Learn Hardcore Malay: Guru menasihati kami supaya tidur awal sebelum peperiksaan. - The teacher advises us to sleep early before the exam.

Form
- menasihati is a single verb: to advise.
- memberi nasihat is a verb–object phrase: to give advice.
Structure
- menasihati kami = advise us
- memberi nasihat kepada kami = give advice to us
Style
- Both are neutral and acceptable in formal and informal contexts.
- Menasihati sounds slightly more compact and may feel a bit more formal or textbook-like, but it’s very normal in speech too.

Meaning-wise, in this sentence there’s effectively no difference.

Why is there no kami after supaya? Can I say supaya kami tidur awal?

The full version could be:

Guru menasihati kami supaya kami tidur awal sebelum peperiksaan.
The teacher advised us so that we (would) sleep early before the exam.

Malay often drops repeated pronouns when they are clear from context.
Since kami already appears as the object of menasihati, it’s understood that we are also the subject of tidur.

So:

supaya kami tidur awal = grammatically complete
supaya tidur awal = natural, because kami is implied

Both are acceptable. In writing, adding kami can sound slightly more explicit and formal; in speech, leaving it out is very common.

What exactly does supaya mean here? Is it like “to”, “so that”, or “in order to”? How is it different from untuk?

In this sentence, supaya means roughly “so that / so that (we) will / so that (we) should”.

You can think of:

Guru menasihati kami supaya tidur awal…
= The teacher advised us so that we would sleep early…
= The teacher advised us to sleep early… (natural English translation)

Supaya vs untuk:

supaya introduces a result / purpose clause with an implied subject:
- Dia belajar keras supaya lulus peperiksaan.
  He studies hard so that he will pass the exam.
untuk introduces a purpose phrase, often more like “for / in order to / to (do something)”:
- Dia belajar keras untuk lulus peperiksaan.
  He studies hard to pass the exam.

In many cases (including this one), you could also say:

Guru menasihati kami untuk tidur awal sebelum peperiksaan.

It is also acceptable, though supaya emphasizes the desired outcome a bit more strongly, like “so that (we will)”.

Is tidur in supaya tidur awal a verb (“to sleep”) or a noun (“sleep”)?

Here tidur functions as a verb: “to sleep”.

Malay often uses the same form for both noun and verb:

Saya tidur awal. – I sleep early. (verb)
Saya tak cukup tidur. – I don’t have enough sleep. (noun)

In supaya tidur awal, it’s understood as “(we) sleep early” → verb.

Why is the order tidur awal and not awal tidur? How does awal work here?

Word order in Malay generally is:

verb + adverb/adjective (describing how the action is done)

So:

tidur awal = sleep early (verb tidur
- description awal)

If you say awal tidur, it sounds like awal is a noun or it’s the main focus, which is not how Malay normally expresses “sleep early”.

Think of awal here as an adverbial use of an adjective:

awal = early
tidur awal = to sleep early / to go to bed early

How do we know this sentence is about the future (before the exam) when there is no tense marker like “will”?

Malay does not mark tense with verb endings like English.
Time is understood through:

Time expressions:
- sebelum peperiksaan = before the exam
  → This clearly suggests a time in the (relative) future.
Context:
- Advice about sleep before an exam is logically about what you will do.

If you want to be very explicit, you can use adverbs:

esok (tomorrow)
nanti (later)
akan (will – often more like “going to”, but not always needed)

For example:

Guru akan menasihati kami supaya tidur awal sebelum peperiksaan esok.
The teacher will advise us to sleep early before tomorrow’s exam.

What does peperiksaan mean exactly, and how is it related to periksa?

Peperiksaan means “examination / exam” (the noun).

It comes from the root periksa:

periksa = to check, inspect, examine (verb)
peperiksaan = exam / examination (noun)

Morphology (simplified):

pe- … -an is a common noun-forming pattern:
- periksa → peperiksaan (exam)
- ajar → pelajaran (lesson/study)
- dengar → pendengaran (hearing)

So in this sentence:

sebelum peperiksaan = before the exam.

