Learn Hardcore Malay: Di rumah, kami boleh bercakap bebas tentang kerja.

Di rumah = “at home / in the house”.
You generally cannot leave di out; rumah alone just means “house” or “home”, not “at home.”

Compare:

Rumah kami besar. – Our house is big.
Di rumah, kami boleh bercakap bebas tentang kerja. – At home, we can speak freely about work.

So in this sentence, di is necessary to show location.

Why is there a comma after Di rumah, and can I move di rumah to the end?

The comma is there because Di rumah is a fronted location phrase:

Di rumah, kami boleh bercakap bebas tentang kerja.
Literally: At home, we can speak freely about work.

You can move di rumah:

Kami boleh bercakap bebas tentang kerja di rumah.

Both are grammatically correct.
Differences in feel:

Di rumah, … at the start puts extra emphasis on the place: As for at home, we can…
…tentang kerja di rumah at the end feels more neutral and closer to typical English word order.

Why is it kami and not kita? Aren’t they both “we”?

Malay has two words for “we”:

kami = we (not including the listener) – “we but not you.”
kita = we (including the listener) – “you and I / all of us including you.”

In this sentence:

Di rumah, kami boleh bercakap bebas tentang kerja.
→ The speaker is talking about their own group, excluding the person they’re talking to.
For example, a colleague explaining: “At home, we (in my family) can talk freely about work.”

If the listener is supposed to be part of the “we”, you would use kita:

Di rumah, kita boleh bercakap bebas tentang kerja.
→ At home, we (you and I / all of us) can speak freely about work.

What exactly does boleh mean here? Is it “can” (ability) or “may” (permission)?

Boleh is a modal verb that usually covers both:

can / be able to
may / be allowed to

In this sentence, boleh is more about permission / freedom than physical ability:

Di rumah, kami boleh bercakap bebas tentang kerja.
→ At home, we’re allowed / free to talk about work.

If you wanted to stress ability, you might still use boleh, but context (or extra words) would show that:

Kami boleh bercakap tentang kerja dalam tiga bahasa.
→ We can talk about work in three languages. (ability)

Other words:

dapat / mampu = more about ability / capability, less about permission.
But boleh is the most common and very natural here.

What is the difference between bercakap and cakap, and are there other common words for “talk”?

Bercakap and cakap are related:

bercakap – the standard, slightly more formal verb “to speak / to talk.”
cakap – often used as a base word (root), and also common in informal speech, especially in some dialects; in very casual conversation you’ll hear cakap used as a verb.

In this sentence, bercakap is the standard choice.

Other very common verbs:

berbual – to chat, have a conversation (fairly neutral).
bersembang – to chat, often used in Malaysia, casual.
berborak – to chat, very informal / colloquial in some areas.

You could also say, for example:

Di rumah, kami boleh berbual bebas tentang kerja.
– At home, we can chat freely about work. (slightly more “chatty” nuance)

Why is bebas placed after bercakap? Could I say bebas bercakap instead?

In bercakap bebas, bebas is an adjective/adverb meaning “free / freely.”

bercakap bebas = “to speak freely.”

Word order:

bercakap bebas is the most natural order: verb + manner.
bebas bercakap is also possible, but it usually feels like “free to speak” or “have the freedom to speak”, emphasizing freedom a bit more than the action.

Compare:

Kami boleh bercakap bebas tentang kerja.
→ We can speak freely about work. (focus on how we speak)
Kami bebas bercakap tentang kerja.
→ We are free to speak about work. (focus on being free / having that freedom)

Both are grammatical; the original sentence is very natural and common.

What does tentang mean, and are there more informal or more formal alternatives?

Tentang means “about / regarding / concerning.”

bercakap tentang kerja = talk about work.

Other options:

mengenai – very close in meaning to tentang, often a bit more formal or written.
berkenaan (dengan) – also formal, often used in official contexts.
pasal – informal / colloquial, very common in spoken Malaysian Malay.

Examples:

Kami bercakap tentang kerja. – We talk about work.
Kami bercakap mengenai kerja. – Same meaning, slightly more formal.
Kami bercakap pasal kerja. – Informal: We talk about work.

In the sentence you have, tentang is a good neutral choice.

Does kerja mean “work” or “job,” and can it also be a verb?

Kerja is flexible and can mean:

work (in general)
- Banyak kerja hari ini. – A lot of work today.
job
- Dia ada kerja baru. – He/She has a new job.
As a verb “to work,” often in the form bekerja in standard Malay
- Saya bekerja di Kuala Lumpur. – I work in Kuala Lumpur.

In your sentence:

tentang kerja = “about work” (could mean about their jobs, workplace issues, tasks, etc.; context decides).

To say “at work” as a place, you would normally say:

di tempat kerja – at the workplace
- Di rumah, kami boleh bercakap bebas tentang apa yang berlaku di tempat kerja.
  – At home, we can talk freely about what happens at work.

Can the subject kami be dropped, like in some other Malay sentences?

Yes, Malay often allows subject pronouns to be omitted when context is clear.

So you could say:

Di rumah, boleh bercakap bebas tentang kerja.

This would be understood as:

At home, (we) can talk freely about work.

However, omitting kami:

makes the sentence a bit more general / impersonal in feel.
might sometimes be understood as “one can / people can” rather than specifically “we (not you).”

If you want to be clear that it’s “we (excluding you)”, keeping kami is safer:

Di rumah, kami boleh bercakap bebas tentang kerja.

How do I know if this sentence is present, past, or future, since there’s no tense marker?

Malay verbs generally do not change form for tense. Boleh bercakap on its own can mean:

can speak / are able to speak (present/habitual)
could speak / were able to speak (past)
will be able to speak (future)

The time is understood from context or extra words:

Dulu, di rumah, kami boleh bercakap bebas tentang kerja.
– In the past, at home, we could speak freely about work.
Sekarang, di rumah, kami boleh bercakap bebas tentang kerja.
– Now, at home, we can speak freely about work.
Nanti, di rumah, kami akan boleh bercakap bebas tentang kerja.
– Later, at home, we will be able to speak freely about work.

In isolation, Di rumah, kami boleh bercakap bebas tentang kerja. is usually understood as present / general truth:
At home, we (generally) can speak freely about work.

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral? How would I make it more casual?

As written, the sentence is neutral and perfectly acceptable in most situations (spoken or written):

Di rumah, kami boleh bercakap bebas tentang kerja.

To make it more casual / conversational (especially in Malaysia), people might:

use kita if including the listener
use pasal instead of tentang
sometimes drop boleh in some dialects (context-dependent)

Example, more casual Malaysian style:

Dekat rumah, kita boleh cakap bebas pasal kerja.

Changes:

Di → dekat (colloquial “at”)
kami → kita (if including listener)
bercakap → cakap (more informal)
tentang → pasal (informal “about”)

Your original sentence is a good, clear standard Malay model.