Learn Hardcore Malay: Saya tambah air sejuk ke dalam kopi supaya kopi tidak terlalu pahit. - I add cold water to coffee so that the coffee is not too bitter.

tambah simply means add. In everyday Malay you often use the root form of a verb (here tambah) to describe an action in the present or past. So Saya tambah air sejuk… can be translated as “I add cold water…” or “I added cold water…,” depending on context.

Why is the verb written as tambah and not menambah?

In Malay the base form of a verb can stand on its own without prefixes. Adding the prefix meN- (making menambah) is more formal or emphasizes the action in writing, but in spoken or informal contexts you’ll often hear the bare form tambah. Both are correct; tambah is simply more colloquial.

How do we know if this action is happening now or happened before? There’s no tense marker.

Malay verbs do not change form for past, present, or future. Instead you rely on time adverbs or the wider context. For example, if you say Tadi saya tambah air… (“Earlier I added water…”), the word tadi tells you it’s past. In your sentence it’s understood from situation or accompanying time expressions.

What does supaya mean? Can I use agar or untuk instead?

supaya means so that or in order that and introduces a purpose clause.

agar is almost identical in meaning but slightly more formal.
untuk on its own typically introduces an infinitive purpose (e.g. untuk membuat kopi “to make coffee”) and doesn’t work with a full clause like untuk kopi tidak pahit.
So you could say …supaya kopi tidak terlalu pahit or more formally …agar kopi tidak terlalu pahit, but not untuk kopi tidak terlalu pahit.

Why do we say air sejuk? Could we also say air dingin?

sejuk and dingin both mean cold, but:

sejuk is the more common adjective for cold drinks, weather, or sensations.
dingin often describes very cold objects or the physical state of being cold.
In practice air sejuk (“cold water”) is far more idiomatic than air dingin, though the latter is understandable.

Why use the prepositional phrase ke dalam instead of just ke?

ke alone means to/towards, but doesn’t specify “into.” By saying ke dalam you clearly indicate motion into something. Without dalam the listener might not know if it’s into, onto, or just towards the cup.

Why is kopi repeated after supaya instead of using a pronoun like “it”?

Malay seldom uses a neuter pronoun equivalent to “it.” Instead you repeat the noun for clarity. You could omit it entirely (…supaya tidak terlalu pahit) but repeating kopi makes the sentence explicitly clear.

Why do we say tidak terlalu pahit rather than pahit tidak terlalu or tidak pahit terlalu?

The correct word order is: negation (tidak), modifier (terlalu), then adjective (pahit). So tidak terlalu pahit literally means not too bitter. Placing pahit before tidak or terlalu would break the standard Malay adjective-negation-adverb sequence and sound ungrammatical.

Could I use bukan instead of tidak here, as in bukan terlalu pahit?

No. bukan negates nouns or noun phrases (“not a/no”), while tidak negates verbs, adjectives, or adverbs. Since pahit is an adjective, you must use tidak: tidak pahit, not bukan pahit.