Breakdown of Untuk temu duga esok, saya cuba sabar dan mengingatkan diri bahawa bos juga orang biasa.
Questions & Answers about Untuk temu duga esok, saya cuba sabar dan mengingatkan diri bahawa bos juga orang biasa.
Untuk is a preposition that most often means “for” or “for the purpose of”.
Untuk temu duga esok literally means “for the interview tomorrow”. Putting it at the start sets the context:
- Untuk temu duga esok, saya…
→ For tomorrow’s interview, I…
You could also say:
- Saya cuba sabar dan mengingatkan diri untuk temu duga esok.
(I try to be patient and remind myself [in preparation] for tomorrow’s interview.)
Both are grammatically correct. Starting with Untuk temu duga esok just emphasizes the occasion (the interview) before talking about what the speaker is doing.
Temu duga means “interview”, especially a formal, evaluative interview (like a job interview, scholarship interview, etc.).
About spelling:
- temu duga – two words; this is the spelling often preferred in formal/standard Malay today.
- temuduga – one word; still very common in everyday writing, older texts, and on the internet.
Both are widely understood. If you’re following school or official style, your teacher might insist on temu duga, so follow local norms.
Use:
- temu duga kerja – job interview
- temu duga biasiswa – scholarship interview
- temu duga (alone) – in many contexts, people will assume job interview unless something else is specified.
Other words you might see for “interview” (depending on context):
- wawancara – more like a media interview (TV, newspaper)
- interviu – loanword from English interview, less common in everyday speech
Yes, Malay word order is quite flexible. All of these are grammatical, with small differences in emphasis:
Untuk temu duga esok, saya cuba sabar dan mengingatkan diri…
– Emphasis on the event tomorrow as the context.Saya cuba sabar dan mengingatkan diri untuk temu duga esok.
– Emphasis on what I’m doing; the phrase untuk temu duga esok feels more like “in preparation for tomorrow’s interview”.Esok saya ada temu duga, jadi saya cuba sabar dan mengingatkan diri…
– Now you’re clearly stating “Tomorrow I have an interview” as a separate clause.
All are natural. The original just chooses to foreground the interview: “As for tomorrow’s interview, I’m trying to be patient…”
In Malay, adjectives and some nouns can function like verbs without any extra linking verb:
- sabar – patient (adjective) / to be patient (stative verb)
So:
- saya sabar ≈ “I am patient / I’m being patient.”
- saya cuba sabar ≈ “I try to be patient.”
You don’t need untuk or menjadi here. In fact:
- saya cuba untuk sabar – sounds awkward.
- saya cuba menjadi sabar – also unnatural for this meaning.
More natural alternatives:
- saya cuba bersabar – “I try to be patient / I try to keep calm.”
- saya sedang cuba bersabar – “I am currently trying to stay patient.”
So the original saya cuba sabar is a perfectly natural shorthand in everyday Malay.
Both can be used, but there’s a nuance:
- sabar (bare form) – often describes a quality/state:
- saya cuba sabar = “I try (to be) patient.”
- bersabar – often sounds a bit more active / deliberate, like “to practice patience”, “to bear with it”:
- saya cuba bersabar = “I’m trying to stay patient / keep my cool.”
In this sentence, both are acceptable:
- saya cuba sabar – slightly shorter, more colloquial.
- saya cuba bersabar – also common; many teachers might prefer this form in writing.
You’ll hear both; neither is wrong.
Breakdown:
- ingat – to remember
- mengingatkan – to make (someone) remember → to remind
- diri – self
So mengingatkan diri literally means “to remind (one’s) self” → “to remind myself” (with subject saya).
You have options:
mengingatkan diri bahawa…
– “remind myself that…”mengingatkan diri sendiri bahawa…
– also common; diri sendiri reinforces the reflexive idea: “remind myself”.mengingatkan bahawa bos juga orang biasa
– grammatically ok, but now it just means “remind (someone) that the boss is also just an ordinary person”.
The object isn’t explicitly “myself” anymore; it could be anyone.
So if you want the clear meaning “I remind myself”, mengingatkan diri (or mengingatkan diri sendiri) is the most natural choice.
Bahawa is a conjunction meaning “that” (introducing a clause), just like in English:
- …mengingatkan diri bahawa bos juga orang biasa.
→ “remind myself that the boss is also an ordinary person.”
In spoken/casual Malay, people often drop bahawa:
- …mengingatkan diri bos juga orang biasa.
This is still understandable and sounds natural in conversation.
General rule:
- Formal writing / careful speech – include bahawa.
- Informal / everyday speech – you can safely omit it.
Bos is a loanword from English “boss”, but it’s fully integrated into Malay and is very common.
Formality:
- In everyday speech and even in many workplace contexts, bos is fine.
- In very formal writing, people sometimes prefer more “native” or precise terms.
Common alternatives:
- ketua – leader/head (quite general)
- penyelia – supervisor
- majikan – employer
- pengurus – manager
In this sentence, using bos is natural and neutral. It doesn’t sound rude or too casual in ordinary contexts.
Malay often uses a “zero copula” – it omits a verb like “is/are” in equational sentences.
- bos juga orang biasa
literally: “boss also ordinary person”
meaning: “the boss is also an ordinary person.”
You generally don’t need adalah or ialah here. In fact:
- bos juga adalah orang biasa – possible, but feels more formal/emphatic, and is much less common in everyday speech.
Basic pattern:
- Noun + noun/adjective → no adalah / ialah needed
- Dia guru. – He/She (is a) teacher.
- Mereka letih. – They (are) tired.
Adalah/ialah are used more in:
- Very formal writing
- Before long noun phrases, explanations, or definitions
- Tujuan mesyuarat ini adalah untuk membincangkan…
Orang biasa literally means “ordinary person”.
Nuance here:
- bos juga orang biasa → “the boss is also just an ordinary person.”
It suggests: the boss is not a superhuman, has normal human flaws/feelings, and this is meant to reduce nervousness.
Compared to other expressions:
- orang normal – “a normal person” (used more in contexts like health, psychology, etc.), can sound a bit clinical.
- orang biasa-biasa – “a very ordinary person / nothing special”, more colloquial.
- manusia biasa – “a mere human being / just human”, more emotional or literary.
In this sentence, orang biasa is the most natural and neutral way to say it.
Malay usually doesn’t use tense endings like English. Time is shown with time words (like yesterday, now, tomorrow) or context.
Here:
- esok = tomorrow
So:
- Untuk temu duga esok…
– The presence of esok already tells you this is about a future event.
If you really want to make the futurity explicit, you can use akan, but it’s not necessary here:
- Esok saya akan menghadiri temu duga. – “Tomorrow I will attend an interview.”
In the given sentence, esok alone is completely sufficient to imply the future.
You do not need to repeat saya. In Malay, if two verbs share the same subject, you normally mention the subject only once:
- Saya cuba sabar dan mengingatkan diri…
= “I try to be patient and (I) remind myself…”
This is standard and natural.
You could say:
- Saya cuba sabar dan saya mengingatkan diri…
but it sounds a bit heavier and only makes sense if you want to emphasize or contrast something. In neutral sentences, one “saya” is enough.
Yes, Malay can drop the subject pronoun when it’s clear from context:
- Cuba sabar dan mengingatkan diri bahawa bos juga orang biasa.
This can sound like:
- You talking to yourself (inner monologue), or
- You giving advice to yourself (like “Try to be patient and remind yourself…”).
In real usage:
- With saya: more explicit and neutral narrative.
- Without saya: feels a bit more like a note to self / self-instruction or casual reminder.
Both are grammatically correct; the original with saya is slightly more neutral and explicit.