Jururawat memeriksa pesakit dengan hati-hati di hospital.

The nurse examines the patient carefully at the hospital.

Breakdown of Jururawat memeriksa pesakit dengan hati-hati di hospital.

• di: at
• memeriksa: to examine
• hospital: the hospital
• jururawat: the nurse
• pesakit: the patient
• dengan hati-hati: carefully

Questions & Answers about Jururawat memeriksa pesakit dengan hati-hati di hospital.

Why isn’t there a word for “the” or “a” before jururawat and pesakit?

Malay has no articles like “a / an” or “the”. Nouns such as jururawat (nurse) and pesakit (patient) stand on their own.

Whether you translate it as:

• “a nurse” / “the nurse”
• “a patient” / “the patient”

is decided by context, not by a special word in Malay.

If you really want to specify, you add other words, for example:

• seorang jururawat – a (single) nurse
• jururawat itu – that / the nurse
• seorang pesakit – a (single) patient
• pesakit itu – that / the patient

But the basic sentence Jururawat memeriksa pesakit dengan hati-hati di hospital. is neutral: “nurse examines patient carefully in hospital”, and you choose “a/the” in English according to the context.

How can I tell if jururawat and pesakit are singular or plural?

On their own, jururawat and pesakit can be singular or plural. Malay usually doesn’t mark plural nouns unless:

1. Context makes it obvious, or
2. A plural marker is added.

Ways to show plurality:

• para pesakit – the patients (formal, collective)
• jururawat-jururawat – nurses (reduplication shows plural)
• ramai pesakit – many patients
• beberapa jururawat – several nurses

So:

• Jururawat memeriksa pesakit…
  could be “The nurse is examining the patient” or “The nurses are examining the patients”, depending on context.

To force the plural meaning, you might say:

• Para jururawat memeriksa para pesakit dengan hati-hati di hospital.
  “The nurses examined the patients carefully at the hospital.”

Why is it memeriksa and not just periksa?

Periksa is the root meaning “check / examine / inspect”.

The form memeriksa is the active verb formed with the prefix meN-:

• periksa → memeriksa

The prefix meN- (which has several shapes: mem-, men-, meng-, etc.) turns many roots into active verbs:

• baca → membaca – to read
• ajar → mengajar – to teach
• tulis → menulis – to write
• periksa → memeriksa – to examine

In this sentence, the normal, grammatically complete form is:

• Jururawat memeriksa pesakit…

Using just periksa here (Jururawat periksa pesakit…) is possible in informal speech, but memeriksa is the standard, more correct form.

Does memeriksa mean past, present, or future? Where is the tense?

Memeriksa by itself has no tense. Malay verbs usually don’t change form for past, present, or future.

The tense or time is understood from:

1. Context
2. Time words (yesterday, now, tomorrow, etc.)
3. Optional aspect markers like sudah / telah / sedang / akan

So Jururawat memeriksa pesakit dengan hati-hati di hospital. could mean:

• “The nurse examined the patient carefully at the hospital.” (past)
• “The nurse is examining the patient carefully at the hospital.” (present)
• “The nurse will examine the patient carefully at the hospital.” (future, with suitable context)

If you want to be explicit:

• Jururawat sedang memeriksa pesakit… – is examining (right now)
• Jururawat sudah / telah memeriksa pesakit… – has examined / examined
• Jururawat akan memeriksa pesakit… – will examine

What exactly does pesakit mean? Is it just “sick person” or a medical “patient”?

Pesakit is best understood as “patient (in a medical sense)”.

• pesakit – a person receiving medical treatment, a patient
• orang sakit – literally “sick person” (could be patient, could be just someone who is ill)

In a hospital or clinic context, pesakit is the usual word for “patient”:

• pesakit luar – outpatient
• pesakit dalam – inpatient

In casual speech you might also hear orang sakit, but pesakit is the standard medical term.

Why is hati-hati repeated? What does that repetition mean?

Repetition (reduplication) is very common in Malay and can change the meaning.

• hati on its own literally means “liver” and also has a figurative sense “heart / feelings / inner self”.
• hati-hati (reduplicated) doesn’t mean “many livers”; it forms a new word meaning “careful / cautious”.

In this sentence:

• dengan hati-hati = “carefully”, “with caution”

Some related forms:

• berhati-hati – to be careful, to act carefully
  
  • Jururawat berhati-hati memeriksa pesakit. – The nurse is careful in examining the patient.

