Breakdown of Adik saya takut apabila kilat kuat pada waktu malam.
Questions & Answers about Adik saya takut apabila kilat kuat pada waktu malam.
Adik means younger sibling in a gender‑neutral way. It can be:
- a younger brother
- a younger sister
- sometimes, any younger child or younger person (as a polite form of address)
So Adik saya means my younger sibling; you only know whether it’s a brother or sister from context, not from the word adik itself.
In Malay, possession is usually NOUN + PRONOUN:
- adik saya = my younger sibling
- rumah saya = my house
- kawan saya = my friend
So adik saya = my younger sibling.
Saya adik does not mean “my younger sibling”. It would be understood more like I am the younger sibling (and even that sounds incomplete; you’d usually say Saya adik bongsu = I am the youngest child). For “my younger sibling”, always use adik saya.
Takut can function both as:
- a stative verb: to be afraid / to fear
- an adjective: afraid
Malay often does not use a separate verb like “to be” (is/are/am) before adjectives or stative verbs. So:
- Adik saya takut.
Literally: My younger sibling afraid.
Meaning: My younger sibling is afraid.
There is no need to add a word for “is” (like ialah or adalah) before takut. The pattern [subject] + [adjective/stative verb] already means “subject is [adjective]”.
Apabila means “when” (introducing a time clause), and it is quite formal or neutral.
Common alternatives:
- bila – also “when”, more informal / conversational.
- Adik saya takut bila kilat kuat… (very natural in speech)
- ketika – “when / at the time when”, slightly more literary/formal, often used for specific moments.
- semasa – “when / during”, emphasizes during the period something happens.
In this sentence, for everyday speech, many people would say:
- Adik saya takut bila kilat kuat pada waktu malam.
In writing or more formal contexts, apabila is perfectly appropriate.
Kilat means lightning (the flash), not thunder (the sound).
Words related to storms:
- kilat – lightning
- petir – lightning (often used together with thunder context)
- guruh / guntur – thunder (more formal/literary)
The phrase kilat kuat literally means “the lightning is strong/intense”. In natural English, people often talk about being scared of thunder or thunderstorms, so the meaning might be conveyed as “when the storm is strong at night” or “when the thunder is loud at night,” but the Malay sentence literally refers to strong lightning.
Kuat mainly means “strong”, but its meaning extends to several related ideas, depending on context:
- physical strength:
- lelaki kuat = a strong man
- intensity of wind/rain/lightning:
- angin kuat = strong wind
- hujan kuat = heavy rain
- kilat kuat = strong/intense lightning
- loud sounds:
- bunyi kuat = loud sound
- muzik kuat = loud music
In kilat kuat, kuat is describing the intensity of the lightning, something like “strong” or “very intense”. If the focus were specifically on loud thunder, you’d usually see something like bunyi guruh kuat (the sound of thunder is loud).
In Malay, adjectives typically come after the noun they describe:
- rumah besar = big house
- anjing hitam = black dog
- hujan lebat = heavy rain
- kilat kuat = strong/intense lightning
So the pattern is [noun] + [adjective].
Therefore kilat kuat (lightning strong) is correct, and kuat kilat would sound wrong or at least very odd in this context.
In ordinary speech, Malay doesn’t usually use adalah or ialah before adjectives.
- Kilat kuat. = The lightning is strong. (normal)
- Kilat itu kuat. = The lightning is strong. (also normal; itu adds “that/the”)
Adalah is mainly used in more formal writing to link a subject to a noun phrase, not usually to an adjective:
- Tujuan kajian ini adalah untuk…
= The purpose of this study is to…
So:
- Kilat kuat – natural, normal.
- Kilat itu kuat – also fine, slightly more specific (“that lightning is strong”).
- Kilat adalah kuat – grammatically possible in very formal or didactic style, but sounds stiff and is not how people normally speak.
Pada is a preposition that often corresponds to “at / on / in” for time expressions:
- pada pukul tiga = at three o’clock
- pada hari Isnin = on Monday
- pada tahun 2020 = in 2020
- pada waktu malam = at night / during the night
In pada waktu malam, pada is correct and natural, especially in writing or careful speech.
In casual speech, Malays often drop pada with time expressions:
- waktu malam – at night / nighttime
- malam – at night
So you may also hear:
- Adik saya takut bila kilat kuat waktu malam.
- Adik saya takut bila kilat kuat malam. (very colloquial)
All three are understandable; pada waktu malam is the most complete and neutral.
All relate to night / nighttime, and they often overlap in meaning:
- malam
- literally “night”
- very common, can stand alone: Saya belajar malam. = I study at night.
- waktu malam
- literally “night time”
- slightly more explicit: pada waktu malam = at night (during the nighttime)
- malam hari
- literally “night day” (idiomatic: the nighttime part of the day)
- often somewhat more descriptive or literary, but also used in speech:
- Pada malam hari, jalan ini sunyi. = At night, this road is quiet.
In your sentence, pada waktu malam could be replaced with pada malam or pada malam hari with essentially the same meaning. The differences are mostly stylistic, not grammatical.
Malay generally does not mark tense (past/present/future) on the verb. Instead, it relies on:
- time words (semalam, tadi, nanti, selalu, setiap malam, etc.)
- context
The sentence Adik saya takut apabila kilat kuat pada waktu malam by itself is most naturally understood as a general habit:
- My younger sibling is (always) afraid when the lightning is strong at night.
To make it clearly about one specific past event, you would normally add a time marker:
- Malam tadi adik saya takut apabila kilat kuat.
= Last night my younger sibling was afraid when the lightning was strong.
To emphasize a habitual action, you could say:
- Setiap malam adik saya takut apabila kilat kuat.
= Every night my younger sibling is afraid when the lightning is strong.