Saya sama sekali tidak minum kopi hari ini.

I did not drink coffee at all today.

Breakdown of Saya sama sekali tidak minum kopi hari ini.

• saya: I
• minum: to drink
• tidak: not
• hari ini: today
• sama sekali: at all
• kopi: coffee

Questions & Answers about Saya sama sekali tidak minum kopi hari ini.

What does sama sekali mean and why is it placed before tidak?

sama sekali is an intensifier meaning “completely” or “utterly.” In negative sentences it combines with tidak to give the force of “not … at all.” Placing sama sekali before tidak emphasizes that the action (drinking coffee) did not happen in any way.

Why is the verb minum in its bare form after tidak rather than an affixed form like meminum?

After a negator like tidak, Malay uses the root (bare) form of the verb. You do not add prefixes or suffixes in negative constructions. So you say tidak minum rather than tidak meminum.

Could you use meminum instead of minum here? If so, what difference would it make?

Yes, in formal or literary contexts you might encounter meminum (“to drink”). However, in everyday speech, the bare verb minum is far more common. Using meminum feels more formal but carries the same basic meaning.

How is the past tense (or completion) expressed, since minum doesn’t change form?

Malay verbs do not inflect for tense. Instead, time adverbs like hari ini (“today”) or particles/context tell you when something happened. In this sentence, hari ini plus the negative implies “I have not drunk coffee today.”

Why is there no “the” or any article before kopi?

Malay does not use definite or indefinite articles (no “a,” “an,” or “the”). Nouns stand alone, and context tells you whether you mean “coffee” generally or a specific cup of coffee.

Why is hari ini placed at the end of the sentence? Could it go elsewhere?

Temporal phrases in Malay are flexible—they can appear at the beginning or end. Placing hari ini at the end is very common in conversational Malay. You could also say Hari ini saya sama sekali tidak minum kopi, with the same meaning.

What’s the difference between sama sekali tidak and simply tidak sama sekali?

Both orders are understood and emphasize total negation.
• sama sekali tidak minum is more neutral/formal.
• tidak sama sekali minum might sound slightly more colloquial or emphatic in some regions.
In practice, you’ll hear sama sekali tidak more often in standard spoken and written Malay.