Learn Hardcore Malay: Bila saya tertekan di pejabat, saya buat senaman ringan di rumah. - When I am stressed at the office, I do light exercises at home.

bila
- Very common in speech.
- Can mean when (in statements) or when/what time (in questions).
- In your sentence it is fine and sounds natural in everyday Malay.
apabila
- More formal; very common in writing (articles, textbooks, official documents).
- In this sentence you can replace bila with apabila without changing the meaning:
  Apabila saya tertekan di pejabat, saya buat senaman ringan di rumah.
- That sounds a bit more formal or written.
ketika
- Often used for when/at the time that, especially for longer or more descriptive situations.
- More common in writing and narratives.
- You could say:
  Ketika saya tertekan di pejabat, saya buat senaman ringan di rumah.
  This is grammatical, but ketika often feels more like “at the time when / during the time when”, and it’s a bit literary/formal.

For everyday spoken Malay, bila is the most natural choice here.

Does bila here mean when or if? How can I tell?

In Malay, bila can cover both when and if, depending on context:

Here, Bila saya tertekan di pejabat, saya buat senaman ringan di rumah.
is best understood as When I’m stressed at the office, I do light exercise at home.
It implies that this is your usual reaction whenever that situation happens.
If the speaker wanted a more conditional if, they might also use kalau or jika:
- Kalau saya tertekan di pejabat, saya buat senaman ringan di rumah.
- Jika saya tertekan di pejabat, saya buat senaman ringan di rumah.

Clues:

If it describes a habitual cause–effect pattern, bila usually reads as when(ever).
If it’s a hypothetical or one‑time condition, context may push the sense closer to if.

In most daily speech, people don’t sharply separate when and if the way English does, so bila is flexible.

Why is saya repeated in both clauses? Could I say Bila tertekan di pejabat, saya buat… instead?

Repeating saya is normal and very clear:

Bila saya tertekan di pejabat, saya buat senaman ringan di rumah.
- First clause subject: saya
- Second clause subject: saya

You can drop the subject in the first clause if it’s clearly the same person:

Bila tertekan di pejabat, saya buat senaman ringan di rumah.

This is still natural in informal speech or writing, because Malay often omits pronouns when they are obvious from context.

Differences:

With saya repeated: more explicit and slightly more neutral/standard.
Without saya in the first clause: a bit shorter, more colloquial/relaxed, but still correct.

You should keep saya in the second clause; dropping both would sound too vague:
✗ Bila tertekan di pejabat, buat senaman ringan di rumah. (Who is doing it?)

Is tertekan a verb or an adjective here? How does the prefix ter- work?

Functionally, tertekan here behaves like an adjective meaning stressed or under pressure:

saya tertekan ≈ I am stressed / I feel stressed

About ter-:

The root tekan means to press / to push (down).
The prefix ter- has several functions in Malay; one of them is to form states or conditions, often passive or unintentional.
In everyday usage, tertekan has developed the fixed meaning emotionally stressed.

So:

Grammatically in the sentence, it describes your state (like an adjective).
Morphologically, it’s a ter- form of the verb tekan, but you don’t need to analyze it every time; you can just learn tertekan = stressed.

Could I use stres instead of tertekan? Is there any difference in tone or meaning?

Yes, stres (from English stress) is also very common:

Bila saya stres di pejabat, saya buat senaman ringan di rumah.

Differences:

tertekan
- More “Malay‑sounding”, slightly more neutral/standard.
- Often used for feeling emotional pressure or being overwhelmed.
stres
- Informal, everyday speech, especially among younger speakers or in urban areas.
- Clearly borrowed from English, very common in conversations.

In this sentence, both are natural.
If you were writing something more formal (e.g., an essay), tertekan would be slightly safer. In casual speech, stres is totally fine.

What is the difference between buat senaman, bersenam, and melakukan senaman?

