Bos menawarkan bonus kepada pasukan.

The boss offers a bonus to the team.

Breakdown of Bos menawarkan bonus kepada pasukan.

• kepada: to
• bos: the boss
• bonus: the bonus
• pasukan: the team
• menawarkan: to offer

Questions & Answers about Bos menawarkan bonus kepada pasukan.

Why is “kepada” used here instead of “untuk” or “pada”?

Use “kepada” when marking a recipient (typically people or animate groups).

• Bos menawarkan bonus kepada pasukan. = The team is the recipient of the offer.

“Untuk” means “for/for the benefit of,” not the recipient of a verb like “offer.”

• Bonus untuk pasukan itu diumumkan. = The bonus intended for the team was announced.

“Pada” is generally for locations, times, or inanimate recipients; in everyday speech some people use it with people, but for standard Malay prefer “kepada” for recipients.

• Colloquial but less formal: Bos menawarkan bonus pada pasukan.

Can I say “Bos menawarkan pasukan bonus” without “kepada”?

Better not. Without “kepada,” it sounds like the boss is offering the team as a bonus (i.e., “offering the team”), or it’s just ungrammatical/ambiguous. In Malay, the recipient is normally introduced with a preposition:

• ✅ Bos menawarkan bonus kepada pasukan.
• ❌ Bos menawarkan pasukan bonus. (ambiguous/wrong)

What is the structure of “menawarkan”?

It’s built from a root plus affixes:

• meN- + tawar + -kan → menawarkan

Details:

• Root tawar has meanings like “bland (taste),” “to haggle,” and by extension “offer.”
• The prefix meN- marks an active verb; before roots starting with “t,” the “t” drops and the prefix appears as men-: men- + (t)awar → menawar.
• The suffix -kan here creates a transitive verb that takes a thing being offered and (often) a recipient introduced with “kepada.”

Related words:

• tawaran = an offer
• tawar-menawar = bargaining/haggling

How would I indicate past, present, or future? Malay doesn’t have tenses, right?

Correct—Malay is tenseless; time is shown with particles or context.

• Past/completed: Bos sudah/telah menawarkan bonus kepada pasukan.
• Ongoing: Bos sedang menawarkan bonus kepada pasukan.
• Future: Bos akan menawarkan bonus kepada pasukan. Often, plain Bos menawarkan… is understood from context.

What’s the difference between “bos,” “ketua,” “pengurus,” and “majikan”?

• bos: casual/common for “boss.” Loanword; widely used in workplaces.
• ketua: “head/leader,” e.g., ketua pasukan (team leader), ketua jabatan (head of department).
• pengurus: “manager,” a specific job role.
• majikan: “employer” (the person/company that employs you). Choose based on role and formality:
• Pengurus menawarkan bonus… (manager)
• Majikan menawarkan bonus… (employer)
• Ketua pasukan mengumumkan bonus… (team leader announced…)

Does “pasukan” always mean “team”? Could I use “kumpulan” or “skuad”?

• pasukan: “team,” also “troop(s)/unit” (e.g., pasukan bola sepak, pasukan keselamatan).
• kumpulan: “group,” broader and not necessarily a team.
• skuad: “squad,” common in sports. In corporate or sports contexts, pasukan is natural for “team.” Note that Indonesian often uses tim; in Malay, pasukan or skuad are more standard.

Why use “-kan” here? Is there a “-i” version like in Indonesian?

In standard Malay, the verb is menawarkan (with -kan). A “-i” counterpart like “menawari” is Indonesian and not standard in Malay. With menawarkan, the recipient is typically introduced with kepada:

• menawarkan [thing] kepada [recipient]

How do I make this passive?

Several options, depending on what you want to foreground:

• Object-focused passive: Bonus ditawarkan kepada pasukan (oleh bos).
• Recipient-focused passive (acceptable in Malay): Pasukan ditawarkan bonus (oleh bos).
• Relative clause focus: Bonus yang ditawarkan bos kepada pasukan itu… “Oleh bos” is often optional when the agent is obvious or unimportant.

How would I replace “kepada pasukan” with a pronoun?

Use “kepada” + pronoun, or the fused forms:

• kepada mereka = to them
• kepadanya = to him/her
• kepada kami/kita = to us (exclusive/inclusive) Examples:
• Bos menawarkan bonus kepada mereka.
• Bos menawarkan bonus kepadanya.

How do I negate it or say “not yet”?

• Simple negation: Bos tidak menawarkan bonus kepada pasukan.
• Not yet: Bos belum menawarkan bonus kepada pasukan.
• If you need emphasis that something else is true: Bukannya is used for contrast, e.g., Bos memberi cuti, bukannya menawarkan bonus.

Are there better word choices than “menawarkan” depending on the nuance?

• menawarkan = to offer (no commitment yet).
• memberi/ memberikan = to give (it actually happens).
• menjanjikan = to promise (commitment).
• mengumumkan = to announce (communicate publicly). Choose based on meaning:
• Bos memberikan bonus kepada pasukan. (He gives it.)
• Bos menjanjikan bonus kepada pasukan. (He promises it.)

Do I need articles like “the/a”? How do I say “the team” or “a boss”?

Malay has no articles. Use demonstratives or numerals/classifiers when needed.

• “the”: itu after the noun: pasukan itu, bos itu
• “a/an (one)”: seorang for people; sebuah for certain countable things or organizations; often omitted if not needed. Examples:
• Bos itu menawarkan bonus kepada pasukan itu.
• Seorang bos menawarkan bonus… (one/a boss; context-dependent) Usually, Bos menawarkan bonus kepada pasukan is enough.

Pronunciation tips for this sentence?

• bos: like “boss” but with a short vowel; [bɔs]~[bos].
• menawarkan: meh-NAH-wahr-kahn (Malay stress is light, usually penultimate).
• bonus: BOH-noos (short vowels).
• kepada: kuh-PAH-dah.
• pasukan: pah-SOO-kahn. Malay vowels are typically pure and short; consonants are crisp (no schwa-inflation at ends).

How can I add detail about the type or amount of bonus?

Attach a describing phrase after “bonus”:

• bonus sebulan gaji = a one-month-salary bonus
• bonus prestasi = performance bonus
• bonus tahunan = annual bonus
• bonus khas = special bonus Example:
• Bos menawarkan bonus sebulan gaji kepada pasukan.