Learn Hardcore Malay: Lelaki itu ramah, dan dia selalu bertanya khabar kepada jiran. - That man is friendly, and he always asks the neighbors how they are.

lelaki itu = natural, standard
itu lelaki = sounds odd or marked; it might appear only in special emphatic or poetic contexts, or as part of a longer structure.

So for everyday speech and writing, stick with NOUN + itu.

Do I need to say seorang lelaki itu, or is lelaki itu enough?

Use them differently:

seorang lelaki = a man (indefinite, just one man, not yet identified)
lelaki itu = that man / the man (definite, a specific man)

You normally do not combine them as seorang lelaki itu in basic sentences. That combination only appears in more advanced, special contexts to single someone out in a story and is not needed for beginners.

In this sentence, lelaki itu alone is correct and natural.

Why don’t we use adalah in Lelaki itu ramah? Could we say Lelaki itu adalah ramah?

In Malay, you usually do not use adalah before adjectives.

Lelaki itu ramah. ✅ natural
Lelaki itu sangat ramah. ✅ natural (adding sangat = very)
Lelaki itu adalah ramah. ❌ sounds unnatural in everyday Malay

Adalah is mainly used:

before nouns or noun phrases:
- Ali adalah guru. (Ali is a teacher.)
in more formal, explanatory sentences:
- Tujuan projek ini adalah untuk membantu pelajar.

So with an adjective like ramah, just put it after the noun phrase: Lelaki itu ramah.

What exactly does ramah mean? Is it the same as “friendly”?

Ramah broadly means friendly, affable, easy to talk to, polite and warm.

Nuances compared to some other words:

ramah – friendly and pleasant in manner, approachable.
peramah – a person who is very chatty/friendly; often likes to talk to people.
mesra – warm, close, affectionate (e.g. hubungan mesra = close/warm relationship).
baik – good, kind, nice (more general moral/character word).

In this sentence, ramah fits well as “friendly”, especially in a social sense (he talks nicely to neighbours, greets them, etc.).

Why is there a comma before dan? Is that required in Malay?

You can write the sentence with or without the comma:

Lelaki itu ramah dan dia selalu bertanya khabar kepada jiran. ✅
Lelaki itu ramah, dan dia selalu bertanya khabar kepada jiran. ✅ (but less common)

In modern Malay, a comma before dan is usually not necessary when dan simply connects two clauses. Most writers would omit it here.

So the more typical writing is:

Lelaki itu ramah dan dia selalu bertanya khabar kepada jiran.

If dia can mean both “he” and “she”, how do we know it refers to lelaki itu?

Malay dia is a gender-neutral third-person singular pronoun: it can mean he or she.

In this sentence:

The only possible human subject introduced before dia is lelaki itu.
So dia is naturally understood as that man = he.

Malay relies on context, not grammatical gender. If context were ambiguous, speakers might:

repeat the noun: Lelaki itu ramah, dan lelaki itu selalu bertanya khabar…
or use a name or a more formal pronoun (beliau in respectful/formal contexts).

Can I drop dia in the second part and say Lelaki itu ramah dan selalu bertanya khabar kepada jiran?

Yes, you can. Subject pronouns are often dropped when the subject is clear from context.

So both are acceptable:

Lelaki itu ramah dan dia selalu bertanya khabar kepada jiran. ✅
Lelaki itu ramah dan selalu bertanya khabar kepada jiran. ✅ (a bit more concise)

The second version just relies on the listener understanding that the subject for selalu bertanya khabar is still lelaki itu.

What does selalu mean? Is it exactly “always”?

Selalu usually means always or habitually/regularly. Its exact feel can shift with context:

Dia selalu lewat. = He is always/regularly late.
Dia selalu bantu saya. = He always helps me / He helps me a lot.

Related words:

sentiasa – closer to constantly / at all times (a bit stronger, often used in more formal or emotive contexts).
sering / kerap – often, frequently.

In this sentence, selalu nicely expresses a regular habit: he regularly / always asks after the neighbours.

What does the expression bertanya khabar mean? Is it literal?

Literally, bertanya khabar is something like “to ask (about) news”, but idiomatically it means:

to ask how someone is doing,
to ask after someone’s well-being.

So:

Dia selalu bertanya khabar kepada jiran.
≈ He always asks the neighbours how they are.

This is a very common, natural collocation in Malay for polite, social checking-in. It doesn’t mean “ask for news headlines”; it’s specifically about people’s condition/well-being.

Why do we say kepada jiran and not dengan jiran?

Kepada and dengan both relate to people, but they’re used differently:

kepada = to (direction of an action, especially speech, giving, writing)
- Dia bercakap kepada saya. = He spoke to me.
- Dia menulis surat kepada ibunya. = He wrote a letter to his mother.
- Dia bertanya khabar kepada jiran. = He asks after the neighbours.
dengan = with (together with, accompanied by; also “using”)
- Dia bercakap dengan saya. = He spoke with me.
- Dia pergi ke pasar dengan jiran. = He went to the market with the neighbour.
- Dia menulis dengan pen. = He writes with a pen.

In bertanya khabar kepada jiran, kepada is correct because you are directing the action to the neighbours.

Does jiran here mean one neighbour or many neighbours? How do you show plural?

Jiran by itself is number-neutral: it can mean neighbour or neighbours, depending on context.

In this sentence:

Dia selalu bertanya khabar kepada jiran.

it’s most naturally understood as “the neighbours” in general (the people in his neighbourhood), though it could also mean one neighbour if the context earlier specified a particular person.

To make the plural explicit, you can say:

para jiran – the neighbours (collective, slightly formal)
jiran-jiran – neighbours (reduplication for plural emphasis)

Examples:

Dia selalu bertanya khabar kepada para jiran.
Dia selalu bertanya khabar kepada jiran-jiran.

But in everyday speech/writing, jiran alone is often enough.

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral in Malay?

The sentence is neutral, suitable for most situations:

Lelaki itu ramah – neutral description, neither slangy nor very formal.
dia selalu bertanya khabar – everyday, polite phrasing.
kepada jiran – neutral.

Bertanya khabar can sound slightly polite/standard (you might hear it in writing, news, or polite conversation), but it is still very common in daily speech. The whole sentence would fit in a story, a conversation, or a simple written description.