So the repetition here is not plural; it’s part of a fixed expression meaning “careful(ly)”.

Why do we need dengan before hati-hati? Can I just say Jururawat memeriksa pesakit hati-hati?

Dengan means “with”, and one of its functions is to form adverbial phrases of manner:

• dengan hati-hati – with care → carefully
• dengan cepat – with speed → quickly
• dengan sopan – with politeness → politely

So:

• Jururawat memeriksa pesakit dengan hati-hati…
  = The nurse examines the patient carefully…

Without dengan, pesakit hati-hati would sound like “the careful patient”, which is not the intended meaning.

Alternatives with a similar meaning:

• Jururawat memeriksa pesakit dengan teliti. – The nurse examined the patient thoroughly.
• Jururawat berhati-hati semasa memeriksa pesakit. – The nurse was careful while examining the patient.

Is di hospital always at the end, or can I move it earlier in the sentence?

Malay word order is quite flexible for adverbials like place and time.
All of these are grammatical:

1. Jururawat memeriksa pesakit dengan hati-hati di hospital.
2. Jururawat memeriksa pesakit di hospital dengan hati-hati.
3. Di hospital, jururawat memeriksa pesakit dengan hati-hati.

They all mean essentially the same thing. The default and most neutral placement is usually after the verb + object + manner, like in the original:

• [Subject] [Verb] [Object] [Manner] [Place]

You can move di hospital to the front for emphasis on the location:

• Di hospital, jururawat memeriksa pesakit dengan hati-hati.
  “At the hospital, the nurse examined the patient carefully.”

What’s the difference between di hospital and ke hospital?

The prepositions are different:

• di = at / in / on (location, static)
• ke = to / towards (movement, direction)

In this sentence:

• di hospital – at the hospital (the examination happens there)

If you talk about going to the hospital:

• Jururawat pergi ke hospital. – The nurse went to the hospital.
• Pesakit dibawa ke hospital. – The patient was taken to the hospital.

So you use:

• di hospital when the action is located at the hospital
• ke hospital when the action moves toward the hospital

Why don’t we say “he” or “she” for the nurse? Where is the pronoun?

Malay often omits pronouns when they are not needed. The noun jururawat already tells you who is acting.

• Jururawat memeriksa pesakit…
  literally: “Nurse examines patient…”

If you really want to add a pronoun, you can, but it’s not necessary:

• Jururawat itu memeriksa pesakitnya dengan hati-hati di hospital.
  “That nurse examined her/his patient carefully at the hospital.”

Or with an explicit pronoun (a bit redundant, but possible):

• Jururawat itu memeriksa pesakit; dia melakukannya dengan hati-hati di hospital.
  “The nurse examined the patient; he/she did it carefully at the hospital.”

How would I say “The nurses examined the patients carefully at the hospital” using this sentence?

You can make both jururawat and pesakit clearly plural:

1. Using para (formal, collective plural):

• Para jururawat memeriksa para pesakit dengan hati-hati di hospital.

2. Using reduplication (also clear plural):

• Jururawat-jururawat memeriksa pesakit-pesakit dengan hati-hati di hospital.

In everyday usage, speakers often don’t mark everything as plural if context already makes it clear:

• Jururawat memeriksa pesakit dengan hati-hati di hospital.
  can still be translated as
  “The nurses examined the patients carefully at the hospital”
  if the context is clearly about multiple people.

Is hospital the only word for “hospital” in Malay? I’ve seen rumah sakit somewhere.

In Malay (as used in Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore), the common word is:

• hospital

In standard Indonesian, another major Malay variety, the common word is:

• rumah sakit – literally “sick house” → hospital

So:

• di hospital – at the hospital (Malay)
• di rumah sakit – at the hospital (Indonesian)

In Malaysia you may also see rumah sakit in older or Indonesian-influenced texts, but hospital is the normal modern term in Malay.

How could I make it clear that the action is happening right now, like “The nurse is examining the patient carefully at the hospital (right now)”?

You can add the aspect marker sedang to show an ongoing action:

• Jururawat sedang memeriksa pesakit dengan hati-hati di hospital.
  → “The nurse is examining the patient carefully at the hospital (now).”

Other aspect markers:

• sudah / telah – already / has (done)
  
  • Jururawat telah memeriksa pesakit… – The nurse has examined the patient…
• akan – will (future)
  
  • Jururawat akan memeriksa pesakit… – The nurse will examine the patient…

But even without these markers, context often makes the time clear.