Learn Hardcore Malay: Saya tanya bos tentang sebab permohonan kerja saya ditolak. - I ask the boss about the reason my job application was rejected.

Saya – I / me
tanya – ask (verb, base form)
bos – boss (loanword from English)
tentang – about, regarding
sebab – reason, cause
permohonan – application, request (noun, from verb mohon = to apply/request)
kerja – work, job
saya – my (here it functions as a possessive pronoun: my)
ditolak – was rejected / got rejected (passive verb, root tolak = to reject, with passive prefix di-)

Structure (very close to English SVO):

Saya (subject)
tanya (verb)
bos (object – the person I ask)
tentang sebab (prepositional phrase: about the reason)
permohonan kerja saya ditolak (a clause explaining that reason: that my job application was rejected)

Natural English: I asked the boss about the reason my job application was rejected.

Why is it tanya bos and not tanya kepada bos? Is bos a direct object or an indirect object?

With tanya, Malay allows two common patterns:

Verb + person (as direct object)
- Saya tanya bos. – I ask the boss.
- Dia tanya saya. – He/She asks me.
Verb + kepada + person (more explicit and often more formal):
- Saya bertanya kepada bos. – I ask the boss.
- Dia bertanya kepada saya. – He/She asks me.

In your sentence, bos functions as a direct object of tanya.

You could also say, with a more formal style:

Saya bertanya kepada bos tentang sebab permohonan kerja saya ditolak.

tanya bos (without kepada) is very common and natural in everyday Malay.

What is the difference between tanya and bertanya? Which one sounds more natural here?

Both come from the same root meaning to ask, but there are nuances:

tanya
- Base verb, very common in speech.
- Slightly more informal or neutral.
- Takes a direct object naturally: tanya bos, tanya dia.
bertanya
- Has the prefix ber-, often giving a slightly more formal or “intransitive” feel.
- Often appears with kepada or other prepositions: bertanya kepada bos, bertanya tentang hal itu.
- Common in writing, official contexts, news, and more careful speech.

In your sentence:

Everyday spoken Malay:
- Saya tanya bos tentang sebab permohonan kerja saya ditolak.
More formal or written style:
- Saya bertanya kepada bos tentang sebab permohonan kerja saya ditolak.

Both are correct; the original just sounds more conversational.

What does tentang mean here, and how is it different from mengenai or pasal?

tentang means about / regarding / concerning.

Common near-synonyms:

tentang – neutral, widely used in both spoken and written Malay.
mengenai – also about / concerning, often sounds a bit more formal or written.
pasal – about / because of / due to, often more colloquial and can have a slightly emotional or informal tone; in some contexts can mean because of rather than just about.

You can rewrite the sentence with small register changes:

Saya tanya bos tentang sebab permohonan kerja saya ditolak.
Saya tanya bos mengenai sebab permohonan kerja saya ditolak. (a bit more formal)
Saya tanya bos pasal permohonan kerja saya ditolak. (more colloquial; here sebab is often dropped)

All are understandable; the original is neutral and safe.

Why do we say tentang sebab (about the reason)? Could we just ask why instead?

Yes, you can express this idea in two main ways:

Asking about the reason (noun)
- tentang sebab permohonan kerja saya ditolak
- literally: about the reason my job application was rejected
Asking why (adverb)
- mengapa / kenapa = why

Alternative sentences using why:

Saya tanya bos mengapa permohonan kerja saya ditolak.
Saya tanya bos kenapa permohonan kerja saya ditolak.

Meaning: I asked the boss why my job application was rejected.

So:

tentang sebab – focuses on the reason (a thing).
mengapa / kenapa – focuses on why (a question word).

Both are natural; your original just uses the noun version of “reason”.

Where is the word my in the phrase permohonan kerja saya? Why does saya come at the end?

In Malay, possessive pronouns like my / your / his / her usually come after the noun they possess.

Pattern:

Noun + possessor

Examples:

rumah saya – my house
buku kamu – your book
kereta dia – his/her car

So:

permohonan kerja saya
- permohonan – application
- kerja – job/work (describes what kind of application)
- saya – my

Literal structure: application (for) work my = my job application.

The order is the opposite of English: instead of my job application, Malay says application (of) work my.

What exactly does permohonan kerja mean? Could I just say permohonan or use aplikasi instead?

permohonan by itself means application / request. It’s quite general.
kerja specifies what the application is for: work / job.

So:

permohonan – an application (could be for a loan, scholarship, leave, etc.)
permohonan kerja – job application

You could say:

permohonan saya ditolak. – My application was rejected.
- This is correct but less specific; context must show it’s a job application.

