Questions & Answers about Mereka duduk dekat.
Mereka is the standard Malay third-person plural pronoun meaning “they / them”.
It doesn’t show gender (it can mean they (men), they (women), or a mixed group), and it doesn’t show any formality level.
It’s roughly equivalent to English they when you’re talking about more than one person.
In normal Malay, mereka is used mainly for people (or groups treated like people, e.g. a company, a team).
For inanimate things, Malay often just repeats the noun or drops the pronoun instead of saying “they”.
- People: Murid-murid itu pandai. Mereka rajin. – Those students are smart. They are diligent.
- Objects: More natural is something like Buku-buku itu mahal. Semuanya mahal. – Those books are expensive. All of them are expensive.
So in Mereka duduk dekat, you should imagine people sitting near.
Literally, duduk means “to sit / be seated”. In your sentence, it clearly means they are sitting.
In everyday Malay, duduk is also very commonly used to mean “live / stay (somewhere)”:
- Saya duduk di Kuala Lumpur. – I live in Kuala Lumpur.
Which meaning is intended depends on context.
With dekat and no place name, like Mereka duduk dekat, people will almost always understand “they sit close (together / by something)”, not “they live near”.
On its own, Mereka duduk dekat is tense-neutral. It could mean:
- They are sitting close (right now).
- They sit close (as a general habit).
- They sat close (in the past).
Malay usually relies on time words or context to show tense:
- Tadi mereka duduk dekat. – Earlier they sat close.
- Sekarang mereka duduk dekat. – Now they are sitting close.
- Esok mereka akan duduk dekat. – Tomorrow they will sit close.
So you choose the English tense based on the context, not the Malay verb form.
Malay doesn’t need a separate verb like “to be” (am / is / are) in this kind of sentence.
The main verb duduk already carries the idea of the action/state: “(to) sit / be seated”.
So:
- Mereka duduk dekat.
Literally: They sit near / They are seated near.
You only see a special “to be” word (ialah, adalah) in different structures (mostly with nouns and more formal styles), not in simple verb sentences like this.
Dekat basically means “near / close” and can act as:
Adjective:
- Rumah itu dekat. – That house is near (not far away).
Adverb (how/where?):
- Mereka duduk dekat. – They sit close / nearby (to something understood).
Preposition-like, usually as dekat dengan + noun:
- Mereka duduk dekat dengan pintu. – They sit near the door.
- Rumah saya dekat dengan sekolah. – My house is near the school.
When you say what something is close to, use dekat dengan + noun.
When the reference point is obvious or not mentioned, dekat alone is fine.
Grammatically, Mereka duduk dekat is complete. It means “They sit close / They are sitting nearby.”
In real conversation, listeners will usually guess what they are near from context:
- Maybe near each other.
- Maybe near something previously mentioned (the door, the stage, the teacher, etc.).
If it isn’t clear from context and you want to be specific, you’d add the place:
- Mereka duduk dekat saya. – They sit near me.
- Mereka duduk dekat dengan tingkap. – They sit near the window.
All three can involve physical closeness, but the feel is slightly different:
duduk dekat – “sit near / close”.
Neutral; they’re not far from each other or from something.duduk rapat – “sit very close / right next to (each other)”.
Suggests tight / close contact, often shoulders touching or little space.duduk berdekatan – “sit near one another, in close proximity”.
Sounds a bit more formal or neutral-descriptive; common in writing or formal speech.
So:
- Casual: Mereka duduk dekat.
- Emphasizing closeness: Mereka duduk rapat.
- More formal: Mereka duduk berdekatan.
Yes, but the meaning changes.
Duduk dekat. without mereka is normally understood as an imperative:
- Duduk dekat. – Sit close (to each other) / Sit nearer.
Malay often drops the subject pronoun in commands, just like English “Sit down”.
If you want to describe what they’re doing (not tell them what to do), you keep Mereka:
- Mereka duduk dekat. – They are sitting close.
No, Mereka dekat duduk is not natural Malay.
The normal order is:
- Subject – Verb – (Place/Adverb)
- Mereka (S) duduk (V) dekat (adv).
Place and manner words like dekat usually come after the verb, not before it.
Correct patterns:
- Mereka duduk dekat.
- Mereka duduk dekat saya.
- Mereka duduk dekat dengan pintu.
Putting dekat before duduk would sound wrong here.
Use dekat (often dekat dengan) followed by the thing they’re near:
- Mereka duduk dekat saya. – They sit near me.
- Mereka duduk dekat dengan saya. – Same meaning; a bit more explicit.
- Mereka duduk dekat pintu. – They sit near the door.
- Mereka duduk dekat dengan pintu. – Also “They sit near the door.”
Both dekat X and dekat dengan X are common; dekat dengan is slightly more formal/explicit.
Mereka duduk dekat is neutral and standard, fine in most contexts (speech and writing).
In more casual, colloquial Malay, you might hear different pronouns or extra words:
- Diorang duduk dekat. – They sit close. (very informal diorang for mereka)
- Dorang duduk dekat-dekat. – They sit close together. (in some dialects)
But if you’re learning standard Malay, Mereka duduk dekat is a good, safe, neutral sentence.
Yes, dekat can be used for non-physical closeness, but usually with dengan and often about relationships:
- Dia sangat dekat dengan ibunya. – He/She is very close to his/her mother (emotionally).
For “They are close friends”, though, Malay more often uses rapat:
- Mereka sangat rapat. – They are very close (to each other).
- Mereka rapat sebagai kawan. – They are close as friends.
So Mereka duduk dekat is normally understood as physical nearness, not emotional closeness.