Learn Hardcore Malay: Setiap hujung minggu, saya berjoging di taman dengan isteri saya. - Every weekend, I jog in the park with my wife.

Setiap hujung minggu = every weekend (repeated/habitual action).
Hujung minggu alone usually means (the) weekend in a more general sense.
Pada hujung minggu = on the weekend / at the weekend (refers to that time, but doesn’t by itself mean every weekend).

So:

Setiap hujung minggu, saya berjoging… = I jog every weekend.
Pada hujung minggu, saya berjoging… = I jog on/at the weekend (often understood as habitual from context, but “every” is not explicitly stated).

If you want to clearly say it’s a regular, repeated activity, setiap hujung minggu is the clearest.

Can I move setiap hujung minggu to the end of the sentence? Does the meaning change?

Yes, you can move it, and the meaning stays basically the same:

Setiap hujung minggu, saya berjoging di taman dengan isteri saya.
Saya berjoging di taman dengan isteri saya setiap hujung minggu.

Both mean “Every weekend, I jog in the park with my wife.”

Small nuance:

Putting setiap hujung minggu at the beginning emphasizes when this happens.
Putting it at the end feels a bit more neutral, like additional information.

Grammatically, both are fine and very natural.

Why is there a comma after Setiap hujung minggu? Is it necessary?

When a time expression comes at the start, Malay often uses a comma after it, similar to English:

Setiap hujung minggu, saya berjoging…
Pada waktu pagi, dia pergi ke sekolah.

The comma helps separate the time phrase from the main clause.

Is it absolutely required? In casual writing or text messages, many people drop it. In more careful writing (essays, textbooks, formal texts), it’s standard and recommended to keep the comma.

What does the ber- prefix in berjoging do? Why not just say joging?

Ber- is a verbal prefix that often means something like “to do / be engaged in / have” a certain action or state.

joging = the noun “jogging” (a borrowed word from English).
berjoging = the verb “to jog / to go jogging”.

In many cases in Malay, to turn a borrowed noun of an activity into a verb, you add ber-:

basikal (bicycle) → berbasikal (to cycle)
karaoke → berkaraoke (to do karaoke)
joging → berjoging (to jog)

You might see people write joging as a verb informally, but berjoging is the more standard and clearly verbal form.

Is there any difference between berjoging and berlari?

Yes:

berjoging = to jog, usually a light, steady pace for exercise.
berlari = to run, can be slow or fast, but not specifically “jogging exercise.”

If you want to say you do light running for fitness (jogging), berjoging is the best, most direct match for English jog.

If you say:

Saya berlari di taman = I run in the park.
That could be for sport, in a hurry, playing a game, etc. The “jogging for exercise” idea isn’t as specific.

Why is it di taman and not ke taman? What’s the difference between di and ke?

di means “at / in / on” (location).
ke means “to” (movement towards a place).

In this sentence:

di taman = in the park / at the park (where the jogging happens).

If you used ke taman, you would be talking about going to the park:

Setiap hujung minggu, saya pergi ke taman dengan isteri saya.
= Every weekend, I go to the park with my wife.

So:

Use di when the verb describes something happening in/at a location (stay there).
Use ke when the verb describes movement towards a location.

Why do we say isteri saya and not just isteri? Doesn’t isteri already imply “my wife”?

Isteri by itself simply means “wife” (a wife in general, or someone’s wife). It does not automatically mean “my wife”.

To say “my wife”, you need to add a possessive word:

isteri saya = my wife
isteri awak = your wife
isteri dia = his/her wife

If you said just isteri, it would sound incomplete here, like saying “with wife” in English, without specifying whose wife. So isteri saya is necessary to show possession.

Can I say saya punya isteri instead of isteri saya?

You can say saya punya isteri, but:

isteri saya is the standard, natural, and preferred way in almost all contexts.
saya punya isteri literally means “the wife that I have” and sounds more colloquial or informal. It can sound wordy or a bit childish in some contexts.

So, for normal speech and writing, use:

Setiap hujung minggu, saya berjoging di taman dengan isteri saya.

Save saya punya… for very casual conversation or when you want to emphasize ownership in a particular way.

Can I drop the second saya and just say dengan isteri?

Grammatically you could say:

Setiap hujung minggu, saya berjoging di taman dengan isteri.

But it sounds incomplete or slightly odd, because isteri without any possessive (saya/awak/dia) is too vague. It’s like saying “with wife” in English.

Natural options:

dengan isteri saya = with my wife
dengan isteri aku = with my wife (but with aku, more informal)

So in this sentence, you should keep saya after isteri:
dengan isteri saya is the normal, clear form.

Why does saya appear twice? In English we only say “my” once.

Malay usually places the possessive pronoun after the noun:

isteri saya = my wife
isteri awak = your wife

Because of that, the subject pronoun saya at the start and the possessive saya at the end are actually doing two different jobs:

First saya = subject (I)
Second saya = possessive (my)

So:

…saya berjoging… = I jog
…dengan isteri saya = with my wife

This repetition is normal and not considered strange in Malay.

What tense is saya berjoging? How do I say “I will jog” or “I jogged”?

Malay verbs do not change form for tense (no -ed, -s, etc.). Saya berjoging can mean:

I jog
I am jogging
I was jogging
I will jog

The time is usually shown by context or by adding time words:

Setiap hujung minggu, saya berjoging…
→ Because of setiap hujung minggu, we understand this as a habitual action: I (usually) jog every weekend.

To be clearer:

Saya akan berjoging di taman. = I will jog in the park.
Semalam saya berjoging di taman. = Yesterday I jogged in the park.
Sekarang saya sedang berjoging. = Right now I am jogging.

But the verb form berjoging itself doesn’t change.

Is hujung minggu the same as “weekend”? Are there other ways to say this in Malay?

Yes, hujung minggu is the standard Malay way to say “weekend.”

Other related expressions in Malay (Malaysia/Singapore):

hujung minggu = weekend
pada hujung minggu = on/at the weekend
setiap hujung minggu = every weekend

In Indonesian, you’ll usually see akhir pekan for “weekend,” but for Malay learners, hujung minggu is the form you want to remember.

Could I say Setiap hujung minggu saya berjoging di taman dengan isteri saya without the comma?

Yes, you can. It would still be correct and understandable:

Setiap hujung minggu saya berjoging di taman dengan isteri saya.

In everyday informal writing (messages, chats), many people skip the comma. In more formal or careful writing, the comma after a fronted time phrase is recommended:

Setiap hujung minggu, saya berjoging di taman dengan isteri saya.

Are there more informal ways to say isteri saya and saya in this sentence?

Yes, Malay has register differences:

saya = polite/neutral “I” (good default)
aku = informal “I” (with friends, family, close people)

For wife:

isteri = neutral, standard, polite
bini = very informal/colloquial, can sound rough or “kampung” depending on context and tone

So more informal versions could be:

Setiap hujung minggu, aku berjoging di taman dengan isteri aku. (casual, but still polite)
Setiap hujung minggu, aku berjoging di taman dengan bini aku. (very casual/rough; use with care)

For learners, stick with the original:

Setiap hujung minggu, saya berjoging di taman dengan isteri saya.
It’s polite, natural, and widely appropriate.