Questions & Answers about Kanak-kanak itu bermain bola di taman.
Does kanak-kanak mean child or children? Why is it written with a hyphen?
Kanak-kanak is a reduplicated noun that usually means children as a group.
Malay often uses reduplication (repeating a word) to express plurality or a collective idea.
- Base form: kanak (rarely used on its own in modern speech; the common everyday word is budak or anak for “child”).
- Reduplicated: kanak-kanak → generally “children”.
However, Malay doesn’t strictly mark singular vs plural on the noun, so kanak-kanak itu can mean the child or the children, depending on context. To make it clearly singular or plural, you normally add a classifier and number:
- seorang kanak-kanak – one child
- dua orang kanak-kanak – two children
What does itu mean here? Is it the, that, or something else?
Itu is a demonstrative that literally means that. In Malay it also often functions like the English definite article the, pointing to something specific that is known in the context.
So:
- kanak-kanak – a child / children (not specific)
- kanak-kanak itu – that (specific) child / those (specific) children, often translated simply as the child / the children.
Word order is noun + itu:
kanak-kanak itu = that/the child(ren),
not itu kanak-kanak in this sentence pattern.