Learn Hardcore Malay: Kadang-kadang saya cemburu melihat teman yang tidak perlu bekerja sambil belajar. - Sometimes I am jealous when I see friends who do not need to work while studying.

It literally has a reduplication structure: kadang (sometimes) → kadang-kadang (more natural, “sometimes”).
It’s neutral and very common in both spoken and written Malay.

Common alternatives:

kadang kala – also “sometimes”; a bit more formal or literary, but still quite common.
sekali-sekala – “once in a while / occasionally”; usually implies less frequency than kadang-kadang.
ada kalanya – “there are times (when)…”; more formal or descriptive.

All of these could, in context, replace kadang-kadang, with small differences in tone or emphasis.

Is cemburu a verb or an adjective? Why is there no “am” like “I am jealous”?

In Malay, cemburu works like a stative verb or an adjective-like verb meaning “to be jealous”. Malay does not need a separate “to be” verb (like “am/is/are”) before adjectives or stative verbs.

So:

saya cemburu
- literally: “I jealous”
- functionally: “I am jealous” or “I feel jealous”.

Other similar patterns:

saya lapar – I am hungry
dia marah – he/she is angry
mereka penat – they are tired

You don’t say saya adalah cemburu in this kind of sentence; adalah is not used with simple adjectives/states like this.

Can you say cemburu kepada / dengan seseorang? Why is there no preposition here?

Yes, you can explicitly mark who you’re jealous of:

Saya cemburu kepada dia. – I am jealous of him/her.
Saya cemburu dengan dia. – I am jealous of him/her.
Saya cemburu terhadap dia. – I am jealous towards him/her. (slightly more formal)

In your sentence:

Saya cemburu melihat teman yang…

Here, melihat teman yang… acts like the reason/cause of your jealousy (“jealous when I see friends who…”). Because that whole clause explains why you’re jealous, Malay doesn’t need a preposition like kepada or dengan.

A close English equivalent structure is:

“I get jealous seeing friends who don’t need to work while studying.”

So the verb melihat fills the role that “of/at” might fill in English, by describing the situation that triggers the jealousy.

Why is melihat used here instead of something like tengok?

Both mean “to look / see”, but they differ in register:

melihat
- More formal or standard.
- Common in writing, news, essays, and polite speech.
tengok (or tengok / tengok-tengok)
- More informal / colloquial.
- Very common in everyday spoken Malay.

In a casual spoken sentence, many speakers might say:

Kadang-kadang saya cemburu tengok kawan yang tak perlu kerja sambil belajar.

Your original sentence uses melihat, which sounds a bit more neutral–formal and is fine in writing or polite conversation.

What is the nuance of teman? How is it different from kawan or rakan?

All three can be translated as “friend”, but they carry different flavours and usage patterns.

teman
- General: “friend / companion”.
- Can be slightly more literary, emotional, or poetic depending on context.
- Also used in compounds:
  - teman lelaki – boyfriend (lit. male friend)
  - teman wanita – girlfriend (lit. female friend)
kawan
- The most common everyday spoken Malay word for “friend”.
- Very natural in casual speech: kawan saya, kawan-kawan.
rakan
- Sounds more formal or institutional.
- Used in workplaces, organizations, or formal writing:
  - rakan sekerja – colleague
  - rakan kongsi – business partner

In your sentence, teman is fine. You could also say:

melihat kawan yang tidak perlu bekerja sambil belajar – more colloquial.

There’s no strong gender implication here unless you specify teman lelaki/wanita or similar.

What does yang do in teman yang tidak perlu bekerja sambil belajar?

Yang introduces a relative clause, similar to English “who/that/which”.

Structure:

teman – friend(s)
yang tidak perlu bekerja sambil belajar – (who) do not need to work while studying

So:

teman yang tidak perlu bekerja sambil belajar
→ “friends who don’t need to work while studying”

General pattern in Malay:

noun + yang + clause describing the noun

Examples:

orang yang kaya – people who are rich
pelajar yang rajin belajar – students who study diligently
rumah yang saya beli – the house that I bought

No comma is needed; yang directly connects the noun to the description.

How should I understand tidak perlu here? Is it like “must not” or just “don’t have to”?

Tidak perlu literally means “not necessary / no need to” → “don’t have to / don’t need to”, not “must not”.

