Learn Hardcore Malay: Markah ujian mingguan membantu guru melihat kelemahan kami. - The weekly test scores help the teacher see our weaknesses.

In Malay, markah can be singular or plural, depending on context.
In this sentence, markah ujian mingguan is best understood as “weekly test scores” (plural), even though the word itself doesn’t change form.
If you really want to emphasize plurality, you can say markah-markah, but in normal usage markah alone is enough.

How is “ujian mingguan” structured? Why is weekly after test and not before it like in English?

Ujian mingguan literally is “test weekly”, but the natural English order is “weekly test”.

The structure is:

ujian = test / examination
mingguan = weekly (from minggu = week + suffix -an forming an adjective/noun)

In Malay, adjectives and descriptive words usually come after the noun:

baju merah = red shirt (literally: shirt red)
ujian mingguan = weekly test (literally: test weekly)

So noun + descriptor, rather than English descriptor + noun.

What’s the subject of the sentence? Is “markah ujian mingguan” the subject?

Yes. The structure of the sentence is:

Subject: Markah ujian mingguan (weekly test scores)
Verb: membantu (help)
Object 1 (indirect): guru (the teacher)
Object 2 (direct, as infinitive clause): melihat kelemahan kami (to see our weaknesses)

So the whole sentence is basically:
“The weekly test scores help the teacher (to) see our weaknesses.”

Why is it “membantu” and not “menolong”? What’s the difference between them?

Both membantu and menolong can mean “to help”, but there are nuances:

membantu
- More general and slightly more formal.
- Often used when something facilitates or contributes to a result.
- Fits well with abstract subjects:
  - Data ini membantu saya membuat keputusan.
    → This data helps me make a decision.
menolong
- More commonly used for direct, personal help.
- Often implies a person actively helping another person.
  - Boleh kamu tolong saya? → Can you help me?

In this sentence, markah ujian mingguan membantu guru sounds more natural, because test scores “help” in the sense of providing useful information, not physically helping.

What is “melihat” doing after “membantu guru”? Is it like help the teacher to see?

Yes. Melihat here functions like an infinitive in English (“to see”).

The structure is equivalent to:

membantu guru melihat kelemahan kami
→ help the teacher (to) see our weaknesses

In Malay:

You can place one verb after another, where the first verb (membantu) is the main action, and the second (melihat) is what the subject is being helped to do.
You don’t need any extra word like English “to” between the verbs.

What does “kelemahan” mean, and how is it formed?

Kelemahan means “weakness(es)”.

It’s formed from:

lemah = weak
Prefix ke-
- root lemah
  - suffix -an → kelemahan

The ke-…-an pattern often turns adjectives or verbs into abstract nouns:

tinggi (tall/high) → ketinggian (height)
penting (important) → kepentingan (importance/interest)

So kelemahan is the abstract noun corresponding to weak → weakness.

Also, Malay doesn’t mark plural here; kelemahan kami can be understood as “our weakness” or “our weaknesses”, depending on context.

What’s the difference between “kami” and “kita”, and why is “kami” used here?

Both kami and kita mean “we / us”, but they differ in inclusiveness:

kami = we/us excluding the person you’re speaking to
kita = we/us including the person you’re speaking to

In this sentence:

kelemahan kami = our weaknesses (not including you)
- For example, students talking to a teacher: the students say kami to exclude the teacher.

If you said kelemahan kita, it would sound like you’re including the listener in that group (e.g., students talking to each other).

There is no word for “the” in “guru”. How do we know it’s “the teacher” and not just “a teacher”?

Malay usually does not use a direct equivalent of “the” or “a”. The specificity is understood from context.

guru can mean “teacher”, “a teacher”, or “the teacher”.
In a typical classroom context, guru in this sentence would naturally be understood as “the teacher” (the one who teaches that class).

If you need to be explicit, you could say:

seorang guru = a (single) teacher
guru itu = that/the teacher (specific)

But in everyday usage, guru alone is usually enough.

Is “guru” singular or plural here? Could it mean “teachers”?

By default, guru is singular (a teacher / the teacher), but Malay does not always mark plural.

Context decides whether it’s teacher or teachers.
In many school-context sentences, guru is understood as “the teacher” (singular).

If you specifically want plural, you can say:

para guru = the teachers (a group)
guru-guru = teachers (more informal, repetitive plural: “teacher-teachers”)

So for this sentence, the most natural reading is “the teacher”, but if the context is about all teachers, it could be translated “teachers”.

There’s no tense marker like “do”, “does”, or “will”. How do we know if this is present, past, or future?

Malay verbs do not change form for tense. Membantu is just “help” in a neutral sense. Tense is understood from context or from time words if they’re added.

This sentence can be understood as:

General/habitual present:
- “Weekly test scores help the teacher see our weaknesses.”
In context, it could also refer to past or future if specified:
- Semalam, markah ujian mingguan membantu guru…
  → Yesterday, weekly test scores helped the teacher…
- Esok, markah ujian mingguan akan membantu guru…
  → Tomorrow, weekly test scores will help the teacher…

Without extra words like semalam (yesterday) or akan (will), we normally interpret it as a general statement.

Could this sentence be rephrased in a more “English-like” word order in Malay, or is this already the most natural form?

This is already a very natural sentence in Malay. You could make small stylistic changes, but the overall structure would stay similar. For example:

Markah ujian mingguan membantu guru mengenal pasti kelemahan kami.
- Weekly test scores help the teacher identify our weaknesses.

You wouldn’t normally change the order to something like Guru dibantu oleh markah ujian mingguan untuk melihat kelemahan kami, because that sounds more formal and less natural in everyday usage. The original sentence is clear, natural, and typical for standard Malay.