Breakdown of Saya ada tiga adik-beradik, dan kami semua sayang antara satu sama lain.
Questions & Answers about Saya ada tiga adik-beradik, dan kami semua sayang antara satu sama lain.
Both mean “I have three siblings”, but:
Saya ada…
- Very common in everyday spoken Malay.
- Sounds more casual and natural in conversation.
Saya mempunyai…
- More formal, often seen in writing, speeches, or exams.
- In casual speech it can sound a bit stiff.
In normal conversation, Saya ada tiga adik-beradik is more typical.
Literally, adik = younger sibling; adik-beradik is a reduplicated form meaning all siblings as a group (both older and younger).
So:
- adik alone = specifically younger sibling.
- adik-beradik = your siblings in general (brothers and sisters), not just the younger ones.
In this sentence, tiga adik-beradik is best understood as three siblings (in total).
It can be ambiguous and depends on context and local usage.
Common interpretations:
Total including the speaker:
- “There are three siblings in my family (me + 2 others).”
- Many Malaysians use Saya ada tiga adik-beradik to mean this.
Three other siblings besides me:
- “I have three siblings (so 4 children including me).”
- Also possible, and sometimes people clarify with context or add details:
- Saya empat beradik, saya anak sulung. = “We are four siblings; I’m the eldest.”
In isolation, Saya ada tiga adik-beradik is often taken as “There are three of us in total,” but you need context to be 100% sure.
You often hear:
- Saya ada tiga orang adik-beradik.
Here, orang is a classifier for people. This is:
- Grammatically complete
- Very common in both speech and writing.
But in casual speech, many people drop orang and just say:
- Saya ada tiga adik-beradik.
Both are acceptable in conversation. In formal writing or exams, tiga orang adik-beradik is safer.
Both mean “we/us”, but:
- kami = we (excluding the person you are talking to).
- “we (but not you)”
- kita = we (including the person you are talking to).
- “you and I / all of us including you”
In this sentence:
- kami semua sayang antara satu sama lain
means “we (the siblings) all love one another”, clearly not including the listener.
So kami is the correct choice.
semua means “all”.
- kami = we
- kami semua = all of us
You could say:
- Kami sayang antara satu sama lain.
- Kami semua sayang antara satu sama lain.
Both are grammatical. Kami semua:
- Emphasizes that every single one of the siblings loves the others.
- Sounds very natural in this kind of sentence.
Without semua, the meaning is still clear, just slightly less emphatic.
sayang is a very flexible word. It can mean:
- love (romantic or family)
- affection
- fondness / care
In this context (siblings), sayang means:
- “love”, “care about”, “are affectionate towards”.
It is not automatically romantic; for family it is normally family love / affection.
So kami semua sayang antara satu sama lain ≈ “we all love/care for one another deeply.”
There are two common patterns:
Base verb “sayang” without an object:
- Kami semua sayang antara satu sama lain.
Here, the object is understood from antara satu sama lain (“one another”), so you don’t need to mark it directly after sayang. This is very natural and common.
- Kami semua sayang antara satu sama lain.
Transitive verb “menyayangi” with an object:
- Kami semua saling menyayangi.
- Kami menyayangi antara satu sama lain. (less common, a bit heavy/redundant)
In speech, kami semua sayang antara satu sama lain and kami semua saling menyayangi are both natural, with the first one sounding a bit simpler.
Literally:
- antara = between / among
- satu = one
- sama = same
- lain = other
So antara satu sama lain is roughly:
- “between one and another” / “among each other”
Functionally, it means “one another / each other”.
It’s long because Malay expresses “each other” with a phrase, not a single pronoun.
Equivalent English meaning: “we all love one another.”
You can express mutual action in several ways:
Kami semua sayang antara satu sama lain.
- “We all love one another.” (as in your sentence)
Kami semua saling sayang-menyayangi.
- Using saling (“mutually”) + a reduplicated verb.
- Sounds a bit more formal or literary.
Kami semua saling menyayangi.
- Simple and natural: “We all love each other.”
Using saling together with antara satu sama lain is possible but can sound wordy or redundant in everyday speech. Usually you pick one pattern.
Grammatically yes:
- Kami semua sayang. = “We all love/care [about someone or something].”
But then the object is unclear:
- Love whom? Each other? Our parents? Our country?
antara satu sama lain specifies that the love is within the group (the siblings). So, for the intended meaning, you should keep it or use another “mutual” construction like saling menyayangi.
In Malay:
- dan = “and”, used to join clauses or phrases.
- A comma cannot replace dan when connecting two full clauses in standard writing.
So:
- Saya ada tiga adik-beradik, dan kami semua sayang antara satu sama lain. ✅
Correct and clear.
In very casual writing (texts, chats), people might sometimes drop dan, but in proper Malay, keep dan between the two clauses.
Malay can drop pronouns when the subject is very clear from context, especially in conversation. For example, if you already talked about yourself:
- Ada tiga adik-beradik, dan kami semua sayang antara satu sama lain.
Listeners will understand saya is the subject of ada, but:
- In a stand-alone sentence like yours,
- Especially for learners or in writing,
it’s better to keep both Saya and kami to avoid confusion and to sound complete:
- Saya ada tiga adik-beradik, dan kami semua sayang antara satu sama lain. ✅
No. adik-beradik is gender-neutral:
- It just means siblings (brothers and/or sisters).
- If you want to be specific, you add more information, e.g.:
- Saya ada tiga orang adik-beradik: dua kakak dan seorang adik lelaki.
“I have three siblings: two older sisters and a younger brother.”
- Saya ada tiga orang adik-beradik: dua kakak dan seorang adik lelaki.
In the given sentence, adik-beradik only tells you the number of siblings, not their genders.