Learn Hardcore Malay: Abang saya sangat kelakar, jadi adik-beradik lain jarang tertekan di rumah. - My older brother is very funny, so the other siblings are rarely stressed at home.

So saya abang would be wrong for "my brother". It would sound like "I am a brother" (and even then, you’d normally say saya abang only in a very specific context and often with more words).

Is "abang" always a biological older brother, or can it be used more broadly?

Abang primarily means older brother in the family sense, but it’s also used more broadly:

Literal family meaning
- Abang saya = my older brother (same parents, or at least same family)
As a form of address
- Used to address a slightly older male (teen/young adult to middle-aged), especially in informal contexts:
  - Talking to a male shop assistant: Abang, berapa harga ini? (“Brother, how much is this?” / “Sir, how much is this?”)
- It carries a sense of friendliness or mild respect.
Important detail
- If you mean younger brother, you’d use adik (lelaki), not abang.
- For an older sister, you’d use kakak.

In your sentence, Abang saya is clearly your own older brother, not just any older male.

What is the difference between "sangat kelakar", "sangat lucu", and "sangat lawak"?

All three mean roughly "very funny", but with slightly different flavors:

sangat kelakar
- kelakar = funny, comical
- Common in everyday speech. Neutral and natural.
- Your sentence: Abang saya sangat kelakar = My older brother is very funny.
sangat lucu
- lucu also means funny/cute.
- Slightly more standard/formal feel depending on region.
- In many contexts it’s interchangeable with kelakar.
sangat lawak
- lawak as a noun means "joke" or "comedy".
- As an adjective: funny, jokey.
- Common in colloquial speech, especially with comedy shows (program lawak).

In normal conversation, sangat kelakar and sangat lucu are both fine. Kelakar is often heard in Malaysia; lucu is very common in Indonesia and also understood in Malaysia.

What exactly does "jadi" mean here, and how is it different from "jadi" meaning "to become"?

In your sentence:

… sangat kelakar, jadi adik-beradik lain jarang tertekan di rumah.

jadi means "so" / "therefore". It’s a connector showing cause and effect:

Abang saya sangat kelakar, jadi…
= My older brother is very funny, so / therefore …

This is different from jadi meaning "to become", for example:

Dia jadi marah. = He/she became angry.
Makanan itu jadi basi. = The food became spoiled.

So jadi can be:

A conjunction: so, therefore
A verb: to become

In your sentence, it’s clearly the conjunction.

What does "adik-beradik" mean, and why is there a hyphen?

Adik-beradik means "siblings".

adik alone = younger sibling
beradik comes from adik with the prefix ber-, and in this fixed expression adik-beradik the whole thing is understood as all the brothers and sisters (your siblings as a group).

The hyphen shows it’s a compound word formed by reduplication (or a fixed combination). You don’t translate it piece by piece; just treat adik-beradik as the word for siblings.

So:

adik-beradik saya = my siblings
adik-beradik lain = the other siblings

Why is it "adik-beradik lain" and not "adik-beradik yang lain"? Is there a difference?

Both are grammatically possible, but there’s a nuance:

adik-beradik lain
- Literally: other siblings
- Simple, straightforward.
- Means: the rest of the siblings, the ones other than the abang.
adik-beradik yang lain
- Also means the other siblings, but yang can make it a bit more specific/emphatic, like:
  - “the ones that are other / the ones who are different”
- Often used when you’re contrasting more strongly or being a bit more formal.

In this sentence, adik-beradik lain is natural and normal.
adik-beradik yang lain would also be correct, but maybe feels slightly heavier or more pointed.

Where does "jarang" usually go in a Malay sentence, and what exactly does it mean?

Jarang means "rarely" / "seldom".

In your sentence:

… adik-beradik lain jarang tertekan di rumah.
the other siblings rarely feel stressed at home.

Typical placement:

Before a verb or adjective it modifies:
- Dia jarang marah. = He/she rarely gets angry.
- Saya jarang makan di luar. = I rarely eat out.

So jarang tertekan = rarely stressed.

You generally wouldn’t move jarang far away; it stays before the verb/adjective it modifies.

What does "tertekan" mean exactly, and what does the prefix "ter-" do here?

Tertekan in modern usage usually means "stressed" (psychologically / emotionally).

tekan = to press
ter- is a prefix with several functions; one of them is to form adjectives describing a state or condition.

So in context, tertekan = in a state of pressure / under pressure → stressed.

A few points:

It’s often used like an adjective:
- Saya rasa tertekan. = I feel stressed.
There’s also the loanword stres:
- Saya stres. = I’m stressed.
tertekan can feel a bit more formal/written than stres, but both are widely understood.

In your sentence, jarang tertekan = rarely stressed.

How is tense shown in this sentence? It looks present tense in English, but there’s no tense marker in Malay.

Malay usually doesn’t mark tense with verb endings the way English does. Context and time words do the job.

Your sentence can mean:

Present/habitual:
“My older brother is very funny, so the other siblings rarely feel stressed at home.”
Past (if context makes it clear):
In a story about the past, the same sentence could mean "used to rarely feel stressed".

If you want to be explicit:

Dulu, abang saya sangat kelakar, jadi adik-beradik lain jarang tertekan di rumah.
= In the past, my older brother was very funny, so the other siblings rarely felt stressed at home.

So: no tense marking is needed; Malay relies heavily on context, plus optional time words like dulu (formerly), semalam (yesterday), sekarang (now), etc.

Why is it "di rumah" and not something like "di rumah itu" or "di rumah kami"? Does "di rumah" mean "at home" in general?

Yes. Di rumah usually means "at home", and it doesn’t need a pronoun if it’s clear from context whose home it is.

di = at / in / on (location preposition)
rumah = house / home

Common patterns:

Saya di rumah. = I am at home.
Kami jarang makan di rumah. = We rarely eat at home.

If you want to be more specific:

di rumah kami = at our house
di rumah mereka = at their house
di rumah itu = in that house (a specific house, maybe not "home")

In your sentence, di rumah naturally reads as "at home" (the family home).

Why does the sentence say "adik-beradik lain jarang tertekan di rumah" instead of just "kami jarang tertekan di rumah"?

Both are possible, but they focus on different subjects:

adik-beradik lain jarang tertekan di rumah
- Focuses on the other siblings (excluding the abang already mentioned).
- Meaning: “My older brother is very funny, so the other siblings rarely feel stressed at home.”
- Implies a contrast: abang vs the rest.
kami jarang tertekan di rumah
- kami = we (excluding the person you’re talking to)
- Meaning: “My older brother is very funny, so we rarely feel stressed at home.”
- Less explicit contrast; it just includes the speaker plus others.

The original sentence highlights how the rest of the siblings are affected by the funny older brother, which is why adik-beradik lain is used.

Could "abang saya" be replaced by a pronoun later in the sentence, like "dia", and if so, how would that look?

Yes, dia (“he/she”) can replace abang saya in a second clause to avoid repeating the noun:

Original:

Abang saya sangat kelakar, jadi adik-beradik lain jarang tertekan di rumah.

A version with dia (if you split it more clearly into two clauses):

Abang saya sangat kelakar. Dia membuatkan adik-beradik lain jarang tertekan di rumah.
= My older brother is very funny. He makes the other siblings rarely feel stressed at home.

In the original, jadi already connects cause and effect, so repeating abang saya or adding dia isn’t necessary. But in longer or more explicit sentences, you often use dia in the second clause.