As for aplikasi:

aplikasi is also a loanword from English application, but in Malay it’s more often used for:
- software/app (phone app, computer app), or
- technical contexts (e.g. application of a theory).

For job application, the natural collocation is permohonan kerja, not aplikasi kerja.

Why is it permohonan kerja saya ditolak and not permohonan kerja saya yang ditolak? What does yang change?

Both are grammatically correct, but there is a subtle difference in focus:

Without yang (your original):
- permohonan kerja saya ditolak
- functions as a normal clause: my job application was rejected.
- It’s just stating what happened.
With yang:
- permohonan kerja saya yang ditolak
- literally: my job application that was rejected.
- yang turns it into a more explicitly descriptive/relative phrase, often contrasting it with something else.

Example of contrast:

Permohonan kerja saya yang ditolak, bukan permohonan latihan.
- It was my job application that was rejected, not the internship application.

In your sentence, you’re simply explaining the reason, not contrasting, so yang is optional and usually omitted.

Why is ditolak used instead of menolak? How does the di- prefix work here?

Malay has active and passive voice marked by prefixes:

tolak – reject (root)
menolak – to reject (active: someone rejects something)
ditolak – to be rejected (passive: something is rejected)

Active:

Bos menolak permohonan kerja saya.
- The boss rejected my job application.
- bos = subject (doer), menolak = active verb, permohonan kerja saya = object.

Passive:

Permohonan kerja saya ditolak (oleh bos).
- My job application was rejected (by the boss).
- permohonan kerja saya = subject (thing affected), ditolak = passive verb.
- oleh bos (by the boss) is optional and often omitted.

In your sentence, the focus is on what happened to your application, not on who did it, so the passive ditolak is appropriate and natural.

Can I drop the first saya and just say Tanya bos tentang sebab permohonan kerja saya ditolak in conversation?

Yes, in informal spoken Malay it’s common to drop subject pronouns when the subject is clear from context.

So in a casual conversation:

(Saya) tanya bos tentang sebab permohonan kerja saya ditolak.

Listeners will still understand that the subject is I, especially if you have already been talking about your own application.

However, in writing or in more formal speech, it’s clearer and more standard to include the subject:

Saya tanya bos tentang sebab permohonan kerja saya ditolak.

Is bos considered formal Malay, or should I use a different word in a formal context?

bos is widely used and understood, but it is somewhat informal/colloquial. It’s like saying boss in English.

More formal or neutral options, depending on context, include:

ketua – leader, head
pengurus – manager
penyelia – supervisor
majikan – employer (more general, legal/HR context)

More formal sentence examples:

Saya bertanya kepada ketua tentang sebab permohonan kerja saya ditolak.
Saya bertanya kepada pengurus tentang sebab permohonan kerja saya ditolak.

Your original sentence with bos sounds natural in everyday conversation or informal writing.

There is no past tense marker in the Malay sentence. How do we know it means I asked and was rejected, not I ask and is rejected?

Malay generally does not mark tense (past/present/future) on the verb the way English does.

Instead, time is understood from:

Context
Time adverbs (semalam = yesterday, tadi = earlier, akan = will, nanti = later)
Sometimes aspect markers (sudah / telah = already, sedang = currently, akan = will)

Your sentence Saya tanya bos tentang sebab permohonan kerja saya ditolak can, in isolation, be interpreted as:

I ask the boss about the reason my job application is/was rejected.

In real usage, context would usually make it clearly past, or you might explicitly mark it:

Saya sudah tanya bos tentang sebab permohonan kerja saya ditolak.
- I already asked the boss about the reason my job application was rejected.
Saya akan tanya bos tentang sebab permohonan kerja saya ditolak.
- I will ask the boss about the reason my job application was rejected.

So tense is inferred, not encoded in the verb form.

Is the sentence overall more formal or informal? How would I make it clearly formal or clearly casual?

As written, it’s neutral to informal, mainly because of tanya and bos.

Neutral/informal (original):
- Saya tanya bos tentang sebab permohonan kerja saya ditolak.
More formal version:
- Saya telah bertanya kepada pengurus tentang sebab permohonan kerja saya ditolak.
  - telah – has/have (formal aspect marker)
  - bertanya – more formal verb
  - kepada pengurus – more formal than bos
More casual version:
- Saya tanya bos pasal kenapa permohonan kerja saya kena tolak.
  - pasal – colloquial “about / because of”
  - kena tolak – colloquial passive: “got rejected”

Your original sentence is perfectly fine for polite everyday use.