Breakdown of Saya simpan buku latihan di dalam beg.
Questions & Answers about Saya simpan buku latihan di dalam beg.
Malay doesn’t use articles like “a/an” or “the.”
So:
- buku latihan can mean “an exercise book,” “the exercise book,” or just “exercise book(s)” depending on context.
- beg can mean “a bag,” “the bag,” etc.
If you really need to make it clearer, you add other words, for example:
- satu buku latihan – one exercise book (emphasises singular)
- buku latihan itu – that / the exercise book
- buku latihan saya – my exercise book
The verb simpan itself has no tense. Without time words, Saya simpan buku latihan di dalam beg is neutral and can be translated depending on context as:
- I keep the exercise book in the bag. (habitual / general fact)
- I am keeping the exercise book in the bag. (present)
- I kept the exercise book in the bag. (past, if the context is past)
To make the tense clear, Malay adds time markers:
- Saya sudah simpan… – I already kept / have kept…
- Saya tadi simpan… – I earlier kept…
- Saya akan simpan… – I will keep…
- Saya sedang simpan… – I am (currently) keeping…
simpan usually means to keep, store, or put something away for later use, not just “to place.”
- simpan – keep/store, often with the idea of saving or putting away safely
- Saya simpan duit di bank. – I keep/save money in the bank.
- letak – put/place (more neutral; just placing something somewhere)
- Saya letak buku di atas meja. – I put the book on the table.
- masukkan … ke dalam … – literally put … into …, focusing on the action of inserting
In this sentence, Saya simpan buku latihan di dalam beg implies you keep/store your exercise book in the bag as its usual place, not just a one‑off “I put it there once.”
Both are grammatically possible:
- Saya simpan buku latihan di dalam beg. – Very common in everyday spoken Malay; the bare root simpan is used as the verb.
- Saya menyimpan buku latihan di dalam beg. – More formal, common in writing or careful speech.
The prefix meN- (as in menyimpan) is the standard active verb form in formal Malay, but in normal conversation people very often use the bare root after a pronoun:
- Saya baca buku. (instead of membaca)
- Dia tulis surat. (instead of menulis)
So your sentence is natural in spoken Malay and acceptable in many informal written contexts.
buku latihan is a noun–noun combination:
- buku – book
- latihan – exercise / practice
Together: buku latihan = exercise book / workbook.
In Malay, one noun can directly modify another:
- buku cerita – storybook
- buku teks – textbook
- buku latihan – exercise book
So latihan here is still a noun, but it functions as a modifier of buku (a “practice-type” book).
You add the possessive pronoun saya after the noun:
- Saya simpan buku latihan saya di dalam beg.
– I keep my exercise book in the bag.
Possessive pronouns come after the noun in Malay:
- buku saya – my book
- buku latihan saya – my exercise book
- beg saya – my bag
If you want both nouns possessed:
- Saya simpan buku latihan saya di dalam beg saya.
– I keep my exercise book in my bag.
buku latihan is number‑neutral; it can mean “exercise book” or “exercise books” depending on context.
To show plural more clearly, you can use:
- banyak buku latihan – many exercise books
- beberapa buku latihan – several exercise books
- semua buku latihan – all the exercise books
Reduplication (buku-buku) is sometimes used, but with a classifier:
- beberapa buah buku latihan – several exercise books
(Here buah is a common classifier for objects.)
In everyday speech, people mostly rely on context.
Yes, you can say:
- Saya simpan buku latihan dalam beg.
Differences:
- di – a basic preposition meaning at/in/on
- di rumah – at home
- di beg – in/on the bag (usually “in” here, from context)
- dalam – inside / in, sometimes more explicitly “inside the inside of”
- dalam beg – inside the bag
- di dalam – literally “at inside”, often used to emphasise “located inside”
- di dalam beg – (located) inside the bag
In many everyday contexts:
- di beg
- dalam beg
- di dalam beg
all can mean roughly “in the bag”, though di dalam beg sounds a bit more explicit or careful.
In Malay:
- di as a preposition (meaning “at/in/on”) is written separately:
- di rumah, di sekolah, di dalam beg
- di- as a prefix (for passive verbs) is written together with the verb:
- disimpan – is/was kept
- ditulis – is/was written
In your sentence, di is a preposition:
- di dalam beg – at/inside the bag (location)
Not a passive verb, so it must be separate.
That word order is grammatically possible but sounds unnatural or awkward in Malay. The normal, clear order is:
- [Subject] [Verb] [Object] [Place]
- Saya simpan buku latihan di dalam beg.
Other natural variations:
- Buku latihan saya simpan di dalam beg.
(Topicalises buku latihan – “As for the exercise book, I keep it in the bag.”) - Di dalam beg, saya simpan buku latihan.
(Emphasises the location first: “In the bag, I keep the exercise book.”)
But putting di dalam beg between the verb and its object (as in simpan di dalam beg buku latihan) is usually avoided.
Yes, you can say:
- Aku simpan buku latihan di dalam beg.
Differences:
- saya – polite, neutral, safe in most situations (formal or informal)
- aku – informal, used with close friends, family, or when talking to yourself; can sound rude or too casual with strangers or in formal settings
The rest of the sentence stays the same. For a learner, saya is the safest default pronoun for “I.”
Yes, but the meaning shifts:
- Simpan buku latihan di dalam beg.
This sounds like an instruction or command: “Keep the exercise book in the bag.”
Malay often drops the subject in:
- imperatives/instructions
- Tutup pintu. – Close the door.
- casual speech when the subject is obvious from context
If you want a neutral statement “I keep…”, keep Saya in the sentence.