Learn Hardcore Malay: Salji di gunung sudah cair. - The snow on the mountain has already melted.

Time words: semalam (yesterday), tadi (a while ago), nanti (later), etc.
Aspect markers: words like sudah (already/has), sedang (is …ing), akan (will), etc.
Context.

In Salji di gunung sudah cair, the word sudah is what tells you that the action/state is completed or already true. That’s why it corresponds to English “has melted / already melted” and not just “melts”.

So, there’s no past-tense ending, but sudah gives it a “completed in the past / already” sense.

Is sudah more like “already” or more like “has/have” in English?

Functionally, sudah overlaps both ideas:

It often translates naturally as “already”:
- Saya sudah makan. – I already ate. / I have already eaten.
It also works like an aspect marker, similar to “has/have done X”:
- It marks that an action is completed or a state is achieved.

In Salji di gunung sudah cair:

Literal-ish: The snow at the mountain already melted.
Natural: “The snow on the mountain has melted.” / “The snow on the mountain is already melted.”

Both “already” and “has/have” ideas are there. In English you must pick one, but in Malay sudah comfortably covers that space.

You might also see:

telah – more formal/literary version of sudah (often in writing, news).
dah / udah – colloquial short forms of sudah in speech.

Meaning is basically the same; the difference is mainly formality and style.

Can I leave out sudah and just say Salji di gunung cair? What changes?

Yes, you can say Salji di gunung cair, and it’s still grammatical, but the nuance changes:

Salji di gunung sudah cair.
- Focus: it has (now) melted / is already melted.
- Implies a change from a previous state (frozen → melted).
Salji di gunung cair.
- Very general: The snow on the mountain is melted / is liquid.
- Can describe a current state without highlighting the “already/has” aspect.
- With the right context, it can mean the same thing, but it’s less explicit about the completion.

In conversation, if the context already makes the time clear, people might drop sudah and rely on context; but when you explicitly want to say “already has melted”, sudah is the clearest, most natural choice.

Is cair a verb (“to melt”) or an adjective (“melted”)?

In Malay, cair is a stative word that can behave like both:

Adjective: cair = liquid, melted
- Ais ini cair. – This ice is melted / liquid.
Verb-like (stative verb): cair = to become liquid / to melt
- In real usage, you don’t always need a separate verb “to be” or “to become.”

So Salji di gunung sudah cair can be felt as:

“The snow on the mountain is already melted.” (adjective feel), or
“The snow on the mountain has already melted.” (verb-like feel).

Malay doesn’t force a sharp verb vs adjective distinction here the way English does; cair covers both.

Why is it di gunung and not atas gunung for “on the mountain”?

Malay prepositions are a bit broader than English:

di = at / in / on (generic location marker)
atas = on top of, above

In many contexts, di + noun alone already implies the most natural type of location:

di gunung – on the mountain / in the mountains area
di pantai – at the beach
di sekolah – at school

If you say di atas gunung, you’re being more literal: “on top of the mountain”, emphasizing the top surface or summit.

For this sentence:

Salji di gunung sudah cair.
- Very natural; understood as “The snow on the mountain has melted.”
Salji di atas gunung sudah cair.
- Also correct, but slightly more specific, like “The snow on the top of the mountain has melted.”

In everyday speech, di gunung is perfectly normal and idiomatic.

Does di gunung mean “on the mountain” or “in the mountains”? And is gunung singular or plural here?

Malay generally does not mark plural with an ending like English “-s”. So:

gunung can mean:
- a mountain / the mountain
- mountains (if context suggests plural)

di gunung can thus be understood as:

on the mountain, if you’re thinking of one specific mountain, or
in the mountains, if you’re talking about a mountainous area in general.

Context usually tells you which is intended. Without extra words, both readings are possible.

If you want to be more explicit:

di gunung itu – on that mountain
di gunung-gunung – on/in the mountains (explicit plural, often written, or for emphasis)
di kawasan gunung – in the mountain area / mountainous area

How would I make it clear I’m talking about a specific mountain, like “that mountain”?

You can add a demonstrative (itu / ini) or a specific name:

Using itu (“that” / “the” in a specific sense):

Salji di gunung itu sudah cair.
– The snow on that mountain has melted.

Using a proper name:

Salji di Gunung Kinabalu sudah cair.
– The snow on Mount Kinabalu has melted.

Using a more formal “that mentioned”:

Salji di gunung tersebut sudah cair.
– The snow on that (aforementioned) mountain has melted. (formal/written style)

So just attach itu / tersebut or a proper noun to gunung to pin down which mountain you mean.

Can I change the word order, like Salji sudah cair di gunung? Is that still correct?

Yes, Salji sudah cair di gunung is still grammatically correct. The meaning remains essentially the same:

Salji di gunung sudah cair.
- Neutral, common order: “The snow on the mountain has melted.”
Salji sudah cair di gunung.
- Slight shift in emphasis: first you say “The snow has melted,” then add “on the mountain” as the location.

The core rules:

The subject Salji generally comes first.
sudah cair stays together as the predicate (“has melted”).
The location phrase di gunung is fairly flexible; it can appear before or after the verb phrase, depending on what you want to emphasize.

In normal speech, Salji di gunung sudah cair is probably the most straightforward, but Salji sudah cair di gunung is perfectly natural too.

How would I say “The snow on the mountain is melting” (ongoing), not “has melted”?

To show an ongoing action or process, Malay often uses sedang or tengah (both ~ “in the middle of …ing”):

Salji di gunung sedang cair.
Salji di gunung tengah cair. (more colloquial)

These are understood as:

“The snow on the mountain is melting.”

You can also say:

Salji di gunung mula cair. – The snow on the mountain is starting to melt.
Salji di gunung masih cair. – The snow on the mountain is still (in a melted state). (focus on continuing state, not process)

Key difference:

sudah cair – has melted / is already melted (completed change)
sedang/tengah cair – is melting (in progress)

Are there more casual or colloquial ways to say this sentence?

Yes. In everyday spoken Malay, people often:

Shorten sudah to dah.
Use kat instead of di (informal “at/in/on”).
Pronounce gunung more casually, sometimes closer to gunung / gunung (still written gunung).

Common colloquial versions:

Salji kat gunung dah cair.
Salji kat gunung tu dah cair. – The snow on that mountain has melted. (informal “tu” = itu)

These are fine in casual speech but in writing or formal contexts, stick to:

Salji di gunung sudah cair.