Breakdown of Saya basuh pakaian di rumah setiap petang.
Questions & Answers about Saya basuh pakaian di rumah setiap petang.
In Malay, verbs usually do not change form to show tense.
The base form basuh can mean wash / washed / am washing / will wash; the time is understood from context or from time words like semalam (yesterday), esok (tomorrow), sekarang (now).
If you really want to be explicit:
- Saya sudah basuh pakaian. = I have already washed the clothes.
- Saya akan basuh pakaian. = I will wash the clothes.
But in everyday speech, Saya basuh pakaian di rumah setiap petang. is enough to express a habitual action.
To show an action happening right now, you add sedang before the verb:
- Saya sedang basuh pakaian di rumah. = I am washing clothes at home (right now).
You normally would not keep setiap petang in a “right now” sentence, because setiap petang (every evening) describes a repeated habit, not a current ongoing action.
All of these are related to washing/cleaning, but there are small differences:
- basuh – root verb, very common and everyday; perfectly natural in this sentence.
- membasuh – more formal / written style; grammatically fine but sounds stiffer in casual speech.
- Saya membasuh pakaian di rumah setiap petang. (correct, but more formal)
- cuci / mencuci – also “to wash/clean”; often used for cleaning things generally (cleaning surfaces, washing cars, etc.).
In daily Malaysian Malay, for clothes, many people actually say:
- Saya basuh baju di rumah setiap petang. (very natural, conversational)
So your original Saya basuh pakaian di rumah setiap petang. is correct and neutral.
pakaian means clothing / clothes / attire in a slightly more general or formal way.
baju in everyday Malaysian Malay is often used to mean clothes (not just “shirt”).
In this sentence, you could say either:
- Saya basuh pakaian di rumah setiap petang.
- Saya basuh baju di rumah setiap petang.
Both are correct; baju sounds more colloquial and is extremely common in speech.
Malay usually does not mark plural with an ending like -s. Nouns often have no special plural form; plurality is understood from context or from numbers/quantifiers.
- pakaian can mean clothing (uncountable) or clothes (plural), depending on context.
- pakaian-pakaian is grammatically possible but rarely needed; it sounds like you are stressing “many different items of clothing”.
If you really want to emphasise quantity, you can use a classifier:
- beberapa helai pakaian = several pieces of clothing.
In this sentence, pakaian naturally corresponds to English clothes.
saya is the standard polite, neutral I / me in Malay. It is safe in almost all situations (with strangers, at work, in writing, etc.).
- aku is more informal / intimate, used with close friends, family, or in songs and poetry.
- Aku basuh pakaian di rumah setiap petang. (informal tone)
If you omit the pronoun:
- Basuh pakaian di rumah setiap petang.
this is usually read as an instruction/command (“Wash the clothes at home every evening”), not as a statement about yourself. So keep saya when you mean “I”.
di is the basic preposition for in / at / on, and rumah is house / home.
So di rumah can mean either at home (location in general) or in the house, depending on context.
If you want to be more specific:
- di dalam rumah = inside the house (emphasising “inside”).
- di rumah saya = at my house / at my home.
In your sentence, di rumah is naturally understood as at home (not at a laundromat, etc.).
Malay word order is fairly flexible for time expressions. All of these are correct:
- Saya basuh pakaian di rumah setiap petang.
- Saya basuh pakaian setiap petang di rumah.
- Setiap petang, saya basuh pakaian di rumah.
Putting Setiap petang at the beginning is very natural and is similar to English Every evening, I wash clothes at home. The meaning does not change; it just slightly changes the emphasis.
petang roughly covers late afternoon to early evening, from after lunch until just before night. The exact time range is fuzzy, but think roughly 3 pm–7 pm.
Common time words in Malay:
- tengah hari – around noon / midday
- petang – late afternoon / early evening
- malam – night
So setiap petang can be translated as every afternoon or every evening, depending on your preference; every late afternoon / early evening is the most precise.
setiap means every / each. So setiap petang = every evening.
It clearly shows a regular, repeated action.
Other related words:
- selalu = always / often (depending on context).
- Saya selalu basuh pakaian di rumah. = I always/often wash clothes at home.
- tiap-tiap petang = every evening (colloquial alternative to setiap petang).
- setiap hari petang is possible but less common; setiap petang is smoother.
So your sentence expresses a habit done every evening, not just “often”.
To show possession, you normally add a pronoun after the noun:
- pakaian saya = my clothes
- baju saya = my clothes (more colloquial)
So you can say:
- Saya basuh pakaian saya di rumah setiap petang.
- Saya basuh baju saya di rumah setiap petang.
However, in context, Saya basuh pakaian di rumah setiap petang. is often already understood as “I wash my (family’s) clothes at home every evening”, so saya after pakaian is optional unless you need to contrast with someone else’s clothes.
Yes. Malay doesn’t distinguish “wash clothes” vs “do the laundry” as strongly as English.
Saya basuh pakaian di rumah setiap petang. can be naturally understood as:
- “I wash clothes at home every evening.”
or - “I do the laundry at home every evening.”
Both are good translations of the same Malay sentence.