All relate to doing exercise, but they differ slightly in form and style:

buat senaman
- buat = to do/make
- senaman = exercise
- Very common, especially in speech: buat senaman = do exercise.
- Your sentence: saya buat senaman ringan di rumah is natural and everyday.
bersenam
- ber-
  - senam: intransitive verb meaning to exercise.
- You could say:
  - Bila saya tertekan di pejabat, saya bersenam ringan di rumah.
    (or more commonly just saya bersenam di rumah; ringan is often omitted here).
- Slightly more compact and “standard”.
melakukan senaman
- melakukan = to perform/do (a bit more formal register than buat).
- melakukan senaman ringan di rumah sounds more formal or written, maybe in health brochures or articles.

In casual speech, buat senaman and bersenam are the most typical.

Why is there no word for am or get in saya tertekan? How is tense shown in this sentence?

Malay does not use separate verbs like am, is, are, get in the same way English does:

saya tertekan
Can mean:
- I am stressed
- I get stressed
- I feel stressed (in that situation)

Tense and aspect are usually understood from context, not from verb changes:

No change to the word tertekan itself.
If needed, Malay can add adverbs or particles to clarify time:
- Dulu saya tertekan… = I used to be stressed…
- Sekarang saya tertekan… = Now I am stressed…

In your sentence, the pattern Bila …, saya buat … is understood as a habitual or whenever meaning, so saya tertekan is interpreted as “whenever I am/feel/get stressed.”

Can I move the bila clause to the end: Saya buat senaman ringan di rumah bila saya tertekan di pejabat? Does the meaning change?

Yes, you can move the clause, and the meaning stays essentially the same:

Original:
Bila saya tertekan di pejabat, saya buat senaman ringan di rumah.
Alternative:
Saya buat senaman ringan di rumah bila saya tertekan di pejabat.

Both mean that whenever you are stressed at the office, you do light exercise at home.

Differences:

Starting with Bila… puts a little more emphasis on the condition/situation.
Putting bila… at the end feels slightly more conversational and flowing, like how people naturally speak.

Both word orders are very common and correct.

What does ringan literally mean, and can it be used in other contexts besides senaman ringan?

ringan literally means light (the opposite of heavy = berat).

In senaman ringan, it’s light exercise: not too intense, gentle.

Other common uses:

beg ringan = light bag
kerja yang ringan = light work (not physically or mentally heavy)
hukuman ringan = light punishment
makanan yang ringan = light food / snacks (often snek ringan or makanan ringan)

So you can use ringan anytime you mean not heavy, not intense, or mild.

Is di always used before places like pejabat and rumah? Are there times when Malay drops di?

In general, when you say at/in/on + place, you use di:

di pejabat = at the office
di rumah = at home
di sekolah = at school
di Kuala Lumpur = in Kuala Lumpur

Malay usually does not drop di before normal place nouns, so:

✗ saya tertekan pejabat (incorrect)
✓ saya tertekan di pejabat (correct)

Where you might not see di:

Inside certain compound nouns where di has become fixed as part of the word (e.g. dinding, dipan historically), but these are exceptions and not productive patterns.
In very casual chat, people sometimes shorten or omit words, but grammatically, di + place is the rule.

So in your sentence, di pejabat and di rumah are exactly what you should use.

Is it okay to say di ofis instead of di pejabat?

Yes, ofis is a common informal borrowing from English office:

di pejabat = at the office (more standard/formal)
di ofis = at the office (informal, everyday speech)

In conversation, many people will naturally say:

Bila saya tertekan di ofis, saya buat senaman ringan di rumah.

In writing (especially formal or academic), pejabat is preferred.

Do I need the comma after the bila clause? How are commas used with bila sentences?

The comma is used the same way as in English when you start with a when/if clause:

When the bila clause comes first:
- Bila saya tertekan di pejabat, saya buat senaman ringan di rumah.
  The comma is standard and recommended.
When the bila clause comes second:
- Saya buat senaman ringan di rumah bila saya tertekan di pejabat.
  Usually no comma is used.

So:

[Bila-clause] , [main clause]. → comma after the bila clause
[Main clause] [bila-clause]. → normally no comma in the middle.