. Nouns are simply given in their base form, and whether you mean “snow” or “the snow,” “air” or “the air,” is understood from context. There’s no separate word for “a” or “the.”
How is the verb menyejukkan constructed from the root sejuk?
menyejukkan breaks down into:
- me- (a verb‐forming prefix) +
- sejuk (root meaning “cold” or “to be cold”) +
- -kan (a causative/transitive suffix).
When you attach me- to sejuk, the initial s changes (assimilates) to ny, giving menyejuk. Adding -kan yields menyejukkan, which literally means “to cause (something) to become cold.”
What does the suffix -kan add to menyejukkan, and could we use menyejuk instead?
The suffix -kan turns the verb into a causative or transitive form: you actively make something cold. Without -kan, menyejuk would be either intransitive (“to get cold”) or simply uncommon. To say “the snow cools the air,” you need menyejukkan so that udara (air) is the object being cooled.
How is tense or aspect shown here, since menyejukkan doesn’t change form for past or present?
Malay verbs are not conjugated for tense. Instead, you rely on time expressions (like pagi ini for “this morning”) or aspect markers (e.g. sedang for continuous). So menyejukkan alone is neutral; pagi ini tells us it’s happening in the morning.
Why is the time phrase pagi ini placed at the end of the sentence? Could it go elsewhere?
Time phrases in Malay are flexible. They can appear at the beginning or the end without changing the meaning. For example:
- Pagi ini, salji menyejukkan udara di gunung.
- Salji menyejukkan udara di gunung pagi ini.
Both are correct; placing it at the end is very common in conversational Malay.
What does the preposition di do in di gunung, and how is it different from ke?
- di marks a static location (“at,” “in,” or “on”).
- ke marks direction toward a place (“to”).
In di gunung, you’re saying “(the air) on/at the mountain.” If you used ke gunung, that would mean “toward the mountain.”
What's the difference between saying udara di gunung and udara gunung (without di)?
- udara di gunung literally means “air at/on the mountain,” focusing on location.
- udara gunung is a noun compound meaning “mountain air” as a type or characteristic of air, without explicitly stating location. The former describes where the air is right now; the latter can describe a general category of “mountain air.”
Can I use sedang to emphasize that the cooling is happening right now, for example Salji sedang menyejukkan udara…?
Yes. Adding sedang before the verb indicates the progressive (ongoing) aspect:
- Salji sedang menyejukkan udara di gunung pagi ini.
This emphasizes “the snow is in the process of cooling the air.” If you leave out sedang, the sentence still works, but it feels more like a simple statement of fact.