Is sebelum a preposition like “before”, or a conjunction? How is it used?

Sebelum can work both like a preposition and a subordinating conjunction, depending on what follows.

Before + noun phrase (preposition-like)
- sebelum peperiksaan – before the exam
- sebelum makan – before the meal
Before + clause (conjunction-like)
- Sebelum peperiksaan bermula, guru menasihati kami.
  Before the exam starts, the teacher advises us.

In your sentence, sebelum peperiksaan is more like a prepositional phrase of time describing when we should sleep early.

Why is kami used and not kita? What’s the difference between kami and kita?

Both mean “we / us”, but:

kami = we (excluding the listener) → “we but not you”
kita = we (including the listener) → “you and I / we all including you”

In Guru menasihati kami, the sentence implies:

The teacher advised us (students).
The listener (the person being spoken to now) is not necessarily part of that group.
So kami is appropriate.

If the speaker wants to include the listener in the group being advised, they would use kita:

Guru menasihati kita supaya tidur awal sebelum peperiksaan.
The teacher advised us (including you) to sleep early before the exam.

Is Guru here singular or plural? Does it mean “the teacher” or “the teachers”?

Malay does not mark singular/plural on nouns by default.

guru can mean:
- a/the teacher (singular)
- teachers (plural)

In this specific sentence, Guru menasihati kami… is most naturally understood as singular: The teacher advised us…
If you want to make it clearly plural, you can add a plural marker or number:

Para guru menasihati kami… – The teachers advised us…
Guru-guru menasihati kami… – The teachers advised us…

Can we move sebelum peperiksaan to the front or a different place in the sentence?

Yes, time expressions are quite flexible in Malay. All of these are grammatical:

Original:
- Guru menasihati kami supaya tidur awal sebelum peperiksaan.
Time phrase at the beginning:
- Sebelum peperiksaan, guru menasihati kami supaya tidur awal.
  Before the exam, the teacher advised us to sleep early.
Time phrase early in the main clause (less usual but possible with slight rephrasing):
- Sebelum peperiksaan bermula, guru menasihati kami supaya tidur awal.

What is not natural is to insert it in the middle of the verb phrase:

✗ Guru menasihati kami supaya sebelum peperiksaan tidur awal.

Better to keep sebelum peperiksaan as a full time phrase after tidur awal or at the start of the sentence.

Is menasihati formal, or can it be used in everyday speech?

Menasihati is perfectly normal and common in both:

Formal contexts: essays, news, official speeches.
Everyday contexts: teachers, parents, friends giving advice.

In casual spoken Malay, people also often say:

bagi nasihat / beri nasihat – give advice
tegur – to correct/advise someone (often gently)

But menasihati itself does not sound stiff; it’s very usable in speech, especially in contexts like teachers, parents, or older people advising.

If I want to say “The teacher told us to sleep early” (more like an instruction, not just advice), what verb should I use instead of menasihati?

To express more of a command/instruction than gentle advice, use menyuruh (to tell/command someone to do something):

Guru menyuruh kami tidur awal sebelum peperiksaan.
The teacher told us to sleep early before the exam.

Contrast:

menasihati → to advise (softer, suggestive)
menyuruh → to tell / order (stronger, more directive)

Both can be followed by supaya:

Guru menasihati kami supaya tidur awal… – Teacher advised us to sleep early…
Guru menyuruh kami supaya tidur awal… – Teacher told/ordered us to sleep early…

How would I change this sentence to make it clearly past, like “The teacher advised us yesterday to sleep early before the exam”?

Add a time adverb such as semalam (yesterday) and optionally telah / sudah for completed action:

Natural past expression:
- Semalam guru menasihati kami supaya tidur awal sebelum peperiksaan.
  Yesterday the teacher advised us to sleep early before the exam.
More explicitly “completed”:
- Semalam guru telah menasihati kami supaya tidur awal sebelum peperiksaan.
- Semalam guru sudah menasihati kami supaya tidur awal sebelum peperiksaan.

Telah and sudah are often optional; the time word semalam usually makes the past meaning clear enough on its own.