Learn Hardcore Malay: Sayur di kebun belakang rumah saya tumbuh perlahan. - The vegetables in the garden behind my house grow slowly.

sayur – vegetable / vegetables
banyak sayur – many vegetables
sayur-sayuran / sayuran – can mean vegetables in general, or various kinds of vegetables

In this sentence, Sayur di kebun belakang rumah saya tumbuh perlahan, context makes it natural to understand sayur as the vegetables.

How does the preposition di work here? How could we literally understand di kebun belakang rumah saya?

Di is a preposition meaning at / in / on (location, not direction).

di kebun belakang rumah saya can be understood literally as:

di – at / in
kebun – garden
belakang – back / behind
rumah saya – my house

So the phrase is at the garden behind my house.
Di only appears once, before the whole location phrase; it governs the entire kebun belakang rumah saya.

What is the structure of di kebun belakang rumah saya? Which word is modifying which?

You can see the structure like this:

di [kebun [belakang [rumah saya]]]

Step by step:

rumah saya – my house
belakang rumah saya – behind my house
kebun belakang rumah saya – the garden that is behind my house
di kebun belakang rumah saya – at the garden that is behind my house

So each element to the right further describes the noun before it.

Why is belakang after kebun, not before it, like English back garden?

In Malay, descriptive words (including many location words) usually come after the noun they describe.

Compare:

rumah besar – big house (rumah = house, besar = big)
kereta merah – red car (kereta = car, merah = red)
kebun belakang rumah saya – the garden behind my house

So Malay tends to have Noun + description, whereas English often has description + noun.

Could we also say di belakang kebun rumah saya? Would that mean the same thing?

No, the meaning changes.

di kebun belakang rumah saya – at the garden which is behind my house
di belakang kebun rumah saya – behind the garden of my house (i.e. in a place located behind the garden)

The original sentence talks about vegetables in the garden that is behind the house, not in a place behind the garden.

Why is there no word for the in Sayur di kebun...? How do we know if it means the vegetables or just vegetables?

Malay does not have articles like the or a/an. Nouns are usually bare:

rumah – house / a house / the house
kebun – garden / a garden / the garden
sayur – vegetable / vegetables / the vegetables

Definiteness comes from context, or sometimes from extra words (like ini = this, itu = that).

In this sentence, context suggests we are talking about specific vegetables in a known garden, so an English translation naturally uses the vegetables.

How is possession shown in rumah saya? Could we also say saya punya rumah?

Possession is commonly shown by putting the possessor after the noun:

rumah saya – my house
kebun mereka – their garden
sayur kamu – your vegetables

You can say saya punya rumah, which literally feels like I own a house / I have a house. It is more colloquial and often used to emphasize possession, or in informal speech.

For a simple my house inside a description like this sentence, rumah saya is the most natural and neutral form.

What is the role of tumbuh here? Is it like to grow in English, and can it take an object?

Tumbuh means to grow in the sense of something developing by itself (plants, children, cities, etc.). It is intransitive here, meaning it does not take a direct object.

Sayur ... tumbuh perlahan. – The vegetables grow slowly.

You cannot use tumbuh to mean to grow something (to cultivate). For that you would use other verbs like:

menanam sayur – to plant vegetables
menjaga / mengusahakan kebun – to look after / work a garden

So in this sentence, tumbuh simply describes what the vegetables themselves are doing.

Is perlahan an adjective or an adverb? How do words like slow / slowly work in Malay?

Perlahan is basically an adjective meaning slow, but Malay adjectives can often function like adverbs without changing form.

So:

laju – fast / quickly
perlahan – slow / slowly

You just put the word after the verb:

berjalan perlahan – walk slowly
tumbuh perlahan – grow slowly

Malay does not need a special ending like -ly to form adverbs.

Could we say tumbuh dengan perlahan or tumbuh perlahan-lahan instead? Any difference?

Yes, both are acceptable:

tumbuh dengan perlahan – grow slowly (using dengan = with, somewhat more formal or explicit)
tumbuh perlahan-lahan – grow very slowly / slowly over time (reduplication adds emphasis or sense of gradualness)

All three are correct:

tumbuh perlahan
tumbuh dengan perlahan
tumbuh perlahan-lahan

The original tumbuh perlahan is simple and natural.

What is the basic word order in this sentence? Can we move perlahan to another position?

The sentence follows standard Malay order:

Subject – Sayur
Location phrase – di kebun belakang rumah saya
Verb – tumbuh
Manner (adverb) – perlahan

So: Subject + (Place) + Verb + Manner

You can move perlahan somewhat, for example:

Sayur di kebun belakang rumah saya perlahan tumbuh. – possible, but sounds less natural.
Sayur tumbuh perlahan di kebun belakang rumah saya. – also possible; now the focus feels a bit more on the place at the end.

The original word order is the clearest and most natural.

Is saya always used for I / my, or could we use aku here?

Both saya and aku mean I / me, and rumah saya / rumah aku both mean my house.

The difference is in formality and politeness:

saya – polite, neutral, used in most situations, including to strangers, in writing, and in formal contexts.
aku – informal, used with close friends, family, or in certain regional / stylistic contexts.

In a neutral example sentence like this, rumah saya is the standard choice. You would use rumah aku when talking casually with someone close to you.