Saya minum air sekurang-kurangnya dua kali setiap pagi.

I drink water at least two times every morning.

Breakdown of Saya minum air sekurang-kurangnya dua kali setiap pagi.

• saya: I
• air: the water
• minum: to drink
• setiap: every
• pagi: the morning
• dua: two
• kali: the time
• sekurang-kurangnya: at least

Questions & Answers about Saya minum air sekurang-kurangnya dua kali setiap pagi.

What does each word in the sentence correspond to in English?

• saya = I
• minum = drink
• air = water
• sekurang-kurangnya = at least
• dua = two
• kali = times
• setiap = every
• pagi = morning

Note: dua kali together means “twice.”

How do I pronounce the tricky words, especially air?

• air is two syllables: a-ir, roughly “ah-eer” (not like English “air”).
• saya: “sah-yah.”
• minum: “mee-noom.”
• sekurang-kurangnya: “suh-koo-rang koo-rang-nyah.”
• setiap: “suh-tee-ap.”
• pagi: “pah-gee.”

Is the word order fixed? Where can I place sekurang-kurangnya, dua kali, and setiap pagi?

The given order is the most natural:

• Saya minum air sekurang-kurangnya dua kali setiap pagi.

Acceptable variations (for emphasis):

• Sekurang-kurangnya, saya minum air dua kali setiap pagi. (Emphasizes “at least.”)
• Setiap pagi, saya minum air sekurang-kurangnya dua kali. (Fronts the time.) Putting sekurang-kurangnya after the number (…dua kali sekurang-kurangnya) is understandable but less common.

Can I start with the time expression?

Yes:

• Setiap pagi, saya minum air sekurang-kurangnya dua kali. You can also say, a bit more formal:
• Pada setiap pagi, saya minum air sekurang-kurangnya dua kali.

What’s the difference between dua kali and dua gelas?

• dua kali = two times (frequency).
• dua gelas (air) = two glasses (quantity). Examples:
• Saya minum air sekurang-kurangnya dua kali setiap pagi. (at least twice)
• Saya minum sekurang-kurangnya dua gelas air setiap pagi. (at least two glasses)

Do I need a classifier with kali?

No. kali already functions as the counter for occurrences. You just say dua kali, tiga kali, etc. No additional classifier is used.

Is sekurang-kurangnya one word, and are the hyphens necessary?

Yes, it’s written with hyphens in standard Malay: sekurang-kurangnya. It’s built from reduplication (kurang-kurang) plus the prefix se- and the enclitic -nya. In informal speech you’ll also hear sekurangnya (shorter), and common synonyms include:

• paling kurang (neutral)
• setidak-tidaknya (formal-ish)
• minimum (loanword, formal contexts)

What’s the difference between setiap, tiap, and tiap-tiap?

They all mean “every.”

• setiap: neutral and common in writing and speech.
• tiap: slightly more casual.
• tiap-tiap: emphatic/reduplicated; also common. So setiap pagi, tiap pagi, and tiap-tiap pagi are all acceptable.

Do I need a preposition like pada before setiap pagi?

No. Setiap pagi works on its own. Pada setiap pagi is more formal or used when the time phrase is long, but it’s optional here.

Does Malay show tense here? How do we know it’s a habit?

Malay verbs don’t inflect for tense. Habitual meaning comes from context words like setiap. Setiap pagi signals a routine. To talk about a past habit, add a time marker:

• Dulu, saya minum air sekurang-kurangnya dua kali setiap pagi. (I used to…)

Is saya the only way to say “I”? What about aku?

• saya: polite/neutral, safe in most situations.
• aku: informal/intimate (friends/family). So in casual speech you could say:
• Aku minum air sekurang-kurangnya dua kali setiap pagi.

Why is it minum air? Could minum stand alone?

minum means “to drink.” On its own, it often implies the general act of having a drink (any beverage), but adding air makes it explicit that it’s water. In Malay, air specifically means “water,” even though in many beverage names air appears as the generic “drink” part (e.g., air sirap = syrup drink).

Is pagi-pagi the same as setiap pagi?

No.

• setiap pagi = every morning (frequency).
• pagi-pagi = early in the morning (time-of-day emphasis). You can combine ideas like:
• Pagi-pagi, saya minum air sekurang-kurangnya dua kali. (Early in the morning, I drink water at least twice.)

How do I say “twice a day” instead of “twice every morning”?

Use sehari:

• Saya minum air sekurang-kurangnya dua kali sehari. (at least twice a day) Compare with the original:
• …dua kali setiap pagi = specifically twice each morning, not counting other times of day.

Is it okay to say Saya minum dua kali air?

No. That order is unnatural. Keep dua kali with the verb phrase or before the numeral phrase:

• Natural: Saya minum air dua kali. / Saya minum air sekurang-kurangnya dua kali.
• Unnatural: Saya minum dua kali air. (sounds like “I drink two-times water” and disrupts the normal flow)