Learn Hardcore Malay: Anak saya baring di lantai dan melihat jarak antara dua kerusi. - My child lies on the floor and looks at the distance between two chairs.

So “saya anak” would sound like “I (am a) child” or is just wrong word order for possession.
To say “my child”, always use Anak saya, not saya anak.

Why is the verb “baring” used and not “berbaring”? Are they different?

Both exist in Malay, but there are nuances and regional preferences:

baring – very common in everyday speech, especially in Malaysia. Means “to lie down” (physically).
- Saya baring di katil. = I lie down on the bed.
berbaring – more formal / standard, often found in writing or more careful speech, but also used in conversation.
- Saya berbaring di katil. = I lie down on the bed.

In your sentence, “Anak saya baring di lantai” is fully natural, especially in casual spoken Malay.
You could also say “Anak saya berbaring di lantai” with essentially the same meaning.

Should there be a word like “is” or “was” for the verb? Why does Malay just say “Anak saya baring…”?

Malay does not use a separate verb like “to be” (am/is/are/was) before an action verb.

English: My child *is lying on the floor.*
Malay: Anak saya baring di lantai.

The verb baring already carries the idea of “to lie down / be lying”.
You don’t need anything like “is” or “was” before baring.

If you want to emphasise that it’s happening right now, you can add sedang:

Anak saya sedang baring di lantai.
= My child is (currently) lying on the floor.

How do we know this sentence is in the past (“was lying”) and not present (“is lying”)? There’s no tense marker.

Malay normally has no tense endings like -ed, -s, or “will”. Time is understood from:

Context (earlier parts of the conversation/story)
Time words if needed (e.g. tadi = earlier, semalam = yesterday, sekarang = now)

So:

Anak saya baring di lantai dan melihat jarak antara dua kerusi.
Can mean:
- My child *is lying on the floor and (is) looking at the distance…*
  or
- My child *was lying on the floor and (was) looking at the distance…*

To make it explicitly past or present, you add time markers:

Tadi, anak saya baring di lantai… = Earlier, my child was lying on the floor…
Sekarang anak saya baring di lantai… = Right now, my child is lying on the floor…

Why “di lantai” and not “di atas lantai” for “on the floor”?

Both are possible, but the nuance is:

di lantai – literally “at/on the floor”. In context of lying down, it naturally means “on the floor”.
di atas lantai – literally “on top of the floor”, more explicit, sometimes slightly more formal or descriptive.

Most speakers just say di lantai in everyday conversation, because it’s obvious you’re on the floor, not inside it.

Examples:

Buku itu di lantai. – The book is on the floor.
Anak saya baring di lantai. – My child is lying on the floor.

Adding atas is not wrong; it just makes the “on top of” idea explicit:
Anak saya baring di atas lantai is also acceptable.

Why is it “melihat jarak antara dua kerusi” and not just “melihat dua kerusi”?

Because the child is specifically looking at the distance, not just looking at the chairs themselves.

melihat dua kerusi = looking at two chairs
melihat jarak antara dua kerusi = looking at the distance between two chairs

Breakdown:

melihat – to look at / to see (more formal; everyday speech often uses tengok or lihat)
jarak – distance
antara – between/among
dua kerusi – two chairs

So the phrase melihat jarak antara dua kerusi = “looking at the distance between two chairs”, which matches the intended meaning.

What’s the difference between “lihat”, “melihat”, and “tengok”?

They all relate to seeing/looking, but differ in formality and nuance:

melihat – more standard/formal; common in writing and careful speech.
- Dia sedang melihat peta. = He/She is looking at the map.
lihat – can be used as an imperative (command), or in some dialects as a simpler verb.
- Lihat gambar ini. = Look at this picture.
tengok – very common in casual conversation, especially in Malaysia; informal.
- Dia tengok TV. = He/She is watching TV.

In your sentence:

Anak saya baring di lantai dan melihat jarak antara dua kerusi. – feels neutral/standard.
Anak saya baring di lantai dan tengok jarak antara dua kerusi. – more colloquial.

What exactly does “jarak” mean, and how is it different from “jauh”?

Both relate to distance, but they’re used differently:

jarak – a noun, meaning distance.
- Jarak antara dua bandar itu jauh. = The distance between those two towns is far.
- melihat jarak antara dua kerusi = to look at the distance between two chairs
jauh – an adjective/adverb, meaning far (or “far away”).
- Rumah saya jauh. = My house is far.
- Kerusi itu terlalu jauh. = That chair is too far.

So in your sentence you must use jarak, because you’re talking about “the distance” (a thing), not describing something as “far”.

How does “antara” work here? Can it mean “among” as well as “between”?

Yes. antara can mean both:

between (two things)
among (more than two things, in some contexts)

In this sentence:

antara dua kerusi = between two chairs

Other examples:

Antara kamu berdua, siapa lebih tinggi?
= Between the two of you, who is taller?
Dia popular antara pelajar-pelajar di sekolahnya.
= He/She is popular among the students at his/her school.

Here, antara dua kerusi clearly means “between two chairs”.

Is it okay to say “dua buah kerusi” instead of “dua kerusi”? What does “buah” do?

Yes, it’s okay, and it can sound a bit more “complete”, but “buah” is optional here.

buah is a common classifier/measure word for many objects (including chairs), similar to “pieces of” in English.

So:

dua kerusi = two chairs
dua buah kerusi = two (units of) chairs → also “two chairs”, a bit more explicit

Everyday speech often drops the classifier when it’s clear:

Saya ada tiga kerusi. = I have three chairs.
Saya ada tiga buah kerusi. = also correct.

In your sentence, both are grammatical:

jarak antara dua kerusi
jarak antara dua buah kerusi

The meaning is the same; adding buah just uses the classifier.

Why don’t we repeat “Anak saya” before the second verb? Could we say “Anak saya baring di lantai dan anak saya melihat…”?

Malay usually does not repeat the same subject if two verbs share that subject and are joined by dan (“and”).

Anak saya baring di lantai dan melihat jarak antara dua kerusi.
= My child lies on the floor and looks at the distance between two chairs.

The subject Anak saya is understood to apply to both baring and melihat.

You could say:

Anak saya baring di lantai dan anak saya melihat jarak antara dua kerusi.

but it sounds heavy and unnatural unless you are:

stressing the subject, or
carefully contrasting with someone else (e.g., Anak saya baring… dan anak kamu melihat…).

Normally, you just state Anak saya once.

Is “Anak saya baring…” formal, informal, or neutral? Could I say “Anak aku baring…”?

The sentence as given is neutral and suitable for most situations.

saya – polite/neutral “I”; used in most formal and semi-formal contexts, also fine at home.
aku – informal “I”; used with close friends, family, casual speech (and songs, etc.).

So:

Anak saya baring di lantai… – neutral/polite.
Anak aku baring di lantai… – very casual/familiar.

Both are grammatically correct; choice depends on who you are talking to and how formal you want to sound.