In your sentence:

tidak perlu bekerja – don’t need to work / don’t have to work

Compare:

mesti bekerja – must work / have to work
tidak boleh bekerja – must not / cannot work
tidak perlu bekerja – don’t have to work (no obligation/necessity)
tak payah bekerja – (colloquial) don’t need to work

So the sentence emphasizes that those friends are free from the necessity of working while they study.

What exactly does sambil mean, and what is happening “at the same time” here?

Sambil means “while (doing something else at the same time)”. It describes two actions happening simultaneously.

In your sentence:

bekerja sambil belajar
→ “work while studying”
→ both bekerja and belajar are done at the same time.

The scope here is:

tidak perlu [bekerja sambil belajar]
– They don’t need to work while (they are also) studying.

So sambil connects bekerja and belajar, not melihat.

Comparison with other “while” words:

sementara / ketika / waktu / semasa – “while/when”, more neutral; focus on time.
- semasa belajar – while studying (during the period of studying).
sambil – emphasizes doing two actions at the same time.

Example contrasts:

Dia makan sambil menonton TV. – He eats while (at the same time) watching TV.
Dia makan semasa menonton TV. – He eats during the time he watches TV (OK, but less emphasis on simultaneous action as a pair).

In your sentence, sambil is very natural because “working” and “studying” are parallel, simultaneous activities.

How do we know the tense? Could this sentence mean past, present, or future?

Malay does not mark tense with verb conjugations like English does. The verb forms (cemburu, melihat, bekerja, belajar) stay the same for past, present, and future.

The default reading without a time word is usually:

habitual present or general truth.

So your sentence is interpreted as:

“Sometimes I (tend to / generally) get jealous when I see friends who don’t have to work while studying.”

To specify tense more clearly, you add time expressions:

Dulu kadang-kadang saya cemburu… – In the past, I sometimes used to be jealous…
Sekarang kadang-kadang saya cemburu… – Now, I sometimes am jealous…
Nanti mungkin saya cemburu… – Later, maybe I will be jealous…

But with just kadang-kadang, it naturally refers to a repeated, habitual situation.

Why doesn’t teman have a plural marker? How would I say “my friends”?

Malay often does not mark plural explicitly. Context usually tells you whether a noun is singular or plural.

In your sentence, teman could mean:

“a friend”
“friends”

Most readers will understand it as plural friends because English logic fits that better (“see friends who don’t need to work…”), and because jealousy in this context is usually about more than one person.

To make the plurality explicit, you have options:

teman-teman – friends (reduplication shows plural)
kawan-kawan – friends (very common in speech)
teman saya – my friend / my friends (plural still from context)
kawan-kawan saya – my friends (clearly plural)

E.g.:

Kadang-kadang saya cemburu melihat kawan-kawan saya yang tidak perlu bekerja sambil belajar.
– “Sometimes I’m jealous when I see my friends who don’t need to work while studying.”

Is this sentence formal or informal? Would it sound natural in everyday conversation?

The sentence is in standard Malay, fairly neutral, and can be used in both writing and polite conversation.

A more colloquial spoken version might look like:

Kadang-kadang saya rasa cemburu tengok kawan yang tak perlu kerja sambil belajar.

Changes you see in informal speech:

adding rasa (“feel”): rasa cemburu – feel jealous
tengok instead of melihat
kawan instead of teman (more everyday)
tak instead of tidak
kerja instead of bekerja

Both versions are correct; the original is just a bit more neutral/standard.

Could I add bila / apabila / ketika to say “when I see…”? How would that change the sentence?

Yes, you can explicitly mark “when” like this:

Kadang-kadang saya cemburu bila melihat teman yang tidak perlu bekerja sambil belajar.
Kadang-kadang saya cemburu apabila melihat teman yang tidak perlu bekerja sambil belajar.
Kadang-kadang saya cemburu ketika melihat teman yang tidak perlu bekerja sambil belajar.

Nuances:

bila – common in spoken Malay, more casual.
apabila – more formal / written, but also used in careful speech.
ketika – “when” / “at the time of”; slightly more formal/literary.

Adding these words makes the “when” relationship explicit:

Literally: “Sometimes I am jealous when (I) see friends who don’t have to work while studying.”

Your original sentence without bila/apabila/ketika is still perfectly natural; Malay often omits such conjunctions when the meaning is clear from context and structure.