Learn Hardcore Malay: Doktor kata berjoging adalah senaman mudah yang baik untuk badan. - The doctor says jogging is an easy exercise that is good for the body.

kata (without ber-) is very common in spoken and neutral written Malay.
berkata sounds more formal or bookish and is more common in written/formal contexts.

Both are possible, but “Doktor kata …” is a natural, conversational way to report speech.

Why doesn’t the sentence use “bahawa” after “kata”, like “Doktor kata bahawa…”?

You can actually say “Doktor kata bahawa berjoging adalah senaman mudah yang baik untuk badan.” and it’s correct.

bahawa = “that” (as in “He said that jogging is …”)
In everyday Malay, bahawa is often dropped, especially after common reporting verbs like kata, cakap, beritahu.

So:

With bahawa: more formal, more written style.
Without bahawa: very natural in speech and informal/neutral writing.

The meaning is the same; omitting bahawa just sounds more colloquial.

What exactly is “berjoging”, and why does it have the prefix ber-? Could I just say “joging”?

berjoging is a verb meaning “to jog / to go jogging”.

joging on its own is a noun (“jogging” the activity).
The prefix ber- often turns a noun into an intransitive verb meaning “to do that activity / to be in that state”.

So:

joging = jogging (noun)
berjoging = to jog / to be (engaged in) jogging (verb)

In this sentence:

Berjoging adalah senaman mudah…
“Jogging (the act of jogging) is an easy exercise…”

If you said Joging adalah senaman mudah…, it would still be understandable, but berjoging is more clearly verbal and sounds more natural in this structure.

Why do we need “adalah” here? Can we say “Berjoging senaman mudah yang baik untuk badan”?

adalah is a kind of linking word / copula used mostly in formal or neutral written Malay to link a subject to a noun phrase or adjective phrase.

Berjoging adalah senaman mudah…
≈ “Jogging is an easy exercise…”

In spoken Malay, you can often drop adalah:

Berjoging senaman mudah yang baik untuk badan.

This would still be understood, but:

In formal writing, adalah is preferred here.
In very casual speech, people might omit it more freely.

So adalah is not always obligatory, but it makes the sentence sound neater and more standard.

What is the function of “yang” in “senaman mudah yang baik untuk badan”?

yang is a relative marker or linking word that introduces a phrase describing a noun.

Break the phrase down:

senaman = exercise
mudah = easy
yang baik untuk badan = which is good for the body

So:

senaman mudah yang baik untuk badan
= “an easy exercise that is good for the body”

The structure is:

[noun] [adjective] yang [extra description]

yang links the noun phrase senaman mudah to its further description baik untuk badan.

Could we just say “senaman mudah baik untuk badan” without “yang”?

Without yang, “senaman mudah baik untuk badan” sounds unnatural and grammatically off.

You have two roles to express:

mudah directly describes senaman (easy exercise).
baik untuk badan is an additional clause (“(which is) good for the body”).

Malay typically uses yang to introduce this kind of extra descriptive clause:

✔ senaman mudah yang baik untuk badan
“an easy exercise that is good for the body”

Without yang, the words mudah baik untuk badan just pile up and the structure is unclear. So yang is important here.

Why is the order “senaman mudah yang baik” and not “senaman yang baik dan mudah”?

Both are actually possible, but they have slightly different emphases:

senaman mudah yang baik untuk badan
- Base: senaman mudah (easy exercise)
- Then you further specify: yang baik untuk badan (which is good for the body)
- Slight emphasis: it’s easy, and also it’s good for the body.
senaman yang baik dan mudah untuk badan
- Base: senaman yang baik (exercise that is good)
- Then add: dan mudah (and easy)
- Slight emphasis: it’s good exercise, and it’s also easy (for the body).

Both are understandable. The original sentence uses a very typical pattern: one main adjective directly after the noun (mudah), and the rest of the description put into a yang-clause.

Why is it “untuk badan” and not something like “kepada badan”?

untuk generally means “for” in the sense of purpose / benefit:

baik untuk badan = good for the body (beneficial to the body)

kepada is closer to “to / towards” and is more used with:

people as indirect objects (e.g. beri buku kepada saya — give the book to me)
more abstract directions or recipients.

Here we talk about benefit, so:

✔ baik untuk badan
✘ baik kepada badan (sounds wrong/unnatural)

So untuk is the natural choice for “good for the body”.

What is the nuance of “badan” here? Could we also say “tubuh” or something else?

badan literally means “body” and is very common and neutral.

Alternatives:

tubuh = body (a bit more formal/literary)
tubuh badan = body (a fixed phrase, slightly formal)
kesihatan = health

All of these are possible, but with slightly different nuance:

baik untuk badan = good for the body (physical body in general)
baik untuk tubuh = good for the body (sounds slightly more formal)
baik untuk kesihatan = good for health (more abstract: overall health, not just the physical body)

The sentence uses badan to emphasize the physical body in a simple, everyday way.

How do we know if this means “The doctor says” or “The doctor said”? There’s no tense marker.

Malay does not have grammatical tense like English. The verb kata itself doesn’t change for past, present, or future.

The time reference is usually understood from:

context (what was said before)
explicit time words (tadi = earlier, semalam = yesterday, sekarang = now, etc.)

So:

Doktor kata berjoging adalah senaman mudah…
can mean:
- “The doctor says jogging is an easy exercise…”
- “The doctor said jogging is an easy exercise…”

If needed, you can add a time word:

Tadi doktor kata… = earlier the doctor said…
Setiap kali saya jumpa dia, doktor kata… = every time I meet him, the doctor says…

Can we change the order and say “Doktor kata senaman mudah yang baik untuk badan adalah berjoging.”?

Yes, that sentence is grammatically correct:

Doktor kata senaman mudah yang baik untuk badan adalah berjoging.
“The doctor says that an easy exercise that is good for the body is jogging.”

Differences:

Original: Berjoging adalah senaman mudah…
Focuses first on berjoging (jogging) and then explains what it is.
Variant: Senaman mudah yang baik untuk badan adalah berjoging.
Focuses first on the kind of exercise, then identifies it as jogging.

Both are correct; choice depends on what you want to emphasize. The original is a bit more natural when introducing jogging as the topic.

What’s the difference between “adalah” and “ialah”? Could we use “ialah” here?

Both adalah and ialah function as copulas (linking words like “is/are”), but they have typical usage patterns:

ialah is commonly used when:
- The subject is a pronoun (e.g. Saya ialah…)
- Or you’re doing a definition / identification:
  Senaman mudah yang baik untuk badan ialah berjoging.
  “The easy exercise that is good for the body is jogging.”
adalah is more neutral and often used when:
- The subject is followed by an adjective phrase or descriptive noun phrase:
  Berjoging adalah senaman mudah yang baik untuk badan.

So:

✔ Berjoging adalah senaman mudah yang baik untuk badan.
✔ Senaman mudah yang baik untuk badan ialah berjoging.

You normally wouldn’t say:

✘ Berjoging ialah senaman mudah… (sounds a bit off in standard usage, though might be heard in speech)

In the given sentence, adalah is the more natural choice.