Breakdown of Saya tarik nafas perlahan sebelum menjawab soalan serius.
Questions & Answers about Saya tarik nafas perlahan sebelum menjawab soalan serius.
Literally, tarik = pull, nafas = breath.
So tarik nafas literally means “pull breath”.
Idiomatic meaning: “inhale / take a breath”. Malay conceptualises breathing as tarik nafas (inhale) and hembus nafas (exhale). This is the normal, natural way to say “take a breath”, not a strange metaphor.
In everyday Malay, the fixed expression is tarik nafas for “take a breath / breathe in”.
You will also see mengambil nafas or ambil nafas, but they are less common and can sound more formal or “written”.
For basic spoken Malay, always think of:
- tarik nafas = breathe in
- hembus nafas = breathe out
So tarik is chosen because it is part of this standard collocation.
Here, perlahan is an adverb describing how the action is done: tarik nafas perlahan = “take a breath slowly”.
You can also say:
- tarik nafas perlahan-lahan – often feels more emphasised, like “very slowly / slowly and gradually”.
- tarik nafas dengan perlahan – more formal or careful style.
All three are grammatically correct. The original perlahan is neutral, everyday style.
Malay usually does not mark tense directly on the verb. Tarik is the same form for past, present, or future.
The time relationship in the sentence comes from:
- sebelum = before
So Saya tarik nafas perlahan sebelum menjawab soalan serius is understood as: “I took / take / will take a slow breath before answering the serious question”, depending on context.
If you want to make the past clear, you can add time words:
- Tadi saya tarik nafas perlahan sebelum menjawab soalan serius. = I earlier took a slow breath…
Sebelum means “before” and introduces the second action (answering). It links the two actions in time.
Your sentence:
- Saya tarik nafas perlahan sebelum menjawab soalan serius.
You can move the sebelum-clause to the front:
- Sebelum menjawab soalan serius, saya tarik nafas perlahan.
Both orders are correct and common. Putting sebelum… first can slightly emphasise the condition/time (“Before answering…, I…”), but the meaning is the same.
Jawab is the root word “answer / reply”.
Menjawab is the meN- verb form, roughly “to answer”.
In modern Malay:
- Both jawab and menjawab can function as verbs.
- Menjawab often sounds a bit more complete or standard in sentences like this, especially after a conjunction such as sebelum.
Possible variants:
- sebelum menjawab soalan serius – standard, neutral.
- sebelum jawab soalan serius – more informal / colloquial, but still heard in speech.
In Malay, descriptive words (adjectives) normally come after the noun.
- soalan serius = serious question
- soalan (noun) + serius (adjective)
- Saying serius soalan would be incorrect in standard Malay.
So the normal pattern is:
- buku baharu = new book
- kereta besar = big car
- soalan serius = serious question
Yes, soalan yang serius is also grammatically correct.
Differences:
- soalan serius – simple noun + adjective, very common and neutral.
- soalan yang serius – adds a bit of emphasis or makes it sound more like “the question that is serious”, sometimes more formal.
Yang is often used:
- To mark or emphasise the describing part: soalan yang sangat serius.
- When the description is longer: soalan yang susah untuk dijawab (the question that is hard to answer).
For a short, simple adjective like serius, soalan serius is the most natural.
You can drop saya, especially in informal speech or instructions, but the feel changes.
- Saya tarik nafas perlahan… – clear that I do it.
- Tarik nafas perlahan sebelum menjawab soalan serius. – sounds like an instruction or advice: “Take a slow breath before answering a serious question.”
Malay allows dropping subjects when context is very clear, but including saya here clearly marks it as a personal statement.
Both mean “I”, but they differ in formality and relationship:
- saya – polite, neutral, safe in almost all situations (formal or informal).
- aku – informal/intimate; used with close friends, family, or in song lyrics/poetry.
So:
- Saya tarik nafas perlahan… – neutral/polite.
- Aku tarik nafas perlahan… – more personal, casual, or emotional.
Learners are usually advised to default to saya until they fully understand the social context.
No, that would sound wrong in this context.
- tarik nafas is the set expression “take a breath”.
- If you say Saya tarik perlahan, it literally means “I pull slowly”, and listeners will expect an object (pull what?).
So you need nafas here to make the meaning clear and natural: tarik nafas.
You can modify nafas with panjang (long/deep) and strengthen perlahan:
- Saya tarik nafas panjang perlahan-lahan sebelum menjawab soalan serius.
Here:
- nafas panjang = a long/deep breath.
- perlahan-lahan = very slowly / slowly and gradually.
You could also say nafas yang dalam (deep breath), but nafas panjang is very common.
- tarik nafas – a single act of inhaling / taking a breath (a discrete action).
- bernafas – “to breathe” in general, continuous breathing.
So:
- Saya tarik nafas perlahan – I take one (or a few) slow breaths.
- Saya bernafas perlahan – I breathe slowly (in general, continuously).
In the original sentence, the focus is on that one deliberate breath before answering, so tarik nafas is the right choice.
In Malay, a comma before sebelum in this position is optional and less common.
More standard:
- Saya tarik nafas perlahan sebelum menjawab soalan serius. (no comma)
You usually see a comma when the sebelum-clause comes first:
- Sebelum menjawab soalan serius, saya tarik nafas perlahan.
So the punctuation pattern is slightly different from English, even though the meaning is the same.
The sentence is generally neutral and slightly on the polite side because of saya.
- Vocabulary like tarik nafas, sebelum, menjawab, soalan serius is standard and suitable for spoken or written Malay.
- You could use this sentence in everyday conversation, in narration, or even in a formal text without it sounding out of place.